Canyonlands and Colorado

After our time in Arches National Park, we were ready for something new. Utah has been good to us and we didn't get to see everything but it's time to move on. Our goal for the day was to make it to Cortez, Colorado. A whole new state! But before crossing the state-line we needed to check out one last National Park, Canyonlands.

Canyonlands is not the most accessible National Park and it will probably be kept that way. Many roads in the park are unpaved and there are next to no services inside the park. If you're into backcountry hiking and camping, this is the National Park for you. The park itself is split into 4 districts that are not connected: Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers, Green and Colorado. We chose to check out the Needles portion.

Chillin in chilly AC of the van. Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Capitol Reef - The most delicious National Park

The road from Escalante, Scenic Byway 12, goes through Boulder and continues on to Capitol Reef National Park. There was rain. A lot of rain. Like... a ton of rain. We even had to stop a few times as the windshield wipers couldn't handle and I just couldn't see anything going around hairpin turns down a mountain. Good times.

A cow on the Open Range between Boulder and Torrey, Utah as the rain comes down. A lot of rain.

You might think Capitol Reef is an odd name for a landlocked National Park, and you'd be right!! But the Capitol part of the name refers to the white Navajo Sandstone domes that (with some imagination) look like the domes often placed on "capitol" buildings and the Reef part of the name is a local word to describe any rocky barrier to land travel, like cliffs or canyons, just as coral reefs are barriers to ships on the sea. Capitol Reef was established as a National Monument in 1937 but didn't open to the public till 1950 with roads coming in the 60s. In 1971 it was designated a National Park. It protects the area's colorful canyons, buttes, cliffs and monoliths. It's crowning jewel is the Waterpocket Fold, a weird warp in the earths crust that has been dated as old as 65 million years. This fold is the largest of it's kind in North America and shows dozens of layers of earth stacked on top of each other in the most beautiful and colorful fashion. The Waterpocket Fold runs North to South for over 100 miles and has few roads that have managed to cross it.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!! ALL DRESSED CHIPS!!! In Utah!!!
Seriously. So excited.
Chuck Wagon General Store, Torrey, Utah

Escalante - The Grand Staircase

Escalante, Utah is one of those quirky little towns you hope to find on a road trip. The cheesy themed motels and hole in the wall restaurants surrounded by bizarre landscapes and insane roads make it the perfect place to relax and explore for a few days.

Delicious! HO-MADE Pies.... yup. Oh Utah.

Bryce Canyon - Hoodoos - Shadows and Rock

The road from Zion National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park, took us through a part of Utah I don't think many people see. We saw high elevation plateaus, with open range cattle munching on fresh grass on the side of the road; dry arid landscapes, with plants barely clinging to the sandy earth, tall forests of pines and fir; and grassy plains, with deer bounding through the tall grasses interspersed with lush fields and irrigation systems hard at work. All this punctuated now and again with red rock cliffs or snow white rocky outcrops. The thunderstorms that were forecast started sweeping across the plains and the van got a good rinse off. As we neared Bryce Canyon National Park the sky started to darken with some fierce weather. We wanted to make it there for sunset but would Mother Nature cooperate with us?

Why build a road around the rock when you can just go through it?
En route to Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.

Zion - Part Two: The Narrows

It was recommended to us by several friends to take trekking poles or a walking stick with us on our hike up The Narrows. We’re both REALLY glad we listened.

Hikes in just about every National Park are listed as the following: Easy, which are usually paved or well maintained and short with little to no elevation gain; Moderate, which are not for people with severe health problems and are generally more difficult with rougher paths and trails; and Strenuous, which can be very long, with little to no actual mapped out trail, large elevation gain or difficult and dangerous terrain.

The Narrows is listed as Strenuous.

Geoff, ready to take on The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah

Zion - Part One: National Parks and Ghost Towns

We left Seattle on the second part of our trip after spending a few days at home. We drove straight through, for about 24 hours, passing through Eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and most of Utah before reaching Zion National Park. We went through rain squalls, bug attacks, high winds, soft sunrises and scorching hot sun to get there. We passed many places we'll be adding to our list of future exploration needed. Our list seems to keep getting larger and larger, even as we tick so many boxes off of it. Ah, the life of the perpetual traveler... 

Eastern Washington looking lovely. En route to Utah

Love the four to eight watch on ships for the sunrise. It was beautiful on the interstate as well. Somewhere in Northern Utah.

Death Valley - So Weird. So Hot. So Very Very Hot.

We woke up to a nice breeze on the shores of Lake Isabella. The sun was bright and the boats were just starting to dart around the lake, disturbing the crystal clear reflection of the dry, grassy hills surrounding us. Geoff ate pizza. It was great.

Geoff enjoying pizza for breakfast at Lake Isabella, CA

I watched him chomp down on the Costco pizza we got the night before ever so adoringly as I remembered it was our anniversary. It made me smile. What a weird place for us to be celebrating our years together. And yet it was perfectly fitting. Completely out of the ordinary and definitely outside the box. An adventure. I love our adventures. I love that we enjoy doing the same sorts of things and better yet - enjoy doing them together. We're pretty lucky. We might not live flashy, or come close to making six figures a year but we have each other and that's pretty damn amazing if you ask me.

After a breakfast of pizza we got organized and headed to our destination for the day: Death Valley National Park.

Kings Canyon - Fit for Royalty

We arrived at Kings after sundown, partly due to the protests in Fresno, but mostly because we slept in that morning. It was a Saturday Night and the campgrounds were full on arrival. We were tired and didn't see any signs saying otherwise, so we pulled into the Visitor Center parking lot and settled in for the night. The Park Ranger didn't like that...

Sun setting as we reach Kings Canyon National Park after a hot day in Fresno, CA.