(Day -4: at home)

You may be wondering why ‘Reverse Circle’ for this year’s blog title. OK, you may not. But I’m going to tell you anyway.
Our usual mode of operation is to fly to Las Vegas, clear immigration, pick up the hire car…and then drive. Three hours. OUT. OF. VEGAS. I really like waking up on our first full day in America in a peaceful place, with mountains and fresh, clean air and in a place which is ready for us to go and explore. Vegas is not that place. As a result, our holidays usually start in Springdale, Zion Canyon, from where our route takes us to Moab, then Grand Canyon, with Capitol Reef, Bryce, Colorado and Death Valley thrown in as random variants. But it starts in Springdale and we go, basically, clockwise.

Not this year. We are still holding true to our philosophy and Vegas is still not our place to be but, this year, we reverse the circle. This ideally means starting in Grand Canyon, but even by our crazy standards, this is a stretch too far to drive on the same day as a 10+hour/5,000 mile flight. So we’ll try to reach Williams,  Arizona, a small town on the old Route 66 and just an hour from the canyon rim the next morning. Ah yes, the canyon rim…ready and waiting, scenic, vast and offering space to breathe…Can’t wait!

Our reverse circle will take us then to Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Red Canyon, Zion and Death Valley. I’m already thinking that our trip is going to be too short!