Many newly married couples may prefer to go somewhere on their honeymoon where they can relax on the beach, but not us. This was a chance for us to go see parts of the US we’ve never been before. Hiking and exploring the outdoors are both my husband’s and my passion. So, when we started planning our trip we knew that we were gonna try to plan the most adventurous honeymoon that we could.
Deciding Where To Go
We knew that we were going to go on a trip for 2 weeks, which gave us quite a bit of room of where we could go and all we could do. The national parks in Utah interested us the most, and we knew that we could spend a few days seeing multiple national parks.
Somehow, I had seen that Midland was playing at the Red Rocks Amphitheater the weekend after our wedding. We are huge fans, and found 3rd row seats for a decent price. Since we were going to be close to Colorado, we figured we could spend a day driving to Denver for the concert. This then got us close to the Denver Airport, where we could fly somewhere for the second half of the honeymoon.
We chose Yosemite as the park to spend the rest of our honeymoon. Looking online, we knew there would be plenty to do and that would could spend 4 days there. To get there, we decided to drive through Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. We are from the East Coast, so our trees are tiny compared to the Red Woods and Sequoias. Looking online, we knew that there would be plenty to do in Yosemite National Park and the beauty of it is like no other.
Utah National Parks
We flew into Las Vegas airport and drove to our first destination- Zion National Park. Driving up to the park, it was unlike any other landscape my husband or I had seen before. For the first night, we were staying at Zion Lodge right in the park. After we got checked in and grabbed food at the lodge, we went out to the front yard to watch Mule Deer come through right by the lodge. Zion Lodge is located right across from The Emerald Pools trails. We hiked to the lower Emerald Pools once it was dark. The stars were amazing, and completely made it work going out in the dark.
Our second day in Zion consisted of waking up early to start the hike up to Scouts Lookout. This took us until about mid-day since we took our time on the hike. After grabbing lunch at the lodge, we shuttled up to The Temple of Sinawava and did the Riverside Walk. We had booked a hotel for that night outside of the park at the Cliffrose Springdale.
After visiting Zion, we traveled to Bryce Canyon. We did a horseback ride that first day we were at the park. This was a great way to see a lot of the canyon that we would not have gotten to see. And being that we were only there for a day, it was well worth taking the ride. That night, we stayed at Ruby’s in. This accommodation had a restaurant and a huge gift shop. We were also just outside of the park, so we didn’t have to drive far after our horseback ride.
Arches National Park was our next stop. We visited Moab for 3 nights. We started with a short hike to the Windows Arch when we arrived at Arches National Park. For the first two nights, we stayed at Under Canvas Moab. We were essentially glamping, and we had the stargazing tent so we could lay in bed and look up at the stars. We did a sunrise hike to Delicate Arch and also checked out Broken Arch during the day and did some hiking.
Moab had a lot of restaurant options and we treated ourselves the first night to a great steak dinner at Josie Wyatts Grille. There were a lot of other restaurants we ate at that were all very good as well. We explored the town one of the mornings, going into all the little shops. Our last night in Moab, we stayed at The Hyatt Place right in town.
We also visited Dead Horse State Park and Canyonlands National Park while staying in Moab. Dead Horse State Park had an amazing view from the main viewing area. It definitely has the same beauty as a national park. Canyonlands National Park was interesting, the entrance we went to was quite the drive from Moab. However, the drive was scenic, and we passed a pull-off with hieroglyphs.
Colorado
The timing of our honeymoon was based on attending a Midland concert Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The day of the concert we spent driving from Moab, UT to Denver, CO. Seeing a concert here was unlike no other. My husband and I are really into music, and seeing a concert here was on the top of our bucket lists. It was easily one of the best concerts we’ve been to. Since we were flying out to California the next morning, we made it easy by staying in the hotel right next to the airport.
Northern California National Parks
We landed in Fresno, CA and drove out to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. We spent the day in both parks stopping and doing little hikes to see all of the huge trees that we don’t have over on the East Coast. We stayed near Sequoia National Park at the Wuksachi Hotel. The next day we explored a little more of Sequoia National Park and then started our drive to Yosemite National Park.
We had 5 days to spend in Yosemite. This allowed us to explore half the day and then relax for the rest of it. The first two nights in Yosemite we stayed at the historic Ahwahnee Hotel. This hotel is right in the park, so we were really close to everything. We rented e-bikes from the hotel, and were able to see a lot of the park in just one day.
Some of the hikes we did: Lower Yosemite Falls trail to the view point, Mirror Lake (in October the lake was dry), and the John Muir Trail.
The other few nights we were there, we stayed at Rush Creek Lodge. This is just a short drive out of the park. On the days we stayed here, we would go explore some of the other parts of the park and then relax at the lodge for the rest of the day. Some of the areas we visited were Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, Tenaya Lake, and just spending extra time in Yosemite Valley.
Our Favorite Part of the Honeymoon
There really wasn’t one favorite part for either my husband or I. The national parks in Utah and the ones in California were so different that we couldn’t choose just one part as our favorite. The concert definitely stood out as an amazing experience. But still, there’s nothing like experiencing the beauty of nature.
Honeymoon Gallery
National Parks We Visited
- Zion National Park
State: Utah
Visit Zion National Park - Arches National Park
State: Utah
Visit Arches National Park - Canyonlands National Park
State: Utah
Visit Canyonlands National Park - Sequoia National Park
State: California
Visit Sequoia National Park - Kings Canyon National Park
State: California
Visit Kings Canyon National Park - Yosemite National Park
State: California
Visit Yosemite National Park
A Special Surprise From our Trip
We captured some very special pictures while on our honeymoon to announce that we were expecting. Read more about it in my post here.
