August 2017 Val & Andrew spent 9 days in Utah. It was an epic, American road trip, hitting every National Park in Utah in addition to various Natonal Monuments and 1 State Park!
Zion was our first stop! In Val’s opinion, it is the nicest of the parks—even the roads are a lovely red color. We did lots of hiking here. On one, Val spotted a snake eating a lizard, which fascinated Andrew. Most exciting was walking through the Narrows—this is a trail where you literally hike through a river, slipping constantly on rocks as you go. Our Keens® held up perfectly!
On our way out of town we stopped at Best Friends Animal Society, the nation’s largest sanctuary for homeless animals. Amazing place—we didn’t have access to many animals, but we got to play with cats (for better or worse).
Time-lapse of walking up the Narrows in Zion
Bryce Canyon is awesome—the formations are so cool! Unfortunately, the town of Bryce and the surrounding towns are a culinary wasteland (unless you’re meat-and-potatoes folk).
Here we hiked to Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Slot Canyons. Val nearly died hiking down the slickrock to these things from the heat.
Here’s some very, very old tree parts!
We weren’t really planning to go here, but we had time so we made it work. Apparently it’s named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, which supposedly look like the US Capitol building. Highlights included the Pioneer Registry, walls inscribed with the names of Mormon settlers; Native American petroglyphs etched in the walls; a bunch of wild turkey and deer; and orchards, homemade pie & queso (not pictured). Nearby we also spotted the huge Factory Butte, which was pretty much Val’s favorite thing (other than the dinosaurs).
Time-lapse of driving out from Pioneer Register
Moab rocks! We did one of our toughest hikes at Arches, Double O Arch, which involved semi-scaling a lot of slickrock. Val was very relieved to make it down unscathed.
Time-lapse of driving into Arches National Park
We went to a truly ridiculous park Val had read about called Moab Giants. Can’t really recommend it but they had a pretty cool 5D(!) dinosaur aquarium. (Terrifying for the two small boys who were in there with us.) We walked amid the dinosaurs and got some cool snaps with these guys!
As for the town itself: we had some great food, which was most welcome after Bryce. (Alcohol fun fact: We learned here that you can’t get a sample of a beer in Utah without paying for it.)
So huge and wild. This is another park we weren't necessarily planning to go to. But so glad we did because it's super cool (with lots of buttes!). Andrew may come back here with his family of Jeeps…
Andrew discovered Val’s love of dinosaurs, which prompted him to suggest we go here on the way from Moab to Salt Lake City. (It isn't really on the way but close enough!) This place is a preserved quarry wall jam-packed with huge dinosaur bones.
The city is basically in the middle of mountains—who knew? SLC in a nutshell: Mormon Temple + Good Beer (Alcohol fun fact #2: We learned that there’s a device bartenders in Utah have to use to measure out your liquor—I guess they have to make sure they don’t give you too much!) Also we had an amazing brunch at a place called Ruth’s, where they give out enormous/delicious biscuits (hat tip to Dave Turissini for the suggestion). We were so happy.
We wanted to see the Great Salt Lake so we went to this park—the coolest thing is the hundreds of bison that hang out there. The park was named after antelope, but only because the settler who found the island mistook the native pronghorn living there for this distant relative.