Road Trip: Utah's Big 5!

Man, blogging has become so hard! I guess I’m just out of the writing habit, and the time to do it never seems to materialize. This will be a fast and furious post about a fast and furious trip through Southern Utah’s 5 National Parks. There could be a few alternative titles to this post like Southern Utah: Closed for Winter or A Social Experiment: What Happens When an Adrenaline Junkie Dad Plans a  Vacation for an Anxiety Prone Mother and their Zero-sense-of-self-preservation Wildling. I present to you: Our road trip through Utah. 

So Jonathan planned the whole thing and logistically, it all went smoothly. We flew into Vegas, drove to Zion Lodge inside Zion National Park where we spent 2 nights in a hotel room. From there we drove to Bryce Canyon where we spent a night in their lodge before moving on to Capital Reef for 2 nights. We ended our trip in Moab, situated near both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Jonathan also had a buddy meet us there and they went jeep-ing on the famous Moab trails. Sounds amazing, I know!!!! 

It was a totally epic plan and I felt super cool explaining our spring break plans to everyone. "I’m not a regular mom. I’m a cool, low maintence, road trip, adventure-seeking mom." In reality?  l'm more of a wimpy, all-inclusive resort with separate bedrooms and a kid’s club kind of mom. But alas, mom didn’t plan this vacation….

Jonathan and Forest definitely had a blast and honestly I’m glad we went and I’m always up for hiking amongst beautiful scenery. And if Forest had slept worth a darn and if there had been halfway decent coffee or meals not bought from a gas station, I *probably* would have had a better attitude. I went into this trip thinking I was a lot more low-maintenance than I actually am. But what purpose does travel serve if not to teach us about ourselves?

Park # 1: Zion.  

I was apprehensive about the sleeping in hotels thing with Forest (we always get at least a one bedroom so there is a wall between sleeping quarters), but I was actually pretty stoked about knocking off 5 national parks in one swoop. We arrived in Zion on a beautiful afternoon and the high desert scenery with pockets of oases really put my mind at ease. 

It was stunning and I’d never seen anywhere like it. I wasn’t a fan of the steep drop offs but we loaded F into the backpack carrier for the scary bits and hiked to our heart’s content. 

This rock tunnel made F so happy:)

He JUST learned how to thumbs up.

Hiking all day didn't sufficiently wear Forest out so he was up obnoxiously early and there wasn't decent coffee until the cafes opened at 7:30, but still the trip was a success so far and I was cautiously optimistic about the remaining destinations. Looking back, Zion was actually the peak for me, but whatevs. We drove on the Bryce Canyon with Forest getting super excited about the mile long tunnel to get out of Zion (seriously, his favorite part of the trip.)

Park # 2: Bryce Canyon

There was seriously nothing between Bryce Canyon and Zion. Other than gorgeous desert landscapes. But I mean, there is no civilization to bridge the two, and any signs of human life by way of gas stations or other facilities were boarded up with a sign saying ‘Closed for Season.’. This was to become a theme in Southern Utah….

We got to the Lodge in Bryce Canyon, the only building of several that was open in March. It was too early to check in, so we consulted the giant packet of ‘Best Family Hikes’ and went to the one closest to the parking lot. We were in what seemed like the middle of the forest but as we started walking towards the trail I saw ‘Warning!’ signs alluding to steep cliffs. 

Um, yep. Sure enough the forest dropped away into a dramatic canyon. You think I would have gotten that from Bryce Canyon National Park but I guess I was expecting to climb up the canyon, not start from the top and work our way down. All the trails were on the rim of the canyon wall. I’m very scared of heights. Like I get bad vertigo and feel very dizzy and clumsy which is not the way you want to feel when lodged on the edge of a cliff. Especially when your super energetic and spastic 4 year old is running circles around you and is totally oblivious that he’s mere inches from the ledge. Everyone once in awhile he’d say ‘Woah! That’s a long way down. If I fell off I’d probably die.’ Thanks for the play-by-play. Anyone got a Xanax? 

Needless to say, I didn’t make it very far before I told Jonathan this was not the trail for me (or Forest) so we went back up to safety while he hiked to the bottom and back.

There was nothing to hike that wasn’t on the cliff wall, or what they euphemistically refer to as the ‘canyon rim’, so I was disappointed. Like I said, heights are just not my thing. We did do some driving around to viewpoints for photo ops and found a short hike to a cave that was 4-year old and scaredy-cat mom appropriate.

 

Forest's best attempt at playing photographer.

When we checked into our hotel we were told the coffee machine was broken and the restaurant was closed for the season. After getting settled in our room we left in search of food. We found exactly one restaurant open in town at The Best Western. Here the menu included several items ‘smothered in gravy’ and a ‘Hot Burger’.  As opposed to???? The burger also came smothered in gravy, in case you were wondering. It was not the best meal of our lives, but it was marginally edible and beggars can’t be choosers. I don’t think Southern Utah is known for it’s culinary culture in any season, winter just gave us slimmer pickings than usual. Feeling like we’d seen most of what Bryce Canyon had to offer, we packed up pretty bright and early that morning. 

I believe Forest was awake at 4:30?? And the coffee machine was broken. And we only had trail snacks to eat for breakfast. And I may have asked if we could just please go on back to Texas yet. Jonathan promised the next place would be better...

We did have a bit of excitement when we walked outside and saw that it was snowing and a few inches had accumulated on the ground. We put on our snow gear and had fun throwing snowballs.  

Park # 2.5- Kodichrome State Park

On our way from Bryce Canyon National Park to Capital Reef we stopped at Kodichrome State Park to stretch our legs. This was the surprise hit of the trip. 

We found it as beautiful as any of the National Parks we visited and super accessible with a 4 year old. Unfortunately, by this time the sleep deprivation was getting to all of us so we had a little breakdown on the trail, but once we all expressed our needs (dad needs good attitudes from mom and forest , momma needs coffee and ideally 8 hours of sleep at night,  and forest needs regular snack breaks) we turned a corner in our trip. 

Park # 3: Capital Reef National Park

We drove on, stopping at the only open restaurant for pizza (very good actually) and coffee (!!!) and then continued on  to Red River Ranch, which was a sweet little lodge where we were the first and only guests staying there since it reopened for Spring.  It didn’t feel like The Shining AT ALL. Luckily their restaurant was open for breakfast but not for dinner. We had our choice between two open establishments in the area, one of which featured ‘Rattlesnake Cakes’ on the menu. 

In the meantime, we set out to explore Capital Reef National Park. What a hidden gem! I had never heard of Capital Reef before this trip and apparently neither have many other people because it definitely felt less crowded than the other parks, and there wasn’t even a pay station at the entrance. There were plenty of hikes where we got to climb up into the canyon without me feeling like my life was in imminent danger which was also a perk. 

snack break!

another snack break!

Forest would say that the biggest hit of this leg of the trip was the ranch cat who made her way up to our balcony for cuddles. 

We stayed at the Ranch for two nights and Forest was very sad to leave ‘our pretty room and the cats’ behind. But Jonathan promised that the best was yet to come in Moab. I was pretty excited to see Arches and to have a rental house with separate bedrooms from our obnoxiously early waking 4 year old! I think we were all stoked to see that Moab was an actual town with plenty of facilities open. We celebrated with a trip to McDonald’s before picking up our friend Ty and heading into Arches National Park. 

 

Park #4: Arches (and no,  not the Golden Arches of McDonald's)

We hiked to Delicate Arch, where I sat out the last 200 yards due to cliff-phobia. 

We then went to Landscape Arch which was much more my speed. 

After working up an appetite Forest and I went home to clean up and  do laundry (bliss!) while the boys went to scrounge up some dinner (and coffee fixings!) at the store. 

The next morning, the boys were off early to go jeeping, so Jonathan brought me coffee in bed (amazing) and Forest slept til 7:15. Incredible what a mood booster those two things were to me! Forest and I had quite possibly the coolest mommy-son date ever as we planned to explore Arches and Canyonlands together. We were at Arches by 8 and though this seemed like a late start for us, we had the whole park to ourselves and hardly saw a soul as we hiked Wall Street. 

Forest loved it’s Mars-like atmosphere and I liked that once again I never felt like if I lost my footing I would plummet to my death. After this hike we made our way to Canyonlands. 
Park #5: Canyonlands
On our way out of Arches we saw a terrible accident where a Camero ran off the road and went over a cliff. See guys, I’m not crazy. Cliffs are extremely dangerous! After witnessing that, we definitely played it safe at Canyonlands (which as you can tell from the name, is full of steep drop offs). It was beautiful though. The section we went to was called ‘Island in the Sky’ and you could see how it got it’s name. It looks like gentle, grazing farm land and then BOOM, canyon. 

We just did one short hike to see an arch. Forest said it was his favorite hike of the trip ‘Because it wasn’t long and only had one little part with a drop off’. (He isn't scared of heights, just doesn't like drop offs because he can't be silly around them.)

Forest was such a trooper each day. The longest he hiked was 8 miles in one day (with 1.5 additional miles in the carrier) and he average about 6 miles on the trails each day. We had only hiked about 3 miles at this point in the day but I think we were both just DONE. We headed home and had a great afternoon of napping, doing laundry, packing up and being the general homebodies that we are. 

Jonathan and Ty had an awesome time driving jeeps over the sand and rocks in Moab. They looked like little kids on Christmas morning rehashing their day for us. We ended our last night with burgers and beer and prepared for a long day of traveling the next day. We had a 4 hour drive to Salt Lake and a 3 hour flight back to IAH putting us home around 10:30 pm. 

Phew!!!  It was a trip of a lifetime, but next up we have a parents only trip to Mexico! I think someone making me coffee every morning and reading a book on a beach bed is exactly what I need to recover from our Utah ‘vacation’.