Taking a long vacation gives a great opportunity to try a lot of new food and new restaurants while out on the road. Read on for more of my vacation in food: part 1 when we were figuring things out.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we were in vacation mode for the first two weeks of June. We had an absolute blast and saw so many beautiful sights while visiting multiple states that we’ve never been to and a few of the gorgeous national parks that our country has to offer.
2400 miles
13 days
7 National Parks
7 different hotels
6 different states
1 amazing trip!
Itinerary
A quick overview of our itinerary for those interested in a similar trip:
Part 1
- June 1: Fly into Las Vegas, rent a van, and drive to Hurricane, Utah (covered 3 states by landing in Nevada, driving through Arizona, and staying in Utah)
- June 2: Go to Zion National Park and walk some of the trails then go to Snow Canyon State Park
- June 3: Drive through Zion, stop at Bryce Canyon National Park on the way to our cabin in Boulder, Utah
- June 4: Tyler’s 5th birthday! Go to Capitol Reef National Park, then to Loa, Utah to get groceries
Part 2
- June 5: Go to Escalante National Monument area and did the Devil’s Garden trail
- June 6: Drive part of the Famous Burr’s Trail
- June 7: Go to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park and stay in Green River, Utah
Part 3
- June 8: Drive to Driggs, Idaho
- June 9: Go to Grand Teton National Park then into Yellowstone to see Old Faithful, stay at a hotel in Cooke City, Montana
- June 10: Yellowstone trails
Part 4
- June 11: Yellowstone
- June 12: Drive through Yellowstone on the way to Salt Lake City to stay the night
- June 13: Fly home
If you want more information about where we stayed or exactly what we did, just leave me a comment or send an email and I will be happy to share! But since this is a blog focused on food, not travel, I am not going to go into the details here.
My Vacation in Food: Part 1 is part of a series about our summer vacation in food. To see more read My Vacation in Food: Part 2 here, My Vacation in Food: Part 3 here and My Vacation in Food: Part 4 here.
Originally Published On: June 19, 2018
Last Updated On: April 7, 2020
June 2
Breakfast
On the first morning of our vacation, we had breakfast at the hotel. We stayed at the Wyndham Wingate Hurricane Zion which was a very clean and spacious hotel. We did a queen suite here, so we only had to get one room between the 6 of us (my parents came on the trip as well).
Lunch
For lunch, we were in Zion National Park so we went to the lodge and ate at the Red Rock Grill. When Justin and I were at the park a few years ago with his parents we ate here as well, so we knew the food was good. I have been trying to eat better lately, so I like to get a grilled chicken salad most places, and theirs didn’t disappoint.
Dinner
For dinner, we were all worn out and not feeling like going anywhere or doing anything. So I looked up the area on my phone while we were driving back from Snow Canyon State Park and there was a Dominos a few buildings down from the hotel, so I ordered from the phone and we picked it up. It was a perfect dinner that night!
June 3
Breakfast
As I said, most mornings we had the free breakfast at the hotel. The Hurricane Wingate had great options, including sausage biscuits and gravy this morning, which is one of my favorites. So I went for that with a muffin.
Lunch
Our plan was originally to go to Zion again, but we all decided that we had seen a lot of it. So we started to make our way to the cabin we would be staying at in Boulder, Utah. As we were driving, we realized that Bryce Canyon National Park was on the way. So we changed the schedule even more and went at that time. Once we were done there we were all hungry. We went to the next town on the way and ate at a place called Rustler’s Restaurant in Tropic, Utah, for a late lunch/early dinner. We were all so full we didn’t eat anything else the rest of the day.
June 4
Breakfast
We celebrated Tyler’s 5th birthday while on vacation! He was so worried about there not being any decorations and he was happily surprised when he woke up to a bunch of green balloons (his favorite color) and a Happy Birthday banner! We had our first breakfast at Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch, the cabins we stayed at for 4 nights. We had to turn in our choices the night before. It seemed like the choices were minimal. Once we got there, though, we realized it was still plenty of food for all of us and it was delicious.
Lunch/Dinner
We attempted to go grocery shopping in Boulder. But the choices were very limited. We were told the closest “real” grocery store was in Loa though that was about an hour away. When I looked it up, the store is in the area near Capitol Reef National Park. So we decided to go there for the day, then to Loa to get groceries. While we were in Loa, we went to Marinia’s Country Cafe for another late lunch/early dinner. I got their “hot hamburger” which was a burger on toast with a gravy sauce. It was interesting but had a bit too much pepper in it for me.
Related Posts
A few photos from the places we visited during these days:
Zion National Park
Snow Canyon State Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch
Capitol Reef National Park
These pictures are beautiful and this trip sounds awesome! I want to do a roadtrip cross country one day with my boys!
Ooh, I would love more details on the travel portion of your trip! My husband and I were just talking about a road trip out west; I’m thinking your itinerary would give me a ton of ideas. I have to admit that I’m super intrigued by that hot hamburger. It does look like it has a ton of pepper, but I tend to be heavy handed with my pepper anyway, so I would probably love it, haha. Your vacation shots look amazing! I’d love to visit some of those parks one day.
What do you want to know? I’d be happy to send an email to you. Are you looking for where we stayed on the trip? It was an amazing vacation, I highly recommend it! We got really cold in Montana (even had snow) but it was still really hot in Utah, so they probably could have been separate trips at different times of the year!
What a neat idea to share through food. Food is really one of the rare hints that can bring so many people together. Also, your boys are super cute.
Thank you! Those boys push my buttons sometimes but they make up for it in being adorable!! We had a lot of different foods on the trip, it was fun to document it all.
I love travel diary type of posts – sounded like such a wonderful vacation!
I wanted a way to record the trip (in addition to the almost 1000 photos we took) in a way that can be useful for my food blog as well! They aren’t my best food photos, but it was the best I could do before everyone started digging in!
These pictures are amazing I’ve always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon. Hopefully one day in the future. Looks like you had a great time!
We went to the Grand Canyon many years ago, when I was in middle school. That was pretty impressive too! All of the National Parks are so unique and gorgeous!!
Look like you had a great time! It would be so sad to miss out on local food when travelling somewhere, you can’t really understand the culture if you don’t try local taste. Anyway your boys look so cute, I would love to travel with my whole family too!
Looks like you had a great time! And these pictures are amazing 😉 I’ve always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon and one day in the future I will 🙂 Thanks for sharing your trip with us!
The Grand Canyon is pretty cool too! It’s been almost 20 years since we went there, but it just didn’t happen on this trip. Definitely worth going to, though!
I’d love to go to some of those national parks one day, it looks like a great trip with some yummy food, though I’m not convinced by the burger on toast with gravy, I reckon a regular burger has got to be better!!
That sounds like a fun trip. I never thought about doing it this way but now my wheels are turning. I may have to fly in, rent a car, and then travel, pick up a flight from where I end my stay rather than driving all the way back to where I started. Love this idea.
So much delicious food! That’s the best part about traveling- you get to taste of the different cities and places. Looks like such a fun and adventure-filled trip!
You are such a foodie and I love that as just like you when I travel, I love to try the different local food and what they are famous for
What a fun vacation with lots of looks at nature! I love seeing what people eat when on Holiday. It looks like you had a lot of American staples.