I can't believe that our adventures are under way. After an amazing wedding, we are off on the first leg of our trip, Utah. We landed in Salt Lake City on Wed, May 24. Danny's dad picked us up and after delicious tacos with Dustin, we were off to the house for some R and R. After the craziness of the wedding it was nice to just relax and get organized. It seemed like forever since we had packed our travel bags. We reorganized and repacked for our roadtrip to Southern Utah.
May 25
Since we were still on East Coast time we woke up at 5:30am to hit the road for Zion National Park which is about 4 hours from Salt Lake. You have to love the 80 MPH speed limit out here. The drive itself is impressive. We left behind the snow capped mountains of Salt Lake, traveled through rugged emptiness, and finally reached the red rock of southern Utah. The drive was also the first time that we were alone in the last week and a half. We spent the car ride recounting the wedding and day dreaming about the trip!
We reached Zion easily and set out to explore. We hiked to Upper Emerald Pools which leads you passed a small water fall and up into the canyon to see where the water orginates. Since it's almost Memorial Day, the trail was a bit crowded but we found a nice place to sit and have some lunch surrounded by the high cliffs. We then hiked Hidden Canyon Trail. This uphill climb was an indication that I am way out of shape! But it was well worth it. The 3 hour roundtrip hike took us up to a slot canyon where the temperature dropped and the landscape became green. It was fun scrambling over rocks and tree roots.
We were exhausted after hiking and had a big day ahead of us. After delicious Mexican food we headed to bed early.
May 26
We were up early again today and headed back to Zion to hike Angel's Landing!! This is the most exciting hike in Zion and even at 7am the trail was crowded. The 4.5 mile roundtrip hike goes straight up the mountain through multiple switchbacks and sometimes requires holding onto a chain as you climb over rocks. Some of the hike was a bit scary and some of the hike was physically exahusting. But the view is totally worth it! From the top you see all of Zion.
After heading down the mountain, we grabbed some lunch and then drove an hour to Bryce Canyon National Park. I've never seen anything like it. Those structures (hoodoos), so strange. We hiked Queens Garden where we got to see them up close. Even stranger... We found ourselves ahead of schedule so drove Bryce and made saw it from all different angles. Off to Dixie National Forest for the night.
May 27
The last day of our trip took us back to Bryce Canyon to hike Mossy Cave. We saw a big waterfall and the last of the Bryce Hoodoos. Then we hit he road to drive Scenic Highway 12 through Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. It's hard to describe the beautiful landscape. We drove along red rock, white sandy mountains, green trees and dry brush. As the road went up in elevation we could look down and see the vast landscape of cliffs and terraces. We took a small detour down Hole-in-the Rock Road to the Devils Garden. They allow you to climb around the hoodoos here! We spent a good half hour here, so worth it.
We were back on Route 12 for a more beautiful drive that took us over a narrow roadway and down into the town of Bolder for lunch at Devil's Backbone Restaurant. We both got the house salad with smoked trout. Grown/caught locally with a sprig of wild flowers???! After lunch it was one more hour on the road until we were in the small town of Torrey, the beginning of Capital Reef National Park. We stopped to take a quick picture in front of the deep red land formations before heading back to Salt Lake.
Our first adventure was a blast! If this is an indication of what's to come, this is going to be an amazing 6 months. We can't wait to see what's next!
