Jay A

New Member
Utah and the edges of its neighbors
My girlfriend and I hit the road in mid-March with plans to hit everything we could possibly hit in Utah and its neighbors. No hotel/lodging reviews here - we slept mostly in the car and in our tent. Boy did we cover a lot of miles though.

Day 1
We started in Portland OR and the plan was to cut through Oregon and Nevada driving through the night so we could start our first morning at the southwest tip of Utah. Unfortunately in our tiredness we neglected to pay attention to the fuel indicator and ran out of gas in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. The sun was just rising as we pulled off the road to discover we had run out of gas next to a random hot spring! We checked it out for an hour or two and went back to the car to be miraculously met by a road crew that happened to be driving by with a tank of gas. The travel gods were clearly looking out and we were on our way again.
Day 2
We arrived at what was meant to be destination number one: the Anasazi Petroglyphs in southwest Utah. Beautiful short hikes into the red cliffs and mountains of Utah where you will find ancient carvings scattered along the rock walls. A must see but I wouldn't budget more than a half day for this one. The rest of day 2 was spent getting to Zion National Park and settled into a tent.
Day 3
Zion. If you haven't been, stop reading and go. This was our second time visiting and the weather wasn't great so didn't stay as long as I'd ordinarily recommend. If you only have a day I'd recommend knocking out the two most iconic hikes - Angel's Landing and Observation Point - but an entire week could be spent between here and the underrated annex Kolob Canyon. We Only did Angel's landing again this go around plus a few side hikes we didn't get to last time. I'd also recommend evenings be spent getting food and drink in beautiful Springdale.
Day 4
Day 4 was a super boring half-marathon that wound through muddy pastures with a view of exactly nothing - despite being less than 10 minutes from the main park. I don't want to talk about it. This picture of the tent sites provided for the run alongside our tent site 10 minutes away at Zion should illustrate my point. So glad I opted out of the provided tent site!
Day 5
Back on the road. We headed east along the southern border of Utah dropping momentarily into Arizona for a day hike through Buckskin Gulch, a look at Lake Powell, Monument Valley as the sun went down, and finally Four Corners, where we slept in the car.
Day 6
Weird. Weather. We left Four Corners bright and early and drove the remaining hour or so to Mesa Verde National Park on the border of Utah and Colorado. The weather here was all over the place, changing from sunny to foggy to literally snowing several times throughout the day. This is a must for everyone at some point and would recommend at least two days here. We saw it all in one but it meant scrambling and skipping all of the tours - which I hear are amazing. Skipping tours was made easier by the fact they were all canceled due to weather. ;) The park is a collection of ancient ruins left by Native Americans who built elaborate stone brick dwellings IN the cliffs of the landscape. You'll see thousands of years of architectural progress through the park, spanning simple pit houses on the mesas on up to the later more sophisticated brick buildings in the cliffs.
Day 7
We spent the rest of day 6 rushing to Moab with a quick stop at Newspaper Rock National Monument. This is a giant stone "message board" filled with petroglyphs and carvings thought to be left by generations of travelers as they migrated through the pass. Upon arrival in Moab we slept in the car and set about finding a viable campsite up near Canyonlands National Park, where we then spent the day hiking. Below is a collection of pictures from Newspaper Rock, Dead Horse Point State Park, and Canyonlands National Park.
 
Last edited:

Jay A

New Member
Utah and the edges of its neighbors
My girlfriend and I hit the road in mid-March with plans to hit everything we could possibly hit in Utah and its neighbors. No hotel/lodging reviews here - we slept mostly in the car and in our tent. Boy did we cover a lot of miles though.

Day 1
We started in Portland OR and the plan was to cut through Oregon and Nevada driving through the night so we could start our first morning at the southwest tip of Utah. Unfortunately in our tiredness we neglected to pay attention to the fuel indicator and ran out of gas in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. The sun was just rising as we pulled off the road to discover we had run out of gas next to a random hot spring! We checked it out for an hour or two and went back to the car to be miraculously met by a road crew that happened to be driving by with a tank of gas. The travel gods were clearly looking out and we were on our way again.




Day 2
We arrived at what was meant to be destination number one: the Anasazi Petroglyphs in southwest Utah. Beautiful short hikes into the red cliffs and mountains of Utah where you will find ancient carvings scattered along the rock walls. A must see but I wouldn't budget more than a half day for this one. The rest of day 2 was spent getting to Zion National Park and settled into a tent.




Day 3
Zion. If you haven't been, stop reading and go. This was our second time visiting and the weather wasn't great so didn't stay as long as I'd ordinarily recommend. If you only have a day I'd recommend knocking out the two most iconic hikes - Angel's Landing and Observation Point - but an entire week could be spent between here and the underrated annex Kolob Canyon. We Only did Angel's landing again this go around plus a few side hikes we didn't get to last time. I'd also recommend evenings be spent getting food and drink in beautiful Springdale.






Day 4
Day 4 was a super boring half-marathon that wound through muddy pastures with a view of exactly nothing - despite being less than 10 minutes from the main park. I don't want to talk about it. This picture of the tent sites provided for the run alongside our tent site 10 minutes away at Zion should illustrate my point. So glad I opted out of the provided tent site!



Day 5
Back on the road. We headed east along the southern border of Utah dropping momentarily into Arizona for a day hike through Buckskin Gulch, a look at Lake Powell, Monument Valley as the sun went down, and finally Four Corners, where we slept in the car.






Day 6
Weird. Weather. We left Four Corners bright and early and drove the remaining hour or so to Mesa Verde National Park on the border of Utah and Colorado. The weather here was all over the place, changing from sunny to foggy to literally snowing several times throughout the day. This is a must for everyone at some point and would recommend at least two days here. We saw it all in one but it meant scrambling and skipping all of the tours - which I hear are amazing. Skipping tours was made easier by the fact they were all canceled due to weather. ;) The park is a collection of ancient ruins left by Native Americans who built elaborate stone brick dwellings IN the cliffs of the landscape. You'll see thousands of years of architectural progress through the park, spanning simple pit houses on the mesas on up to the later more sophisticated brick buildings in the cliffs.





Day 7
We spent the rest of day 6 rushing to Moab with a quick stop at Newspaper Rock National Monument. This is a giant stone "message board" filled with petroglyphs and carvings thought to be left by generations of travelers as they migrated through the pass. Upon arrival in Moab we slept in the car and set about finding a viable campsite up near Canyonlands National Park, where we then spent the day hiking. Below is a collection of pictures from Newspaper Rock, Dead Horse Point State Park, and Canyonlands National Park.




Yuck. None of the picture links worked aaaaand I definitely don't have time to fix it today. To anyone reading this: pictures and a part 2 to come after I figure out how to technology.
 

italdesign

Level 2 Member
No hotel/lodging reviews here - we slept mostly in the car and in our tent.
With some creativity, it can be done.

"Upon arriving at the accommodation, which was FREE thanks to our hard-learned travel hacking skills, check-in couldn't have been easier. No need to talk to a check-in agent or even swipe a credit card, I simply opened the door to my room, and there it was. A little small and it lacked a marble counter like the Park Hyatt Vendome, but the bed was better than those angle flat business class beds, and I had more storage space."

Sounds like a great trip, BTW.
 
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