Here’s my ritual trip summary post, giving more details about places we stayed, where and what we ate, what resources we used, and….why we did this thing at all.
Where and When:
Three Utah National Parks. October 15-21, 2021.
Why:
Well, we do like to travel and see new things. Of course, travel has been a little challenging for the past year and a half – not that this has stopped us. We did a trip to Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone in August of 2020, and then the south rim of the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest in February 2021. As well as shorter jaunts – like up to the Big South Fork area in middle Tennessee in August.
You notice the preponderance of outdoors activities and national and state parks, right? Well, given the fact that for most of this time, cities outside of the south have been either shut down, mostly shut down or just…you know…cold (depending on the time of year) and travel outside the United States is a massive pain in the neck – it leaves the Great Outdoors, and yes, the Great Outdoors in the United States really is great.
And with this, we’d have done “The Big Five” – all the national parks in Utah. Quite important, you know.
Besides Covid restrictions, our other limitation is schedule. The 16-year old (the only one still here ) is very busy with his homeschool classes and tutoring, music lessons and recitals, and then his weekend parish organist job. A job which, from November 1 through January 1, is very time-consuming, not only in terms of actual playing but in terms of the need to prepare and practice.
So if we were going to be able to do anything this fall – this was our window. We’ll have another mid-January, I hope.
Problems:
Yes, there was a problem. I spent so much time planning and organizing, and so of course – the week we were supposed to leave was the week of some massive schedule issues with a couple of airlines, including American – not as widespread as those with Southwest, but still with an impact. And part of that impact was on us – cancelling a flight from Dallas to Grand Junction, Colorado.
Here’s the original schedule:
10/13: Late flight from BHM-GJT. Land GJT at midnight.
10/14: Pick up car at GJT early morning, drive the scenic Unaweep / Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway, stay in an AirBnB out in the country around Cortez, CO. If we have time, run over to the Hovenweep National Monument.
10/15: Mesa Verde (Mug House Tour & other exploring), drive to Monument Valley.
10/16: Tour of Monument Valley with Dineh Bekeyah Tours. Drive up to Monticello, possibly on the Moki Dugway, see other sights along the way.
10/17: Hike in Needles section of Canyonlands NP. Drive up to Moab.
10/18-19: Arches NP. Evening – drive back to Grand Junction.
10/20: Fly back to BHM.
Well, that didn’t work out, since on the morning of our departure, while M was taking the PSAT, our DFW-GJT flight was cancelled. I won’t go into any more detail than I did here, but the upshot was I just cancelled that whole set of American flights, crossing my fingers that I’d get a refund (I did) and scheduled new flights (same basic cost) leaving Friday 10/15 and then returning on 10/21.
(The issue had been Thursday – the day when M has his 3 homeschool co-op classes. Of course I only wanted him to miss one set of those classes, so we ended up just pushing that up – he was to miss on 10/14, but missed 10/21 instead.)
AND then, well – because of the change, it was too late to grab new Mesa Verde tours, and since a major part of Mesa Verde is closed at the moment anyway – Cliff House – M said that he thought it would be better to save that for another trip anyway, and he’d rather put Capitol Reef NP in the mix. At which point it made sense to fly in and out of SLC instead of Grand Junction. In addition, at that point, I, not being psychic, had no idea what would be happening with the employee situation at the airlines, and I reasoned that a flight to or from SLC had a lesser chance of being cancelled than those associated with Grand Junction. And it all worked out fine, although I was cursing it all, I admit, on the drive back up on Wednesday night, especially passing the “Grand Junction – 113 miles” sign, when I still had 3 hours to go to SLC….
So.
New schedule/reality:
10/15: Fly from BHM to SLC, land about 1pm, fight with car rental agency, lose, spend $$$$ on a car, hoping for a refund, eventually. (Update 10/23: Got it! Well, not a refund, but I challenged the charge, and the cc company reversed it in very short order.) Explore SLC a bit – see Temple Square, the Capital, the Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine. Drive to Torrey, Utah to the Red Sands Hotel. I had originally booked Saturday at the Broken Spur, but they didn’t have any Friday night rooms for the new plan – I got a little nervous that no one would (it was the end of fall break for many Utah schools). But we lucked out.
10/16: Capitol Reef NP – Hiked Cohab Canyon Trail to Hickman Bridge Trail and back. Mass. Dinner.
10/17: Drive from Torrey to Moab. On the way, explore Leprechaun Canyon, Blarney Canyon and Goblin Valley State Park. Drive into Arches NP to case it out. Check into the Expedition Lodge in Moab.
10/18: Devil’s Garden Hike until early afternoon, then drive to the Islands in the Sky area of Canyonlands, take in some overlooks.
10/19: Fiery Furnace until early afternoon, drive to the Needles area of Canyonlands, check it out, do the Cave Spring Trail and the Pothole Trail, drive to Monticello to stay at the Blue Mountain Horsehead Inn.
10/20: Chesler Park Viewpoint hike in Canyonlands, then drive back up to Moab. Delicate Arch hike. Driiiiiiive to SLC. Check into the Tru hotel near the airport.
10/21: Fly SLC-BHM, arrive 3 hours late because of….well, the expected. At least it wasn’t cancelled this time.
We probably averaged about 7 miles of hiking a day. Luckily, I can still do that and more (like the 10+ we did in September at Big South Fork) fairly easily with no aching muscles the next day – although those inclines can be rough, and I’m determined to work on it more than ever now. M has some hiking boots – don’t know what. I have Danner low cut hiking shoes. We carry a cheapo 3L water backpack thing, plus another water bottle. I have trekking poles, but didn’t bring them because you can’t put them on a carry-on. And I didn’t need them, although I saw plenty of folks using them.
More photos and videos at Instagram, both in posts and in “highlights.”
All posts linked on the “Travel” page
Where We Stayed:
Red Sands Hotel in Torrey, Utah. Nice, probably overpriced, but it’s a tourist area. They lent me a bottle opener, so that was nice. Torrey is small, so there’s no real advantage to location, except a couple of hotels are further east and set so that the sunset is more easily enjoyed from their properties. But then, you can just drive there and see it if you want.
Expedition Lodge in Moab. Great, funky spot. Good heated pool, excellent location in walking distance of all the downtown restaurants and services. Retro vibe, quality appliances. I didn’t take photos on the property, but you can see plenty here.
Blue Mountain Horsehead Inn in Monticello: Basic old school roadside motel, but with immaculate, updated rooms.
It seems to me that all of these smaller hotels have really upped their games over the past few years. I suppose with the prevalence of online reviews, they can’t afford to be dirty or negligent and expect to stay in business.
Tru by Hilton in SLC. SUPER trendy – to the point of profound annoyance – new Hilton brand, but it was it was also cheap for my date, so I went for it. It was fine.
I absolutely understand the popularity of camping. It’s not my bag at this point, and I sometimes wonder how long it takes for camping costs (costs including money, prep time and learning curve time) – especially in an RV – to balance out what you’d spend in other kinds of accommodations. But for a trip like this it would certainly make sense for a lot of reasons, not least, in, for example, Canyonlands – being right in the park, rather than 45 minutes away.
I mean….what is cuter than this??
Where we Ate:
Lucky’s Iron Door Roadhouse in SLC (the original Lucky 13, being feature on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives – but as a bar, barred to 16-year old M.) He had the pastrami burger – which is what he came for – and declared it excellent. He says its a Utah thing? I don’t know. I had a good salad. Don’t hate.
Curry Pizza in Bicknell, Utah – also a Fieri recommendation (although I think he visited the SLC location). Butter Chicken pizza, Samosas and chili wings, all excellent. Shockingly so.
Breakfast on Saturday at Austin’s Chuckwagon in Torrey. M had a breakfast burrito, which was massive and he liked, I had a veggie “frittata,” which was fine – eggs cooked with a bunch of vegetables. Can’t really do it wrong.
Late lunch/dinner on Sunday – Tacos La Pasadita truck in Green River, Utah. Very good – never eaten bad food from a taco truck, anyway. I had 3 various tacos, M had vampiros, which he loved.
Lunch Monday-Wednesday was from sandwich fixings purchased at a Moab grocery story in the madhouse of a Sunday evening. It was exactly like the craziness at beach grocery stores on Sunday afternoons and evenings, when everyone’s stocking up the rental for the week. Wild.
I had brought a cheap cooler bag at Dollar General, I believe, packed it in my suitcase, and so we iced that up, stored the meats, cheeses and pimento cheese in that as we went out during the day, and stuck it all back in the hotel fridge at night.
Monday night dinner at Antica Forma – arancini, pizza (M) & salad (me). Good, a bit pricey – but then everything is these days, isn’t it?
Tuesday night, Ja-Roen Thai Sushi in, yes, Monticello, Utah, and it was quite good. M had drunken noodles, I had a well-spiced basil chicken thing. I can’t speak for the sushi quality, since we didn’t partake, but our mains were tasty and freshly prepared. With a herd of mule deer in the yard next door and a simply lovely little Catholic church across the street.
Wednesday….Wednesday…Oh. Lunch from the sandwich stash, and then dinner via the drive through of a SLC-area In-N-Out, rather late in the evening on the way to the hotel.
Given various “free” hotel breakfasts and the grocery store purchases, we did fine for costs. Didn’t have a bad meal, either.
Hints and Suggestions:
As everyone knows (or should), Our National Parks have exploded in popularity in recent years, especially in the past year and a half. You really must plan your visits in order to avoid frustration, closures and lines. It’s like Disney World out there, folks. The NPS helps by providing, for example, webcams at certain very popular destinations – as with Arches NP, the webcam at the entrance gate. Study it.
Of course, neither Capitol Reef or Canyonlands are as popular as Arches, but you can still be disappointed by closures at these as well – we wanted to do the Capitol Gorge hike in Capitol Reef, but the road to the trailhead is currently closed, adding five miles round trip to the hike, which…we were not interested in spending time on. We checked into doing the Cassidy Arch trail, but by the time we arrived, the small parking lot was full. The Elephant Hill trailhead parking lot at Canyonlands also fills up – we arrived a little before nine and had no problem, but when we finished around noon, the lot was full – on a Wednesday morning in October, for heaven’s sake.
If you are able, don’t be afraid to hike. Yes, there are challenges, but there’s so much beauty beyond the first, easy stops – like beyond the Landscape Arch, as impressive as that is.
The park sites have lots of information, and if this is your bag, you know to download the AllTrails app – and pay for the pro version, which enables you to download trail maps on which you can track yourself, via the gps on your phone, if you want to.
When you go into Arches or Canyonlands, take your own food and any non-water drinks you might want. There is nothing of that nature inside the parks, not even in the visitor’s centers.
Moab is a decent little tourist town – not as obnoxious as Sedona or Pigeon Forge (is anything as obnoxious as Pigeon Forge? Branson, maybe?) – and it was busy, but only moderately so when we were there. I expect it’s crazy during high season, especially with only one main road running through the town along which all the businesses are located.
There is lots to do in that area besides just hike, of course – jeep and ATV or whatever tours, canyoneering, rafting, biking – but we didn’t do any of that. We had a fun jeep tour in Sedona, but weren’t tempted in Moab. M is a mountain biker, but he had, not surprisingly, no interesting in doing that without a friend along.
My only disappointment is that most of the museum/exhibit aspects of these parks are still closed – the Needles section of Canyonland being an exception, featuring a great relief map of the area. Oh, the stores are open of course, but not the museums, and the rangers are all still standing outside to give their advice. It really is silly that so much of these types of offerings in these parks remain closed and you have to wear a mask in these spaces – when you drive down the road to Moab and no one is wearing a mask jammed in the grocery store. Or – ahem – as Joe mentions in the comments – when the NPS shops themselves are…open. Hopefully by next year, all that will be back to normal.
Check out Recreation.gov for permits, tickets and reservations for all of these federal sites.
Oh, and avoid the City Market in Moab on a Sunday night. If you can.
October 15: Travel day, Salt Lake City
October 16: Capitol Reef National Park
October 17: Leprechaun Canyon, Blarney Canyon, Goblin Valley State Park, Moab
October 19: Fiery Furnace hike, Arches National Park, travel to Needles section of Canyonlands
October 20: Chelser Park Overlook hike, Canyonlands, Delicate Arch trail hike, Arches
More photos and videos at Instagram, both in posts and in “highlights.”
Charlotte was Both 