As you know (because you are reading every blog post of course), in the last post we were on the east coast and this post is about Utah. What, What, Whaaat??? Our original plan was to do the western US first. Gary had it all meticulously mapped out. Until we got rerouted to the east coast due to circumstances beyond our control. We initially thought, let’s make the best of it. We can do the eastern US first. We were going to do it anyway in a year. Why drive over 2,000 miles back to the West Coast to do our original route? Sounds reasonable, right? The problem was, it just didn’t feel right. We were just off, a little lost and trying to figure out a route that we wanted to do at that point. We were almost pushing ourselves to just figure this out because it sounded ridiculous to drive all the way back to the west to do the original route. But here’s the thing, we chose this life and to exit the matrix so that we could do the ridiculous and not just what we were supposed to do. So, it isn’t ridiculous to follow our passion, it is mandatory. We realized we are learning how to let go of doing what we are “supposed” to do and do what we want. We still struggle with this, but at least now we are asking ourselves what we want to do and recognizing this is important to live our best life. Apparently we are channeling Oprah right about now.
Well, we are glad we followed our instincts. Utah is up there as one of the most amazing places we have been. It is a playground of national parks and monuments!
So, brace yourself…there are going to be a lot of pictures in this post. As we left our first stop, Moab, we thought “wow, this place was amazing, but how much more interesting are a different set of rocks?” Well, very interesting it turns out. Every time we thought we had seen enough, the next place wowed us with its awesomeness. From arches to hoodoos we continued to be amazed at each new park.
Best thing we did?
With multiple epic stops in Utah, we can’t limit this question to only one thing. We have to tell you our favorite from each stop…
Moab (Arches National Park & Canyonlands National Park)
You would expect the best view for us was in Arches National Park . No, for us the best one was in Canyonlands National Park. But, some of that is probably because of the crazy adventure we had to get there in addition to the beauty. It started when we read in our Lonely Planet National Parks book that a sunrise hike to Mesa Arch is a must do activity. It was about 45 minutes away from us so we got up at 5 am to drive and hike through the dark. We were so excited to see the breathtaking sunrise view through an Arch. The closer we got, the more excited we were. When we arrived at the trailhead parking there were only a few cars in the lot with people just starting the trek to the arch. Score! Looks like we will get a good view! So, we stumble on the mesa arch trail using Gary’s headlamp and my iPhone as our light. We get to what we think is the end of the trail as we barely make out a huge drop off cliff ahead of us. We claim our seat on some rocks and set up the camera. We didn’t know exactly where the arch was, but it was still dark and we figured as the sun came up we would see it out in the canyon. We hear more and more voices and get a little antsy sitting on the cold rocks, so Gary takes a walk around. Well apparently the arch was down below us and all of the good picture perfect spots were taken! We couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of us being so careful to get there early that we missed the perfect spot entirely. Here is our view from our perch above…
Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce is known for its hoodoos. While they are amazing as a panoramic view from a distance, our best view was hiking down the Navajo Loop trail to the bottom of the hoodoos and walking among them, gawking up at their prominence. It was like looking up at the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower…ants among giants.
What would have topped this off would have been to get to hike through “Wall Street”, the only slot canyon in Bryce, but it was closed off because it was not passable. At least there is something left to look forward to next time!
Zion National Park
Our final stop in Utah was the great Zion National Park. We were ready for another dark-thirty morning adventure. Gary thought it would be funny to show me some of the scary YouTube videos on the hike called Angels Landing thinking that I would be too afraid to try the hike. Little did he know, I was all in for this one. There are no words for this hike, so I will leave you with the video of our adventure. Click on the link here: Angels Landing Hike
Pretty crazy, right? The one hike we didn’t do that is probably just as challenging, is The Narrows. It wasn’t passable when we were there because the water was too high, but we are definitely going back for this one. Gary tells you a little about it here:
Best thing we ate?
Susan’s pot roast! We were so thankful to get a chance to visit my friend Susan and her family. They took such good care of us during our moochdocking time there. Not only did they have space for us to park our 28′ Airstream in front of their house, but they also had hook ups for electric, water and sewer. Fancy!
We usually take pics of our food, but we were so busy having fun with Susan and her family that we didn’t capture the food, but did get a picture of the amazing chef.
What we learned?
One of the things that was hard for us to figure out at the beginning of this full time adventure is how to find the right camping spots that fit the lifestyle we wanted. It has taken us a while to narrow that down, but Utah is helped us to do just that. We initially thought it was only about having a great view, solitude and being right smack in the middle of nature, but found out we like our creature comforts too! We want to be able to read HuffPost in the morning with our coffee or go out for a nice dinner once in a while. We aren’t doing this for a weekend or a week’s vacation where we need to disconnect to forget about life for a while. We are doing this full time for two years. So, for most of the time (not always) we want internet and a bit of a town and sometimes when you only focus on a great view you lose something else like cell towers. But we don’t want to be in a parking lot either. So, in Utah we had different types of locations and it helped us hone in on what to look for in future camping sites.
Another thing we learned is that in National Parks the early bird truly does get the worm. Since we did a couple of early morning hikes, we found that the break of dawn is the time when there are the least amount of people out (many parks get over 3 million visitors per year, mostly during the busy season). Also hiking gets hot! Being out early, plus dressing for weather that is 10 degrees hotter than you expect is key.
Next Stop: Vino!