The Beginning of our Utah Adventures

Our intention for these blogs were to keep friends and family up to date on our travels, as well as offer advice to anyone who aspires to do the same. BUT. It’s really hard to get consistent service on the road to write day to day and we have had to take zero days to get our photos edited and uploaded, blog posts written, and our website current. SO. Some of these travels are just going to be lumped together under their state so they’re still easy to access and follow, but easier for us to get up here quicker!

Our first night in Moab was spent at the Inca Inn for a much needed shower and night of rest in a real bed. We have both been to Moab a few times in the last few years, so it was fun to see the growth of the city and revisit some of our favorite places. It was also the first time we had seen reasonably priced groceries in a few weeks, so that was a pleasant surprise. After dealing with fluctuating temperatures and losing two rounds of groceries in our Dometic cooler, we decided to stop at the REI in Grand Junction, Colorado before making our way in to swap it with a new one. Turns out, we just got a lemon. The new cooler was operating wonderfully in the 102 degree desert, keeping our week’s worth of food nice and cold. No more spoiled yogurt.

We stopped at a laundromat to restock on our clean clothes and be-bopped around to different coffee shops to get some work done in an effort to beat the heat. Unfortunately, Arches National Park also had a timed entry process as well, so we were kinda stuck in town until at least 5:00 when we could enter the park. We ended up getting a ton of work done and had set out to see the sunset at Delicate Arch, but upon arrival we were flagged down by a family who needed a battery jump. Connor was so proud of the battery pack that we had purchased to keep in our recovery gear box that got them up and running in seconds.

We pressed onwards and made it to Delicate Arch by twilight. Watching all of the stars appear in full glory was truly a sight to see. Somehow we managed to have service up there, so I pulled out my astrology app and we picked out all of the constellations and planets our eyes could see. Once it started getting a bit darker, we put on our headlamps and headed back down the sheer orange rock. We were about a quarter of a mile down the trail when we heard the faint sound of a baby crying. We kept moving and a few minutes later, stumbled upon a family of four who didn’t speak much English and were using the light from their phones to get them down the trail. Connor and I had a telepathic conversation with each other and decided that the best thing to do for their safety would be to follow close and offer the light that we had from the headlamps to get them back down 1.5 miles to the parking lot. Boy, were we glad we did. It got so dark so quick and even with the breadcrumbs that Connor’s Garmin watch left, the trail was still hard to find because everything looked the same and the sheer rock face was easy to slip off of. The parents of the family switched off carrying their toddler and their infant as we led them back down the trail around 11pm, pointing out scorpions, foxes, and coyotes along the way back. Once we were a few hundred yards from the car, I turned back and looked up at the sky, pointing out the Milky Way in it’s full glory, visible to the naked eye. The family was astonished, managing to explain that this was the first time any of them had ever seen anything like it. Once we all made it safely to the car, the family thanked us repeatedly and the father ran back over with the few snacks and drinks that they had in the car to offer as a token of gratitude. We made it to a familiar camp late, popped open the tent, and went right to sleep (after staring at the stars for a little bit longer, of course).

The next day, we opted to skip Canyonlands because it was getting increasingly hotter by the day, so we pushed onward to Goblin Valley State Park. We had camped here with our friends a few years back and it was incredible, so we had to stop again. We had the entire dispersed camping area to ourselves and went on the coolest little excursion of the cracks in the rock walls and caverns the next morning.

Our last time through Utah, we passed through Capitol Reef National Park but didn’t get to spend any real time exploring. I told Connor that it was an incredibly underrated park, so we enjoyed lunch in an Eden-esque portion of the park, stopped by the visitor center, and went on a ~ diet ~ canyoneering hike (Sulphur Creek), complete with big rock walls and waterfalls. 10/10 recommend.

We drove down to Browns Reservoir that evening to camp on the water and were met with some interesting natural phenomenons. Once the sun went down, we started to notice an orange cloud creeping over the mountain next to us and after a little bit of research, realized that there were some pretty large wildfires spreading through southern and central Utah. On top of that, apparently this was the one day that the Mayfly mates. We noticed a couple of bugs, went on a walk to get away until they passed, came back and the whole truck was covered in mayflies. Apparently, they live for about a year in the water and come out for one day to mate, deposit seed back into the water, and the males die almost immediately after. So ourselves, our truck, and everything we had out were covered in dead mayflies, impossible to clean off completely. While it was cool to say we saw it, I think I could have lived without that experience.

We are in Utah for another week, so stay tuned for the next batch of orange rocks adventures!

Onward and upwards,

Alicia