This is Part II in a travel diary series about our road trip through southern Utah. You can find Part I here. If you’d like to receive these newsletters in your mailbox, subscribe for free! Paid subscribers will receive full access to the archives.
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Capitol Reef National Park
If you have time to take the scenic route between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks, override your Google Maps and opt for Highway 12. The slightly longer but way more beautiful drive winds through the diverse geography of the Grand Staircase-Escalante area. As Kurt commented, “This whole road could be a National Park.” One section known as the Hogback rides along the top of a ridge, dramatic cliffs bordering both sides of the road with no guardrails. The elevation is a steady climb from 5,200 to 9,600 feet as you reach Boulder Mountain.
I don’t know if aging is making me more anxious but something about leaving sea level unsettles my soul. It’s a challenge that creates a real push-pull in my amygdala—I love the sweeping views from mountain overlooks but I’m also terrified by mountain roads. Kurt was interested in camping on the mountains, but as strong winds battered the ridge, cortisol rushed through my veins. So we descended down the mountain and ended up finding a perfect site off the main road, with a panoramic view of the rocky ridges of Capitol Reef just across a large wash.
In the morning, we arrived at the park early because I was set on having pie for breakfast at Gifford House, a historic settlement in the Fruita valley. In the late 1880s, Mormons arrived in the area and irrigated the land to grow fruit trees in the middle of the desert. It is a bit wild to arrive in a verdant green orchard after so many miles of red rock desert.
Capitol Reef is situated on the Waterpocket Fold, a wrinkle in the earth that runs nearly a hundred miles long. As the road traveled out of the orchards and into the fold, I was blown away by the view. We’d arrived in this park with few pre-formed expectations, not knowing much about it, and I could not fathom why Capitol Reef doesn’t get the same amount of attention as Zion or Bryce. As far as my eye could see, sheafs of layered rock jutted out from the ground, like the earth’s crust was a deck of cards about to be shuffled. I immediately asked Kurt to stop the van so I could take a photo, but my iPhone was ill equipped to capture the landscape’s depth or scale. Being in Capitol Reef is like taking a peek at the blueprints of how the world was formed over a course of millions of years, and man did it drive home how we humans are such a tiny blip in natural history—I’m never again gonna give a shit about my annual peer review or the embarrassing thing I said at the company summer picnic in 2014. We’re mere blips in the existence of a wide and ancient universe that will inevitably die with the sun. Nothing matters! Eat pie for breakfast!
After the steep cliffs of Zion and Bryce, we spent most of our day in Capitol Reef hiking two washes: the Grand Wash and the Gorge Wash. Legend has it that Butch Cassidy used to hide out from the law in the Grand Wash. Both trails ambled along dried-up sandy river bottom while the sandstone cliffs stretched above. We viewed petroglyphs and carvings made by pioneers in the rock faces. No dramatic drop-offs to fear, it was a great day! And we even got to sleep in a clean, soft bed that night; around the halfway point of every long camping trip I reserve an Airbnb with a washer/dryer. This was also a good opportunity to refill our water jugs, use wifi to research upcoming stops, do a deeper clean of our camping dishes, and SHOWER. In addition to the layers of sweat and sunscreen, we accrued a layer of red dirt on our skin. It is DRY in Utah; I experienced next-level boogers and burned through a tube of chapstick at four times the usual rate.
Goblin Valley State Park & Little Wild Horse Canyon
Do you love getting lost in the desert while ravens circle overhead? Then I highly suggest visiting Goblin Valley State Park! This popular park is filled with hoodoos and rock pinnacles locally referred to as goblins, and visitors are allowed to wander throughout the valley without any designated trails. Families love this spot because kids can go nuts climbing hoodoos like a jungle gym or playing the wildest game of hide & seek ever.
A nearby hiker referred to a towering section of rock pinnacles as the Goblin Castle; I don’t know if this is an official name or not but I definitely had the Goblin King’s song from Labyrinth stuck in my head for the next hour. (side note: Galaxy Quest was also filmed here!)
A few hours of wandering in Goblin Valley was enough to satiate my need for Labyrinth references, so we moved on to the next stop, a slot canyon called Little Wild Horse, about fifteen minutes down the road. Little Wild Horse Canyon is a popular slot canyon hike where you only need to venture in about a mile to reach the narrowest passage between two steep rock walls. The most important thing to know about any slot canyon hike is CHECK THE WEATHER FIRST. Any sudden rain can create flash flooding, and slot canyons become incredibly dangerous very quickly.
This hike was a fun experience I’d recommend adding to your Mighty Five itinerary. Just as advertised, the towering cliff walls closed in tight, leaving enough room for a single person to pass through at a time. I shimmied through some of the narrowest sections, tilting my head up to see just a sliver of blue sky above, peeking through the rocks. At one point we passed a family, and as the dad followed his kids running ahead he joked “The great thing about this is that you can’t lose them.”
I love the extreme landscapes of Utah, with its hoodoos and slot canyons and dramatic arches. While I always compare the places we visit to movie settings, I’d never seen a real-life place that was so otherworldly I could easily imagine I was inside a Star Wars film.
Our clean clothes/clean hair smell from the morning’s Airbnb had long faded, it was back to dispersed camping for the night. We found a spot tucked away next to a tall butte, watching tumbleweeds mosey past the van. After nightfall, I had a face-to-face encounter with a black widow spider while squatting to pee, and let me tell you that no person has ever pulled their pants back up faster.
Moab
We took a rest day in Moab, which really meant an eating in restaurants/shopping at little stores day plus a grocery restock. Moab is the kind of town where everyone is either coming or going from rock climbing, rafting, hiking, or mountain biking, so thankfully we blended right in with our campfire hair and dirt-covered clothes. A storm rolled in late in the day, so we spent the night hanging out in the van parked at the base of La Sal Mountains, drinking boxed wine, eating snacks, and playing a trivia game. These are often my favorite nights, a camping “bottle episode.”
Arches National Park
Arches National Park currently requires time entry reservations, so grab a $2 reservation for your visit as early as possible in your planning process. Arches is not one to miss.
We rolled up in Drew shortly before our 9am reservation and waited in a quick line, and then we were in! Whether it was the soft morning light casting a pastel pink on the red dirt, the fluffy white cumulus clouds hanging in the sky like they were airbrushed in, the formations rising from the earth in improbable shapes, or the arches revealing peekaboo blue sky, I felt like we had driven straight into a Wes Anderson painted backdrop. There are multiple stops along the scenic drive where formations are easily viewable within a short walk, in case you are traveling with all ages or have accessibility needs.
For our first hike of the day, we set out on the Delicate Arch trail. She’s an icon, she’s a legend, she is the moment. Perhaps the most famous image associated with Utah, you may know Delicate Arch from their state license plate (as an Illinoisan I am jealous, my home state will never move on from Abraham Lincoln). The trail is rated as moderate, a 1.5 mile climb up a few switchbacks then a steepish expanse of slickrock, capped with a fifty-yard walk along a narrow ridge with a steep drop-off until you turn a corner and are rewarded with the incredible view. Delicate Arch looms above a rocky basin, tall enough to house a four-story building. Upon first glimpse I literally said “Whoa” out loud. Then I grabbed my hat because a high wind had kicked up, blowing into us sideways. I was good with staying exactly where I was while Kurt ventured further along the rim of the bowl (I actually sat down between two large rocks so the wind wouldn’t blow me off the ledge). Once Kurt was done getting up close, we descended back down the slickrock face (I was glad for my sturdy boots and hiking poles; Utah is not the place to skimp on good gear). I recommend doing this hike early in the day to beat the crowds and the heat.
Our one full day at Arches was pretty packed. In the Devils Garden section, we took an easy hike to Landscape Arch, a narrow ribbon of rock as long as a football field. A large chunk of rock fell from it in 1991, making the arch’s existence even more precarious.
I especially loved seeing the Cove of Caves and Double Arch, featured in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. If you haven’t already noticed, there has been a movie filmed in pretty much every part of southern Utah.
Searching for a campsite after a day in Arches proved to be more of a challenge; by the looks of it the entire state of Utah was camping out that night. We spent an hour driving up and down both sides of the Colorado, checking each BLM campground for an opening. Many sites were being “reserved” by a single camp chair left behind, not unlike the “dibs” system of Chicago winters. Our search led to us stumbling onto Potash Road, a scenic byway home to petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks. Tons of climbers milled around, explaining why every campground was filled to capacity.
With few options left and a sun about to set, we left Moab for the city outskirts until we hit another stretch of BLM and finally nabbed a spot away from the road. While we prepped our dinner, a few more camper vans passed us, also in the same boat of looking desperately for a spot. We rested our hiked-out legs in the van and I spotted a pronghorn amble across the road, eyeing our van before grazing in the field. I love a wild animal sighting; they always feel like an auspicious sign (except when they are black widow spiders).
Thank you for reading down to the end—now go eat some dessert for breakfast!
Next in Part III: Canyonlands National Park, Bears Ears National Monument, Monument Valley
This just makes me wanna go back! Except the part about the black widow, I knew it was gonna happen but I still physically recoiled 🕷️
so beautiful!