Weesa's Utah National Parks Adventure

DAY 5: Capitol Reef NP and Grand Staircase Escalante NM

This was mainly a driving day with very little exploring. Google tells me its a 4 hour drive from Goblin to Kodachrome but it was more like 6. I did stop to check out a few of the sights in Capitol Reef and started to hike to Calf Creek Falls in Escalante but had to turn back when some storms moved in. I was not expecting to have to drive at/below 50mph all day...or climb to 8000' + several times. I really wish that I had more time to explore some of the area between Capitol and Escalante - the Dixie Forest was a welcome sight after seeing nothing but rocks and shrubs for the last few days! And I would have explored more if I hadn't missed the falls colors in the aspen trees by a week or so from the looks of it - lots of bare trees when I went through but I can imagine how beautiful the leaves were when they were changing!

 

DAY 6: Kodachrome Basin SP

This was a last minute addition to my trip. I had never heard of the place until I was searching for camping options near Bryce Canyon. Found a few pics online, it looked beautiful and had a reservable campground and was only a 30 minute drive to/from Bryce. Sounded great to me. This was only supposed to be a basecamp for my adventures in Bryce but I ended up staying here for an entire day to explore. I had arrived so late the night before I didn't get a chance to look around. Add to that I needed to organize Runner a little bit and do some laundry...I decided to stay put and let this be a little bit of a low key day. After catching up on my chores I set off to explore the park. Its small, kinda out in the middle of nowhere but was not crowded and really beautiful. So glad I took the time to explore this park - they've got a little bit of everything here. Arches, hoodoos, spires, slot canyons, lots of hiking and biking trails. And a..umm...very interesting "spire" just outside the campground called "Old Stony"...

 

Any more info on the "paw" prints? And why do you raise your hand if your shadow is in the pic?

 

Not interested in Old Stony?
No idea on the handprints...I'm gonna go with aliens. They're just in this one spot. The sandstone is really soft there so it could just be that one person rubbed their hand on the wall and left an impression then another did it and another...they're all righties though, no lefties...

And I'm waving in those pics...

 

I'm old Stony'ed out today. There are enough "pops" for everyone.

 

Sooo glad I had the new to me 10-22. Knew it would come in handy and I stopped by the local camera shop to see what they had a week before I left. They have a lot of used gear and my other two lenses came from there. I lucked out and one of the guys that works there had his up for sale...got it for $250

I missed a lot! But I saw a lot too. Definitely need to go back again sometime soon. I think the next trip will mainly focus on the SE corner from Arches, thru Moab and down to Monument Valley. And Antelope Canyon. And maybe Mesa Verde and Bears Ears...

 

Oooh...that's pretty too. I like the free standing spires out in the middle of nowhere. Kodachrome had a few.

 

DAY 7: Bryce canyon NP

I set off for Bryce bright and early - staying at Kodachrome an extra day left me behind schedule so I wanted to get exploring. Its only a 30 minute drive from Kodachrome to Bryce - you can actually see Bryce from a few of the viewpoints too - so I cruised up to the entrance gate before 9am. Luckily the campground sign said there were vacant spots - from this point on i was winging it as far as camping goes, no reservations. I secured a campsite in the North Campground and set off to explore the park. Since it was early I figured I'd head to the end of the park road and then make my stops along the return trip. Turned out to be an excellent idea - there wasn't much traffic at the end yet. But all in all the park wasn't that busy - plenty of parking everywhere. And the weather might have had something to do with that. It was super windy and cold all day. I had just come from two days at close to 80* to 40* and windy. First stop at the end of the road was to change clothes - long pants, thermal underoos, winter coat and hat. I'd gotten a few brief glimpses of the canyon as I drove but my first chance to really take it all in was at Rainbow Point. It was amazing. More beautiful than I expected. And the rest of the stops throughout the day just kept getting better. I think I could have just sat in one spot for an entire day and watched the light changing the colors in the canyon. I found it hard to leave the next day - I just wanted to keep exploring and wandering through the canyon. I didn't think I could survive another night of freezing cold temps though. It was 15* when I woke up in camp. It had rained just before sunset (and ruined any chance of me getting any sunset pics of the canyon) and was super cold and damp. I was bundled up in my sleeping bag, thermal underoos, fleece, hat and gloves, wool socks, down blanket, canvas blanket and had the foot of my bag stuffed into my winter jacket to keep my feet warm.

 

DAY 8 & 9: Zion NP

Let me start by saying that before I started this trip I was looking forward to visiting Zion the most. And maybe over the 10 years or so that I've been thinking about this trip my expectations got a little out of control. I was ready to turn around and leave not long after arriving at Zion. This is the freakin busiest, craziest, least organized or policed park I have ever seen. I thought Yellowstone in July was insane but after seeing Zion I won't complain about Yellowstone ever again. I drove in from the East side and quickly noticed that there were cars parked in every nook and cranny along the road. It only got worse once I passed through the tunnel and emerged on the West side. Cars everywhere. Double parked. Sticking out into the road. I made it to the campgrounds only to find that they were full. I then decided that I should stop by the visitor center to see what they might suggest for alternatives. So I headed over to the main parking lot. Where I proceeded to drive around for an hour trying to find a damn parking space. And never found one.

At this point it had been about 4 hours since I left Bryce and was needing to visit a ladies' room. Years ago I helped design the Sol Foods grocery store in Springdale and remembered that they had public bathrooms so I left the park and headed into town. I was getting concerned as the parking situation in town was even worse than it was in the park. Luckily there was one "oversized vehicle" parking space left at the store as their underground parking lot has a 7' height limit. It was at this point that I was considering leaving and either heading for home or heading back to Bryce. But it was early afternoon and I knew that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere to camp if i headed home. I quickly called a camp/resort place just outside the east boundary of the park that I had found while researching for this trip and asked if they had any vacancies. They did. So I headed back through the park - making another pass through the VC parking lot just in case - and back through the east gate. Checked into camp for the night, took a shower, and ate while pondering what to do. I decided that I had come all this way, I needed to give Zion a fair shot. So I headed back into the park around 4pm, hoping that maybe the crowds would clear out as dinnertime approached. It was still insanely busy but I managed to find a parking space. I quickly ran around the Parus trail and Watchman trail just before sunset, trying to get as many pics as I could as I figured this would be my only chance. As the light faded I headed back through the park and back to camp. And nearly killed two small children on the way. You ever see the pictures of Watchman with the Virgin River in the foreground? They're really pretty right? Well in order to get those pictures you have to stand in the middle of the bridge which has a blindspot when approaching from the eastbound lane. I didn't know that there would be 50 people standing in my lane so as I approached and had a shuttle bus coming from the opposite direction I didn't have anywhere to go when two toddlers ran out from the crowd. Luckily someone grabbed them by the backs or their shirts and drug them out of the way before I ran them over. I made it back to camp and settled my nerves with a few glasses of wine while i set by my fire.
I slept like a baby that night - someone moved into the campsite next to me after I had gone to bed and I don't remember hearing them at all. I decided to give Zion another shot. One pass through the parking lot and if i found a parking space I would stay for a while and explore. If I didn't find a space in one shot then I would head for home immediately. I picked up camp and headed out again. I made it to the VC around 8am and miracle of all miracles I found a parking space. So I packed up my camera gear, some snacks and water and set off to catch a shuttle bus into the canyon. I hiked to Emerald Pools and the Grotto. Checked out Angels Landing but decided that I didn't need to test my fear of heights so I skipped that. And hiked the Riverside trail up to the Narrows. The trails were crowded. The buses were crowded. We drove past some really beautiful spots that I would have loved to take pictures of but being at the mercy of the shuttle bus schedule there was no stopping. I'm just not much for the public transportation, guided tour BS.
I made it back to the VC around 2pm and set out on the road again, heading for home. I had hoped to make it to the north end of the Salt Lake City area before dark and then grab a hotel for the night. Well about half way to SLC I found myself stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate. For over two hours we crawled along the road - I had Runner in 1st gear and was still riding the brake. Traffic was backed up for miles. And why? Because there was a single 8x12 patch of concrete in the road that needed to cure and traffic was squished down to one lane. I was stuck in traffic, creeping along for nearly 50 miles all for a freaking construction zone that was less than a quarter mile. So pissed. I stopped for gas somewhere south of the main metro area of SLC and decided that I was done driving for the day - I had been on the road for nearly 7 hours. According to google maps my drive that day should have only taken 3.5 hours. I hate traffic and I hate big cities so the thought of having to deal with SLC traffic in the dark was not appealing. Ended up finding a hotel for the night in Payson, UT - about 120 miles short of my goal for the day.