Spring Break 2024: the year we went to Vegas, didn’t gamble a cent, and still hit the jackpot!

The odds were in our favor thanks to two different school calendars that shared a single week for spring break. Las Vegas provided a central(ish) location to meet between Alaska and Nebraska, and the perfect springboard for a road trip through the American Southwest.

Our flights were flawless, and we all landed at Harry Reid International Airport within 30 minutes of each other. Vegas wasn’t the focus of our trip, but we stayed for two days to shop and take in a show. “O” by Cirque du Soleil was OH-mazing! I was captivated from the moment the bright red curtain whooshed away to reveal a 1.5 million gallon pool on the stage. And where do they find so many acrobatic flying divers? The next morning we stopped by the famous Gold and Silver Pawn shop from the History Channel’s Pawn Stars reality TV show. And what luck: no line!

After our brief stay in Las Vegas, we drove to nearby Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. It’s filled with many interesting rock formations and canyons, which were fun to explore on the White Domes and Fire Wave trails. We were dealt a great hand of weather and I was grateful to visit in spring rather than summer when temperatures get unbearably, dangerously hot. There were very few signs of life in that desolate, rugged terrain!

Valley of Fire provided our first glimpse of a slot canyon, and it took me right back to 2014 when Sam used to scale the walls in our house. Some things never change!

Maggie added Zion National Park to our road trip itinerary, and I must admit we did minimal research in advance. Big mistake! Had we done our homework, we would have opted to spend the entire week in the park. It was that incredible! We were blown away by the beauty of this hiking mecca and wanted to stay longer. The crowds were bigger than we expected for March, and at times it felt a bit Disneyland-ish. If we had stayed in the park we could have timed our shuttle bus better. Now we know better for next time. And if I was a betting person, I’d say there will be a next time!

We had to leave Zion because I booked an Antelope Canyon tour for the next day. This was my contribution to the itinerary, which I suddenly worried would pale in comparison to Zion. What if all the pictures I’d seen were fake? Maybe people were bluffing, posting over-edited or perhaps AI generated images? We were about to find out!

I made our reservation with Ken’s Lower Antelope Tours a few months in advance. The canyon is on Navajo land and a guide is required for access. There were six other guests in our 10 AM tour group, and we lucked out with an amazing guide who doubled as a photography instructor.

It was a short walk to the steep (but safe) steps that made it possible to descend 75 feet to the bottom of the canyon.

Wow. Wow. WOW! It was spectacular! The colors, the patterns, the striations, the light. I was instantly awestruck!

It’s baffling to think slot canyons like this exist all throughout the southwest. Our guide said he grew up playing in one that’s in his grandmother’s backyard! It’s also terrifying to think of the flash flooding danger in these canyons during monsoon season.

We were able to explore the slot canyon for nearly 45 minutes. Many groups of tourists rotate through, but they kept each group spread out by 10-15 minutes so it never felt too crowded. Our guide patiently took family photos for anyone who asked, and also gave us tips to get the best pictures possible.

It was crazy to climb out of the canyon and look back at it from above. What unexpected beauty lies below! In Alaska we have massive glacial fields with deep crevasses, and Arizona has these sandstone fields with sculpted canyons. How can two places be so very different while at the same time so eerily similar?

It turns out all those photos of Antelope Canyon posted online are real! No embellishments or crazy filters are necessary, although the guides do recommend using the “vivid warm” filter on your phone camera to accurately capture the canyon’s colors.

The awe of Antelope Canyon stuck with us as we crammed into a restaurant booth at lunch, gasping at our camera rolls and sharing pictures with friends and family. I’m grateful to the Navajo Nation for finding a way to both share and protect this incredible treasure.

From Antelope Canyon we kept venturing south, searching for Saguaros while making stops at Horseshoe Bend and the East Rim of the Grand Canyon. The canyon was grand indeed!

Our road trip ended in Phoenix. We enjoyed dinner with family who live in the area before dropping Sam at Arizona State University. He spent a few days with a friend, doing whatever 19-year-old college guys do on spring break (we didn’t ask) before flying back to Lincoln. Meanwhile, Clark, Maggie and I zoomed back to Vegas to catch our flight home.

This trip exceeded my expectations at every turn. I was simply grateful for a few days of bonus family time, but by the end of the week I felt like a lottery winner. In fact, we may need to double down and do it all over again, because the American Southwest is simply too spectacular to experience in a single week!