Susan, Derby and myself decided to take advantage of the holiday weekend to take a bit of a road trip (when do we do otherwise?). With our limited budget and nearly unlimited playground in the state of Utah, we decided to keep things (relatively) local and explore a couple National Parks in state. If you’re not aware, Utah has 5 national parks…only California and Alaska have more. Our focus was Capitol Reef National Park (new to both me and Susan) and Zion National Park (new to Susan and one of my favorites).
Susan had a full workday on Friday so we were slow getting out of the Cache Valley. Once underway, we had to pass through the “megalopolis” of Utah….basically all the cities which contain over 80% of the population are located on a 100 mile stretch of I-15 between North Ogden and Payson. Once through there we continued south into the more desolate areas of the state before stopping for the night around 10:30pm. One of the disadvantages of me working on Eastern Time is that I’m usually exhausted by 10pm MT. This only got us about 3/4 of the way to our goal and the campgrounds in the area were full. Since we are trying to save money, and broaden our life experiences (that sounds much better), we decided to give WalMart camping a go. Basically, WalMart’s in rural areas open their parking lots to overnight vehicles (usually RV’s) for free stays. We just decided to empty out the back of the Tucson and make a bed. Overall, it wasn’t too bad except we didn’t bring any padding, nor nearly enough blankets…lesson learned.
Walmart Camping!
Still in my weekly routine, I was awake and ready to go at 6am, so decided to start moving again. Susan slept as I drove on to Torrey, UT. There we stopped to grab some coffee before venturing into Capitol Reef National Park. This park is one of the more unheralded parks, but is essentially a narrow 100 mile long stretch of crevice in the land where the Earth’s crust once separated. The violence of plate tectonics forced up some cliff wall and canyons that provide dramatic scenery. The park roads are mostly built up around the original settlement (Fruita) that was ultimately largely abandoned due to the harsh living conditions in the area. However, some original buildings and the orchard remain. Along with the scenic drives, which offered more than I had expected, there are still working orchards where you can pick and eat your own fruit on site for free, or take some with you for a small fee.
I would highly recommend giving Capitol Reef a visit if you’re in the area. It’s beautiful, inexpensive ($5 entry to scenic drive), and less crowded than the average NP.
From the park, we backtracked to Torrey for a lunch stop before continuing down the scenic back highways to the east gate of Zion National Park. From here, we took the dramatic drive into the canyon and made a few photo stops along the way. Since we plan on spending the next couple days here (and pets aren’t all that welcome in NPs) we didn’t stay too long before heading up the road to Cedar City for the night. Once at our fancy Motel, we got cleaned up, relaxed, and strategized for the next couple days where we will tackle Zion in full.
No comments:
Post a Comment