Dec 18

Dec 18 Utah Roadtrip

On a whim, Emory and I decided to take a trip to some national parks that we have been talking about for years. We decided to take our cellular immunity in the road in the off season. Because what is a spontaneous adventure without a severe lack of planning and a pandemic afoot?

We learned a lot along the way that I wanted to share.

Altitude is a real thing.
Western Utah is a food desert.
When you are driving 1,000 miles in a few days, you are taking a road trip, not a hiking trip.
You’re going to want more than a couple hours to take in each vast and varied National Park.
Celine Dion’s top hits can get you through anything.
You can take Dramamine for altitude sickness (in researching this I also learned people take it as a recreational drug).
Utah is gorgeous and we will be back.

We drove from Las Vegas to Denver in 6 days. This was our route.

November 15-21, 2020

Monday: ZION. We woke up to a view of the mountains in our A frame. We had to backtrack a bit to get to our destination for the day. First, we needed to find food which proved to be exceedingly difficult. We ended up at a small grocery store just over the Arizona border where not one person was wearing a mask. After waiting about 25 minutes at a food truck in the parking lot for a simple salad (literally plain black beans with shredded lettuce on top), we got on the road. We drove to Zion and hiked the Canyon Overlook Trail through a canyon leading to one of the iconic Zion views. On our way out of the park we got dinner at a Cafe Soleil which had some gluten free options. We got back to the A frame just before dark and made a fire as the sun set on the mountains. *Lesson of the day: get back to your campsite early if you want to have a leisurely dinner and make a fire. We succeeded in this and were very happy for it even though it meant less time at Zion.

Tuesday: BRYCE CANYON. We got up and drove to Bryce Canyon, which we thought was going to be a stopover on the way to Escalante. *Lesson of the day: you really can only do one location per day. And really each park deserves a whole day, week, or month. Bryce Canyon was absolutely spectacular. It is otherworldly and impossible to describe. The elevation gets up to 9,100 feet which was a big deal since Emory has sickle cell trait which can be activated at high elevations (he was hospitalized years ago on vacation with his friend in Machu Picchu and had to immediately get to lower elevation and fly home). So on this day we learned that as long as he does not exercise strenuously, he can visit high elevations. This was a big win! After we were done taking in the views, we drove to the small town of Escalante to a cute family run place called Ponderosa Inn. Each room was themed and ours was called the Alpha Room. Wolf decor covered every surface and it was clean. What more can you ask of a place you’re going to sleep for one night? Most of the restaurants and the one grocery store were closed for the season but we were able to get a mediocre salad and Emory got pizza at this place. We still don’t know how locals eat.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Wednesday: ESCALANTE. We got up and tried unsuccessfully to find food until someone told us there might be a hotel kitchen open across town. We ended up in the lobby of a hotel with a sad continental breakfast situation. The person working there said we could have some hot water and tea for free and we took a couple instant oatmeal packets and ate it in the car. It was pitiful. Fueled up on stolen oatmeal, we backtracked a half hour to get to Willis Slot Creek Canyon. This might have been my favorite day of the trip. The drive into Escalante was unlike the other parks we visited. There was no payment booth or visitor center, it was just an empty dirt road into seemingly endless wilderness. The feeling of freedom from the winding dirt roads which led up to a plateau with the most incredible 360 degree view I’ve ever seen, was a great way to start the day. We arrived at the slot canyon parking lot about a 30 minute drive into the Escalante national monument. The slot canyon started almost immediately off the parking area and we only saw a handful of people in our 3 hours of walking through the canyon. Around every turn the views were more and more spectacular. Underfoot were opalescent, pink, orange and green stones. Escalante is the last place in the US to be mapped, and many dinosaur bones have been found on this land. Being there really felt like stepping back in time. After a day of walking in the canyons, we headed to Torrey, Utah for the night. This was a long drive very quickly gaining in elevation right over top of a mountain. Feeling queasy, I popped a dramamine and handed over the driving to Emory. We arrived at the Red Sands hotel right as the sun was setting. High on dramamine, I could barely form a sentence as we were checking in and crashed on the bed as soon as we got to our room. Somewhere in and out of a blackout, Emory arrived with gluten free pizza and the day was complete.

About 9,000 feet. Somewhere between Escalante and Arches.

We took a wrong turn right after we stopped at this mountain cave gas station.

Thursday: ARCHES. Tired from all the driving by this point, we got a late start. We got breakfast at what can only be considered a miracle: The Wild Rabbit. A cafe with lots of gluten free options, a delicious breakfast menu, a legit matcha, and homemade jam. Not sure when we would find food again, we loaded up on sandwiches and got on the road. Somewhere after the gas station in the mountain, we took a wrong turn and ended up driving 30 minutes in the wrong direction. Luckily, there were amazing vistas the whole drive. Several hours, and countless breathtaking, alien vistas later, we arrived in Moab, Utah. We drove into Arches and hiked up to Delicate Arch. I wasn’t feeling bold, so opted not to stand on the edge of the sloping cliff for a photo op. On our way out of the park we stopped at Balanced Rock and watched the setting sun turn the rocks orange and fade into the mountains beyond the desert. We drove a few minutes into Moab to find dinner and ended up at my holy grail when traveling: a well stocked health food store. We bought some prepared food and ate it at our hotel.

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Friday: HOT SPRINGS. We drove from Moab to Glenwood Springs. This town is halfway between Moab and Denver. One of the things I wanted to do in Colorado was go to a hot spring. And there were a few in Glenwood Springs, as you might imagine based on the name. We immediately went out to visit a dispensary after dropping our bags at our hotel. I had never been to one before and it did not disappoint. The one we found which had good ratings was an entire house. We checked in downstairs by showing our IDs and then were sent upstairs where there were two people working behind glass. They were all super friendly and energetic (I want what they’re smoking) and we got some mostly CBD gummies. We each took a gummy and went to Iron Mountain Hot Springs to soak for a couple hours. It was a perfect, relaxing way to spend our last night of vacation. For dinner we ate at The Pullman, which serves solid American fare. We were so relieved to have food options to choose from.

Saturday: Drove to Denver for our red eye. Wanted to do a trail ride this day but most places were closed for the season. I was apprehensive about our drive through 11,000 feet, having felt bad at much lower altitude, so I wanted to get it over with. By then end of the week I was sick of feeling sick. I was sorry to blow through Colorado as I have some friends who live there, but the last day of a trip always a little anxious. So we got to Denver in the early evening and had a leisurely dinner at a friend’s house, followed by a disco nap in their basement, before we headed to the airport.

Notes:

Bring a good moisturizer and chapstick, you will use a lot of it at high altitude.
Dramamine + chlorophyl + cbd = a pretty good fix for altitude and car sickness.
I’d recommend to do the trip in reverse—stock up on food in Colorado, and head to Utah.
I’d also make more time to hike in each place, or try to do less places. The driving got old pretty quick.
This would be a great trip to do in 2 weeks, not 6 days.
Going in the off season was great because there were no crowds, but a lot of food options and recreation opportunities were closed.

All in all, we had a fantastic time and I felt so grateful to be able to take this trip. Utah is a special, stunning, varied corner of the world that should be experienced if you get the opportunity. If you are someone who travels, I think it’s important to see what your own country has to offer, not just to travel internationally. To see the deep interior of America is to know its singular, breathtaking beauty, is to appreciate the part of our history that had the foresight to preserve some of our natural treasures, and it is also to understand truly what a food desert is, to drive through a reservation and understand what life is like for Indigenous Americans, or Trump flag waving Americans who believe they are living their best life while their house falls down around them. We joked about having popcorn for lunch three days in a row, but it was not lost on me that real food scarcity is a daily reality for many. If 2020 has taught me anything, it is that we need more empathy and to grow our ability to see through someone else’s eyes.