Holy shit, westside of Las Vegas, needing to stop at Walmart to get the solar shower, holy shit the the shithole place, then trying to find beer, holyshit the shithole place. Thought we'd made a huge mistake. Driving through an ugly desert.
First night of trip in Pink Coral Sands State Park. Incredibly still desert of pink. Sunset over mountains and pink sand. Woke up so refreshed so removed!
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Tour of cat campus, dog campus, stables, pastures. Loved this place
Watchman Campground in Zion, full of tent campers, quiet, beautiful. The Watchmen mountains were our sentries.
Hikes to Observation Point, the Narrows, and others
Nightly ranger programs. Some jerkwad walking out when the Ranger brought up the fact that parks suffer when funding is cut. How can people who claim to care about our wild places be Trump fans?
Bryce Canyon, searching for good camp spot. Giddy hikes through "Hoodo Sexy" fairylike trails (Larry's scale), seeing sunrise and sunset on Bryce cathedral of Navajo sandstone, hugely popular Night Skies program and racing to get in line for the telescope shows. Met a couple from Marion, IN, and kept seeing them on the rest of the trip
Driving through Escalante, finding the cute coffee shop. Kiva.
Capitol Reef, which I didn't like at first but wound up becoming my favorite park. Beautiful late afternoon/evening hike through the gorge, just the two of us and a magpie and a scrub jay. Picked fruit from orchard. Ate as many pies as possible from the little pie store
Arriving in Moab to see what we thought would be Crown Jewel of the trip--Arches, but which wound up being our least favorite park due to massive crowds of stupid tourists dressed for a cruise or nightclub and wielding selfie sticks and climbing all over rocks and arches and being assholes. Staying in a "campground" we didn't initially like, but then had a great time in the communal kitchen and the outdoor dining area, meeting other travelers. Moab is so freaking hot. And it is not a town we liked at all. Thought we'd love it, but it was kind of a wretched blown out desert mountain with a bunch of dumb gift and gear shops and weird breweries that followed the bizarre Utah/Mormon alcohol laws.
Arches National Park: Larry had been reading Desert Solitude so this park was the crown jewel of the trip. It turned out being our least favorite due to all the stupid tour buses full of selfie-stick and dressed-for-a-night on the town.
Hikes to Observation Point, the Narrows, and others
Nightly ranger programs. Some jerkwad walking out when the Ranger brought up the fact that parks suffer when funding is cut. How can people who claim to care about our wild places be Trump fans?
Bryce Canyon, searching for good camp spot. Giddy hikes through "Hoodo Sexy" fairylike trails (Larry's scale), seeing sunrise and sunset on Bryce cathedral of Navajo sandstone, hugely popular Night Skies program and racing to get in line for the telescope shows. Met a couple from Marion, IN, and kept seeing them on the rest of the trip
Driving through Escalante, finding the cute coffee shop. Kiva.
Capitol Reef, which I didn't like at first but wound up becoming my favorite park. Beautiful late afternoon/evening hike through the gorge, just the two of us and a magpie and a scrub jay. Picked fruit from orchard. Ate as many pies as possible from the little pie store
Arriving in Moab to see what we thought would be Crown Jewel of the trip--Arches, but which wound up being our least favorite park due to massive crowds of stupid tourists dressed for a cruise or nightclub and wielding selfie sticks and climbing all over rocks and arches and being assholes. Staying in a "campground" we didn't initially like, but then had a great time in the communal kitchen and the outdoor dining area, meeting other travelers. Moab is so freaking hot. And it is not a town we liked at all. Thought we'd love it, but it was kind of a wretched blown out desert mountain with a bunch of dumb gift and gear shops and weird breweries that followed the bizarre Utah/Mormon alcohol laws.
Arches National Park: Larry had been reading Desert Solitude so this park was the crown jewel of the trip. It turned out being our least favorite due to all the stupid tour buses full of selfie-stick and dressed-for-a-night on the town.
Lake Powell for a rest and recreation--pool, lake, laundry, lots of showers, beauty. N.O.P.E. None of that. Horrible. Ugly. Spent one day on a raft ride in Glen Canyon. Absolutely gorgeous. Then horseshoe bend. Then went searching for unmarked slot canyons and found them! Absolute blast. Fun with Larry. Gave up second paid night to try our luck five hours away at the North Rim of Grand Canyon.
Loved the North Rim. Pretty quiet but no camping. So we tried dispersed camping! One of the best nights of my life. Camping out in Khabib National Forest. Felt so wild and free.
Goosenecks state park. Kind of like Horseshoe bend but many more bends.
Grand Canyon South Rim. Just walked around in awe the first day. Laughed at the ravens who pillaged the unchaperoned backpacks of hapless fools. Saw condor. Tarantula. Navajos on mules riding up the canyon. Used our solar shower in a deserted parking lot and was joined by a baby elk and a mule deer. Then Larry wanted to use it! Had magnificent dinner at El Tovar, at sundown, overlooking the canyon. Wonderful waiter, scrumptious food, handsome companion. Almost stepped right into the canyon later as I marveled at the moonlight on the walls of the ancient cathedral. Ravens got into our stuff at our campsite while were were in the van!
Drove back to Las Vegas to meet Tom's brother. Didn't think I'd want to not sleep in the van, but the hotel was a very welcome respite. Beautiful bathroom, bathtub, shower. Big pool. Good food. Good sleep.
Can't forget everyone honking and waving at us because our van was so cool! At first Detroit Larry got mad, thinking they were harassing him, but I explained that we look super cool hippies. Then he eased right in!
