Pre-trip

The day before we leave on a trip is always hectic. I was scheduled to work a late shift the night before, but fortunately one of my coworkers let me leave 30 minutes early! When I arrived home, Cody was sitting on the living room floor engulfed by heaps of gear, including our tent, sleeping bags, hiking and climbing equipment, snacks and clothing. Amazingly, he was able to pack this all into our carry-ons and one checked suitcase. We went to bed after midnight, sneaking in about 4 hours of sleep.

Day 1 - Travel Day to Salt Lake City and Moab

We left the house around 4am to catch our flight. It was a long travel day with a transfer at Chicago-Midway airport. We arrived to Salt Lake City by lunchtime and picked up the rental car (grey Nissan Altima with Oregon plates). We had lunch at Cupbop, a fast food Korean American restaurant. We also stopped at a coffee shop for drinks. The shop owner was telling us that the LDS conference took place last weekend, and he had covered up his coffee signs with signs for ice cream and “dirty sodas.” Cody had never heard of dirty sodas before, and he was intrigued! I knew about these drinks since I used to watch Mormon vloggers on YouTube. Since Mormons don’t drink coffee, soda mixed with flavored syrups are very popular in Utah. Cody had the Butterbeer, a concoction of Dr. Pepper flavored with butterscotch and caramel syrups, topped with cream. It tasted like a melted soda float.

We continued our drive to Moab, 230 miles and 3.5 hours away from Salt Lake City. Moab was named in 1880, as a reference to the “land beyond Jordan (1).” It is a small town of 3.6 square miles with a population of approximately 5200 people (2). It is located south of the Colorado River on the Colorado Plateau. There was one main road as we entered the town. As we drove along, we enjoyed striking views of the red sandstone rocks in the foreground with the towering snow capped mountain range in the background. To pass the time, we listened to podcasts about the LDS church.

For the next week, we stayed at Up the Creek campground that was right in town. We had a nice patch of sand and picnic table at Campsite #15. Conveniently, the campground is a short walk to a grocery store (and the rest of downtown). We picked up a premade salad and sandwich for dinner. Despite a comfortable tent and a long travel day, the first night is always difficult for us to get good sleep in a tent. Nonetheless, it was cozy in our sleeping bags, and the cool breezes were refreshing.

Day 2 - Arches National Park (Devil's Garden Trail and Delicate Arch Trail)

We left our campsite at 5:45 am, had a dark drive to the park surrounded by shadows of towering arches and spires, with plans to hike Devil’s Garden Trail. Arches National Park has a timed entry system from 7 am to 4 pm to avoid overcrowding. Since we didn't have a reservation, we needed to be in the park early. I love the early starts. For those morning hours, you almost have the trail all to yourself, and you avoid a lot of the hot midday sun.

Devil’s Garden Trail is an 8 mile loop (including all the offshoot trails) that has a large concentration of recognizable arches in the park. The hike is impressive right from the start, as you walk through a narrow slot canyon. Partition Arch is an early deviation from the main trail, and it was one of our favorites, with the morning sun angled just perfectly to make it appear as if it were glowing. Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch were also seen early on for this hike. Landscape Arch spans 306 feet, the longest length of any arch in North America (3). Just beyond this arch, the terrain is a bit more rugged, with caution signs informing us of this primitive trail. Other arches we saw along the way were Double O Arch, Black Arch, and Private Arch. Ironically, we did not see any signs pointing toward Private Arch, and when we arrived there, we had the area all to ourselves.

Despite the caution signs, the trail beyond Landscape Arch was not too challenging, however we accidentally wandered off the trail a few times. During this trail, I coined the term "sketch-o-meter," although I’m sure something like this has been thought of before. In short, it’s an internal meter that determines how long it takes for us to think “wait a minute, this can’t be the right way.” Cody's sketch-o-meter needs to be recalibrated. When following him on technical sections of the trail, my sketch-o-meter alarm would go off, while he was oblivious and probably in the process of leading us off the side of a cliff. I would tell him that it didn't seem like the right way to go, check the map, and then find a much more straightforward path ahead. To take some of the blame, my sketch-o-meter is also a bit off. We've done much harder rock scrambling in the past, and we don't always find the path of least resistance when the trails are not well marked.

I would like to note that we always try to stay on the trail. It's vital to protect the plants and wildlife in the region. Particularly, in southeast Utah, we learned about crusts formed by cyanobacteria. The sticky web of fibers allows the soil to develop a thick crust that controls erosion and retains water, promoting plant life. It can take up to 50 years for the crust to mature, with some areas of crust being thousands of years old (4)! Remember, “don’t bust the crust!”

Later in the day, we returned to the park to hike up to the Delicate Arch. Its image is plastered on almost every item in the park’s gift shop and on the Utah license plate! This was a short, yet challenging hike that is 3 miles roundtrip with 480 feet of elevation gain (5). As you might imagine, this was a very popular hike; we saw young children and even an Asian couple who appeared to be in their 80’s making their way up the trail! They were going slow and steady, with the older woman clutching onto her cane and her husband, who was holding onto his grandson. We also overheard other hikers commenting on how impressed they were by their strength and determination.

It was very windy once we got to the arch. Even the ravens were having trouble staying in the sky, being tossed around by the gusts. Once we reached Delicate Arch, we understood why this arch, in particular, was so iconic. It stands majestically on its own at the top of a sandstone bowl, with beautiful views from all directions. It is the largest freestanding arch in the park (5).

We returned to camp that evening and made Ramen noodles and tinned fish for dinner. We slept well after a busy day.

Day 3 - Canyonlands National Park (Syncline Loop Trail)

Cody chose our hike for the day, the Syncline Loop Trail. This time, I hadn’t done any personal research for this trail. Cody and I are almost always on the same page about the trails that we want to tackle. We usually prefer a distance 5-10 miles in length, mild rock scrambling is a plus, and it must have good views!

The Syncline loop trail is 8.1 miles roundtrip with over 1500 feet of elevation gain. This was not the most challenging trail we’ve ever done, but I was struggling on this one. I was not mentally prepared for the long day. We were mostly isolated on this trail, but encountered three groups of two hikers each, for the entire day. This trail follows canyons around Upheaval Dome. This dome does not follow the usual geologic pattern of the area where you can see sedimentary rock layers formed over millions of years (6). Instead, Upheaval dome is approximately 3 miles wide, surrounded by downsloping rock layers (syncline). It is thought that this formation was created by a meteor that made impact 60 million years ago (7).

At the beginning of the hike (in the counterclockwise direction), there is a gentle descent, as you make your way into the canyon. After four miles, there is a very steep downhill rock scrambling section. The trail is poorly marked with occasional cairns (small conical rock piles) guiding us on the way down. Imagine trying to differentiate cairns amongst other random rock piles to find the correct path! As Cody was climbing down, he commented, "This is not fun... actually it kinda is!" I was exhausted and definitely gave Cody a few angry glances for all his enthusiasm. As I reckoned with my mortality, I started to feel annoyed toward travel influencers, who convince us that trails like Angel's Landing in Zion NP, or Precipice Trail in Acadia NP are challenging. What a joke... Have you ever been on the Syncline Loop Trail at Canyonlands NP?! I doubt it.

After we survived this portion of the hike, we walked along the wash, until we had to make our way out of the canyon. This meant we had 2 miles while gaining 1500 feet of elevation. My tears of sorrow transformed to tears of joy when I encountered the first set of “steps,” along short switchbacks… Thank you to NPS staff and volunteers who constructed this! I was so glad that I didn’t have to climb more rocks to make it out. We completed the trail, as we started to see dark clouds and rain coming in. As I was reading the park brochures on our drive back to Moab, I learned that this trail has the most emergency rescues out of any other trail in the park. Despite the exhaustion, I never felt like we were in danger, but I can understand why this is the case with unclear trail navigation and tricky boulders.

We had sustained ourselves on jerky, nuts and energy chews for the day, so we were ready for a real dinner. We went to Dewey's and both ordered steaks. We don't drink much, but reading the beer menu was amusing, with drinks named Moab Pilsner, Dead Horse Amber Ale, and Polygamy Porter.

We returned to our tent site that evening, as the wind and rain had picked up. We saw a note taped to our tent, and learned that our tent started to blow away while we were gone. Fortunately, the nice women at tent site #13, had rescued it for us and staked it down better, reinforcing it with some large rocks. Unfortunately, we couldn't find our tent footprint (a tarp underneath the tent to protect it from the ground) and replacing it would be $70. I was so exhausted from our activities, I immediately fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning.

Day 4 - Canyonlands and Arches

As I was getting ready in the morning, I noticed our tent footprint near the dishwashing station. Someone must have found it and left it there for us! Yay!

Today was supposed to be our rest day, but there was still so much to see! Canyonlands was becoming our favorite park in the area, so we went there again to see the Mesa Arch. The temperatures dipped after yesterday’s rain, and there were even snow flurries on our way up the arch. Cody and I did not expect winter weather, and he did not pack any warm clothes. He was wearing shorts during the hike. Someone even yelled out, "shorts guy!" as Cody was walking by. I was wearing 3-4 layers on top, long underwear under my hiking pants, and I was still cold.

Next, we went to Aztec Butte. This was also a short hike, with a sandy approach and rock scrambling to get to the top of the butte. My amateur rock climbing skills of crimping and high stepping served me well when trying to get to the top. Despite looking slippery, sandstone in cold weather was nicely grippy under our hiking shoes. The views were beautiful with the unique landscape of canyons and fins carved out by the Green and Colorado Rivers.

For the afternoon, we went back into town, browsed a climbing store (Pagan Mountaineering) and ate Thai food for lunch. We had a fried tofu appetizer, poke bowl (Cody), and eggplant and chicken stir fry for me. Cody knows that I really enjoy trying new coffee shops, and he found one to try called Mas Cafe. It wasn’t too far from the main strip of downtown Moab. Their lattes were the best I had on this trip, and Cody enjoyed their London Fog tea. We ended up returning to this coffee shop two more times during our time in town.

Since we didn't have a ticket to enter Arches NP before 4pm and knowing that there would be a line at the entrance, we tried to time it so we would pass by the ranger station as close to 4pm (but, not earlier) as possible. When we arrived near the entrance, we were worried that we might have been a little early, so Cody made sure we were waiting in the slightly longer line. We successfully passed through the station at 4:02 pm! We did a series of short hikes to see many of the iconic arches, including Double Arch, Windows Arch, Turret Ach, Skyline Arch, Sand Dunes Arch and Broken Arch. It was a whirlwind of arches!

Day 5 - Dead Horse State Park

The night before, we decided we were going to wake up early to see the sunrise. As our phone alarms started beeping at us a little before 5am, we contemplated staying in our cozy sleeping bags versus starting the day. We reluctantly got ready and were on the road by 5:20 am.

The search for a good sunrise view was a dud. We went to Dead Horse State Park, to the lookout, Dead Horse Point, but the sunrise was blocked by the mountains. It was still pretty, but I was tired and cold, as the temperature was in the 20’s and very windy! If we decide to wake up early to see a sunrise in the future, we really need to plan better! We walked a few feet to the east and west rim overlooks, but decided to drive to Canyonlands and return to Dead Horse later in the day (hopefully once it warmed up a bit).

At Canyonlands, we went on the short Grand View Point Trail. According to the park website, if you have limited time in Canyonlands, this is the trail to do. It was fairly popular, and the name of the trail did not disappoint. The views were quite grand! (As I sometimes say, “big bang, little buck!”) There were spectacular views into the canyon the entire hike. The colors of the striated rock layers and winding mazes of fins and spires never gets old.

After this, we returned to Dead Horse State Park. I was already tired, so our time here was short. We took a brief walk to Meander overlook and stopped by the visitor’s center, so I could add a smashed penny to my collection.

We headed back into town and went to the laundromat. With all the time spent outdoors and sleeping in a tent, everything was covered in a layer of sweat and red sand. It felt good to have clean clothes again after all the hiking. We also went to another gear shop, called Gearheads. It had everything an outdoor enthusiast could possibly want! Cody bought a pair of nice hiking pants that were on sale.

We walked to a restaurant called Spoke. We sat by the window while having drinks (cider for me, Cody mistakenly ordered an IPA for himself). It was the week of the Easter Jeep Safari, where tens of thousands of Jeep owners/ enthusiasts come into town. We watched a parade of Jeeps roll by. Jeeps (and cars in general) don’t really interest me, but it was cool seeing older models, like the Jeepster Commando. We saw some people getting excited about an open air Jeep with “Peck Brothers,” written along the side of it. People were honking, waving, and some kids went out to the road to fist bump the driver. Cody and I looked them up, and they are three brothers who make content about off-roading, amassing a >150,000 YouTube following. I guess we saw a celebrity.

Once we were done with our drinks and people watching, Cody said he wanted to get ice cream (a double treat day!). A few days ago, we overheard someone recommending a shop with homemade ice cream and decided to check it out. La Michoacana Artisan had some really interesting concoctions, but the one that stood out the most was sweet corn! It was surprisingly delicious! There were even bits of corn in the ice cream. During our travels out west, we have seen a lot of ice cream shops named some variation of “michoacana.” The Mexican state of Michoacan is known for the origin of paletas (Mexican ice pops) and is a large production center for ice cream.

We had dinner at our campsite, salmon burgers, toasted bagels and salad.

Day 6 - Canyonlands (Chesler Loop Trail)

Today we went to the Needles district of Canyonlands. It is a remote area that took about an hour and 40 minutes to get there from our campsite. We started our drive at 6:10 am. The weather was 28 degrees when we left Moab, but as the sun came up during our drive, it had warmed up to the 40’s by the time we started hiking. It felt otherworldly observing the terrain. Cody and I had a hard time trying to put into words what we were seeing. Some of our descriptive phrases included: “looking over an African savanna,” “walking through the Star Wars desert,” “seeing the remains of an ancient civilization, “spaceships,” and “the land of mushrooms.”

The Chesler Loop Trail was not necessarily hard to follow, but the names of the area/ trails changed along the way. You started at Elephant Hill, then ventured toward the Chesler Park area that connected to the Joint Trail. Then, you worked your way in the reverse direction to end the hike. We walked through rocky terrain, open grasslands, and amazing slot canyons that were 40 feet high with some areas only 3 feet wide. As we descended into the narrow canyons, we thought to ourselves, “Are we really supposed to walk through there?!” At a viewpoint, Cody helped a man find his way back on the trail. He had missed a turn right before the slot canyons, and it would really have been a shame if he missed seeing them! This was my favorite hike of our trip.

We returned back to our campsite and had pasta for dinner. Sadly, this was our last night in our tent/ 42 square foot home.

Day 7 - Climbing at the Ice Cream Parlor and Goblin Valley State Park

In the morning, we packed up our tent. Before meeting up with our climbing guide at 8am, we took a last trip to my favorite coffee shop, Mas Cafe! We ordered our usual drinks, a London Fog (for Cody) and a latte for me. We also shared a spinach and feta pastry and chocolate croissant for breakfast.

We met up with our climbing guide, Eric, at the Moab visitor center. He brought us to the “Ice Cream Parlor.” We had fun climbing on the sandstone, working our way up 5.7, 5.8, 5.10a routes. We also did a 2 pitch 5.6 route, that was challenging and different for us! The climbs were very slabby. We had to trust our feet against the sandstone rock. We had the area all to ourselves, which was so nice! As we were leaving, another couple was setting up to start their climbs for the day.

For lunch, we stopped at a food truck park that was recommended by our guide. Cody had a hot dog burrito. I went to a different food truck and ordered chicken shawarma. We ate some of our food at the park and the remainder in the car, since we wanted to start our drive to Goblin Valley State Park. As I was eating my chicken shawarma rice bowl in the car, I must have been a little too aggressive with my eating, because my plastic fork broke, sending chicken, lettuce and rice flying in the air. Cody thought it was amusing.

Goblin Valley State Park was a fun stop! We wandered around the Valley of the Goblins. There isn’t a specific trail to follow, and it was incredible seeing 3 to 10 foot hoodoos up close! We saw little kids running around and hiding amongst the “goblins,” to the dismay of their parents trying to locate them. I felt like a little kid too! Eric, our climbing guide from earlier in the day, had asked us if we had any kids. When we said no, he joked, “big kids, don’t have kids.” I don’t know if Cody and I will ever have kids, but we both strive to have fun and always keep learning in our lifetime.

Instead of a tent, we were staying in a cabin for one night at Torrey Trading Post. We met a very nice woman who owned the establishment when we checked in. It was a small 100 square foot cabin, and every amenity felt luxurious. A bed! Ceiling fan! TV! Wifi!! We were slowly entering civilization again.

Day 8 - Capitol Reef National Park

We spent our last full day in Utah at Capitol Reef National Park. Originally, we had planned to do a long and sandy hike, however, I was pretty tired at this point. I also learned that there was a historic pie place in the park, and easily convinced Cody to do a couple shorter hikes, so we would have time to get pie. In the morning, we hiked up to the Cassidy Arch (named after Butch Cassidy). The hike was about 3 miles long. Including time spent at the arch, it took us around 2 hours. The initial trail was a quick ascent up with a series of short switchbacks. There was one particular bend at the top of the trail that opened up to views of the valley below; Cody and I simultaneously exclaimed, "Wow!" Most of the arches in the park are fragile and you are not allowed to walk on top of them, but you can walk across Cassidy Arch! While we were eating snacks and admiring the arch, I saw another hiker decked out in UNC gear. We talked to him briefly, excited to meet someone from our area of the country. As we were making our way back down, we saw a few hikers struggling their way up to get to the arch. We offered words of encouragement and reassured them that their efforts were worthwhile.

Next, we went to the Gifford Homestead in the Fruta Valley. It is described as an oasis in the desert that was inhabited by families where farming and ranching took place (8). The Gifford House has been restored, and now sells replicas of historic items, in addition to homemade ice cream and pies. Their season opens on pi day, continuing to late November. We ordered a small apple pie, cinnamon roll and vanilla ice cream to share. They told us that usually their pies sell out any time between 1 to 3pm for the day. I guess we considered this trip our honeymoon, so it’s fitting that we had pie!

Finally, we did a small hike at Cohab Canyon. It was a steep uphill trail, flanked by smooth, black volcanic rocks. Once we made it to the top, we were surrounded by hole-y sandstone rocks and baby slot canyons. When we felt fulfilled, we headed back down toward the car, ready to start the 3-hour drive back to Salt Lake City. We caffeinated at a small coffee hut in town, Dark Sky Coffee. I had a latte, and Cody had a caramel cream soda.

Fortunately, the drive back was uneventful, but we ended up in Salt Lake City in time for rush hour traffic. With the popularity of outdoor activities in the area, there are also some nice outdoor gear shops, so we tried our best to visit a few of them. We went to a huge REI store, a small, specialized climbing shop, and the store/ warehouse of Backcountry.com. The Backcountry store was interesting; they had a small showroom. In order to shop, they had a row of computers you could use to "online shop." Once you submitted a ticket, they would get the items from the warehouse in the back and bring it to you to look at/ try on/ purchase.

We also made a stop at the state capitol and Mormon history museum to find pressed pennies to add to my collection. We had ice cream before dinner. We had multiple recommendations for Blacksmiths ice cream, and it did not disappoint! Cody tried their lemon bar and chewy gooey butter cake flavors. I had berry cheesecake and butter cake flavored ice creams. The flavors were mild, and the texture was very creamy and stretchy. We had dinner at a Tibetan restaurant, happy to have a real meal where sugar wasn’t the main attraction.

Overall, it was a great trip. We have loved our visits out west. Utah has been one of our favorite states to visit. We have now officially visited all five of Utah’s national parks! I’m sure we’ll be back, as there’s still so much to see!

References:

https://historytogo.utah.gov/founding-of-moab/
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/moabcityutah/PST045223
https://www.nps.gov/articles/arch-rock-stars.htm
https://www.nps.gov/articles/seug-soil-crust.htm
https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/delicate-arch.htm
https://www.nps.gov/cany/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm
https://www.nps.gov/articles/cany-upheaval-dome.htm
https://www.nps.gov/care/learn/historyculture/giffordhomestead.htm

A Return to Utah National Parks

Pennsylvania Wedding Picnic