Utah: It's Not Just for Mormons

Xander and I just returned from what might very well be our last vacation without kids. We decided to go hiking and camping in Utah. I was skeptical about Utah at first, mostly because I was disappointed that we couldn't also go back to the Grand Canyon and to New Mexico. I didn't think Utah would be interesting enough to stand on its own. Anyway, I'd like to apologize to the state of Utah for underestimating its coolness. The camping and hiking were great. The people were incredibly friendly. Even the long periods of time we spent in the car were fascinating because the landscape changed so much. We made a giant loop around the Grand Staircase, starting and ending in Colorado. One of the most awesome things about our route was being able to see features hundreds of miles away, which just underscored the enormity of the forces that created these features. Everywhere we went, we could see where we were going or where we had been. In northern Arizona near the Navajo Mountain and Kaibab Plateau, we could see all the way to Bryce Canyon and into Grand Staircase-Escalante. In Bryce, we could see the Kaibab Plateau and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. In Capitol Reef, we could see the Navajo Mountain as well as Bryce. In each of these places you can see evolution at work, which is really what makes a trip through the region so fascinating. It was an amazing vacation, and I wholeheartedly recommend going there if you've never been.

The theme of the trip was "Stuff We Wouldn't Do with Babies." We went on a few really great hikes, which I'll post about later. In order to get to these hiking spots, we did a lot of driving. I brought a whole bunch of yarn to crochet on the road and accomplished almost nothing in that respect because I spent the entire time looking out the window. As an East Coaster, I hadn't seen a whole lot of desert. We've both been to Arizona, and we've been to the red desert in Wyoming, but northern Arizona and southern Utah are a whole other class of desert all together. For much of the trip, we felt like extras in Total Recall. There were days when we drove for hours through barren lands, only occasionally passing other cars, praying our rented Prius--got over 50 miles per gallon, by the way--didn't break down. Here are some photos from the driving portions of our vacation:

Driving through Colorado


Being Tourists at Four Corners


On the Way to Monument Valley


Storm in the Desert


Near Mexican Hat


Driving through Monument Valley


Thinking About Pioneers


At Lake Powell


Classy Camp Dinner


Monuments, Natural and Not


Bryce Canyon


At Bryce (Kaibab Plateau and northern part of Grand Canyon at back right)


In Kodachrome Basin (great campground!)


Capitol Reef


In Arches