I am the absolute worst at keeping up with this blog. Trying to keep my own personal journal up to date is a struggle. Half of this was actually written a year ago... somehow didn't finish it. Now I have more trips to add and getting behind is not helping. Sorry for the delays, hopefully I can get it together. Hope you enjoy!
What a week we had in Utah. We drove a lot of miles and hiked about 8 miles a day in the scorching summer heat.
Day1: We left home at 5pm when everyone was off work and drove straight through the night to Zion Nat'l Park in Utah. We got there about 6am and pulled off on BLM land for a nap before exploring the park.
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| Sarah, Alicia and Maggie all packed up and ready to go |
Day2: Our nap was short lived as we woke in a sweaty daze from the already hot morning. We were now running on excitement. We explored a little ghost town nearby and accidently took a 4x4 road in the little CRV. We drove into the park and decided to do the Canyon Overlook hike first which was a short 1 mile hike to a view of Zion and Pine Creek Canyon. We then decided to make our way up to Angel's Landing. At about 3pm we started out ascent, I highly suggest hiking at a cooler time of day. We were just excited to break some ground and see some epic views. I have to admit I was very out of shape for this hike and being easily dehydrated called for tons of water breaks, which slowed Sarah and Maggie down.
Side note: earlier this week Maggie was in a motorcycle accident and had sprained her ankle and had road rash so bad, she decided to hike without any shoes from the descent of Angel's landing onward for the rest of the trip. She is the true beast of this trip!!
Anyways we hiked upward and upward to a landing that was unfortunately not the top. I could see the pathway to the top, a narrow trail on the mountains edge that you had to support yourself by hanging onto chains in order to not fall the 1500' to your death. Did I mention that I am afraid of heights!! Ok I had come this far already I had to complete the trip. I was worried because I was fatigued by now and sweaty, I didn't want to slip off the chains. I just focused on each step and made my way to the top for the most beautiful overlook. It was so worth it. The view overlooks Zion Canyon with the Virgin River carving its way through. It was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. I really didn't want to climb down, I was seriously wishing I had a parachute or something for a quick escape off the mountain, anything but climb slowly down the steep cliff. After catching our breaths and enjoying the view we made our way back down the mountain and now enjoyed the cooling shade of the canyon. We got down and decided to cool off in the river, we swam around until we felt cool and energized. We refilled our waters at the station then hiked out to Emerald Pools. We hiked along the Kayante trail to Emerald Pools. We stopped at the middle pool and found a secluded area away from the other tourists, and we were able to hear the bleating of the Canyon Frogs. Someone told us that the upper pool wasn't worth the hike and based on the middle pool not being as we had imagined, we decided to head back. We stopped at the lower pool where Maggie and Abe (a stranger at the time) took turns letting a waterfall shower over them. We hiked back to the shuttle talking with Abe's family about their trip, we learned they were from North Carolina so I conversed with them about the Blue Ridge Parkway which brought back tons of memories from last years road trip. We were luckily able to get the last campsite available in the park and set up camp for the night. After cooking up a delicious meal of chicken and fresh veggies from Maggie's farm I passed out exhausted from the long drive and day.
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| Angel's Landing acent |
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| Resting at the top of Angel's Landing |
Day 3: We woke early and cooked up some breakfast burritos. We had to switch campsites as someone had previously reserved ours. We headed to the South Campground for first come first serve and found a perfect spot. We dropped our stuff then headed out for another long day of hiking. We took the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava to hike the Narrows. This hike is throughout the canyon following the virgin river. The path crisscrosses the river which is achieved by wading in the water. We came upon a jumping rock where kids were enjoying the thrill. Maggie decided to jump off, she said it was only about 5 feet deep max and was a sketchy jump. We continued on, swimming in the deeper pools, and pushing our way against the stream. We hiked about 4 hours into the canyon and decided we should head back. Back near the start of the trail we heard a boy crying, turns out he had broke his ankle on the same jumping rock Maggie had leapt from hours prior. He was with boyscouts, they had fashioned a gurney from 2 hiking sticks and their t-shirts. His foot was wrapped up and the boys were trying to get him downstream. We continued on and passed Search and Rescue marching to the hurt boy's rescue. We reached the trail head and I could feel the blisters on my feet from hiking in wet sneakers all day and sand getting into my shoe and rubbing my feet raw. I hobbled onto the shuttle. We got back to camp and cooked up dinner and set up the slack line. We listened to some music and attempted slack lining across our camp. After dinner we set up a corn hole game and invited our neighbors over to play. After some time a couple other neighbors joined in. We ended up playing Cards Against Humanity with the neighbors into the middle of the night until we got a noise complaint then we said our goodbyes and headed to bed. It was fun to catch up with people and hear of their adventures too.
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| Hiking the Narrows |
Day 4: We had another early morning and packed up to head to Bryce Canyon to check out some Hoodoos. The drive didn't take too long. Our first stop was the Visitor center where we ran in Abe. He was visiting the parks with his family and decided to hike with us for the day. We decided to do a shorter hike then to make our way to Arches. My feet were also dead from the blisters and 16 miles of hiking we had done so far this week. We decided to take the Sunrise loop into the Navajo loop for about 3 miles of hiking. The decent was nice into Hoodoo land. We saw some major rock formations that looked like Thor's hammer and a queen. We picked out different shapes and named some Hoodoos ourselves. The hike out of the canyon was tiring. A mix of the heat, the grade, and my blistered feet made for a tiring trek up. At the top we got a great view overlooking Bryce Canyon. We then went to Inspiration point for a quick upward hike to get a better of the National Park. We drove back to the visitor center and created a little picnic area with our mats and broke out a mix of our remaining snacks. We rested, ate, played Frisbee and talked for hours before saying our goodbyes to Abe. We invited him to come to Arches with us but he had a family reunion near Provo. He invited us to stop by on our way through. Leaving Bryce Canyon we decided to take the scenic route to Arches. Our first stop was a Petrified Forest near Escalante. The park ranger talked us out of wasting our time there but informed us that Hwy 12 that we were on is the 2nd most scenic route in the world to New Zealand. I definitely had my doubts, wondering how there could be a road here more beautiful than the Blue Ridge Parkway on the east coast. The drive left us in awe. The landscape changed so much in such a short drive from red canyons, white canyons, meadows and aspen forested. I understood how this had beat the Blue Ridge Parkway. As beautiful as it is, the roadway was 500 some miles of roughly the same landscape. This Hwy we were on had so much variety, every turn lead to an amazing view. We drove into Capitol Reef NP where we admired purple and pink hues in the rocks. We snuck into the fruit gardens to pick apricots and cherries. After a quick stop to check out petroglyphs we were on our way again. There was a huge forest fire we passed through. Driving along we notices a couple people riding dirtbikes in the hills and a bunch of campers set up so we turned in to check out what was going on. We were stopped by security, turns out they were filming the opening scenes for Point Break 2. A couple of workers told us a little bit about the shoot and technicalities they faced. It was really interesting to hear about. We turned back onto the road and decided it was getting late so we needed to make our way to Moab faster. We turned up Hwy 24, saw the famous "cock rock" and drove along the straight hwy. We decided we should make some music while driving. Sarah driving and on flute, me terribly on bongos and Maggie in the backseat played guitar.We rocked out up the highway and laughed till we cried. We got into Moab late, got a campsite and fell asleep reminiscing on our driving band.
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| Selfie stick for the win. |
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| Bryce Canyon |
Day 5: Today we made it into Arches NP. We happened to get the very last campsite available, unloaded some things then headed to Delicate Arch trailhead to hike before it got too hot. This hike was less occupied than it had been the previous year which was strange it was almost the same time of year and day of the week. We were able to get some great shots of the arch without having strangers in them too. We drove into Devil's Garden to do the loop hike here. I'm pretty happy I finally got to see this section of the park as it was closed last year. We hiked to all the arches. My new favorite being Partition Arch because you can walk through the arch lay on a cliffside in shade while looking out over the NP. The summer day heat made the hike difficult, blisters and minimal water made for a hard hike back. We drove back to camp for lunch and I changed into flip flops to check out some remaining arches in the park. After dinner we hurried to view the sunset over the park then drove into Moab to check out some bars and night life. We met some locals and listened to mediocre karaoke. It was getting late so we drove back to camp and fell asleep after promising to wake early for a sunrise.
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| Hey look an arch! |
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| Sunset in Arches Np |
Day 6: I woke to Sarah telling us we had to get up for the sunrise. I wanted to go back to sleep, it was to early. Then Sarah said "omg, we might miss it" I jumped out of bed, eyes partially sealed shut, slipped my sandals on and bounded through the desert brush. Sarah and I ran as fast as we could to a big rock by our camp and climbed up it just in time to see the sun break the horizon and illuminate the desert around us. We enjoyed the suns glow. Sarah laughed at me saying she has never seen me move so fast, one second I was asleep in the bed and the next i was sprinting through the desert. After breakfast we walked the loop to Tapestry arch. The walk was nice with cool morning sand and no other hikers. We got back to camp, cleaned up and got on the road. After a quick stop at a craft store for Maggie we were on the road home. After a couple hours into our drive we had to pull off for the restroom, Maggie realized she left her shoes at the craft store and had to call the store and pay for them to ship the shoes back to California. As we passed through Provo we messaged Abe to see about saying hi. He happened to be in Arches with his family till the evening. We headed on to the Salt Flats where we frolicked around on the pure white salt. I read Desert Solitaire out loud as we headed back into California. It was getting late and we were tired so we stopped at Sarah's families cabin in Tahoe city for the night.
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| Sunrise in Arches NP |
Day 7: We made the short trek home, said our goodbyes and promised to do another trip to Colorado next year.
