NOVEMBER 2015

Michael and I set off on a great adventure to visit the “Mighty Five” national parks of Utah to get some much needed time away and to celebrate two things (our sixth wedding anniversary and our newly discovered pregnancy). We spent months laying out the perfect trip, and the week of Thanksgiving, we packed up the Ford Edge and our beloved sidekick Dexter, and made the journey. Driving across Kansas, as always, proved a long and miserable journey of “never” changing scenery and flat roads (although we did get some nice sunsets). We were energized by the vacation days, and we listened to the Harry Potter books on audio, so it made for a nice start to the trip. Our first destination was Denver, where we’d pick up our RV and head towards Utah. We arrived in Denver late at night and stayed in the Element hotel. The weather took a nasty turn on us with snow and extreme ice, so it added awhile to the journey.

The Element hotel was nice, modern, and dog friendly. Dexter was all out-of-sorts, and he wasn’t sure what he thought of the hallway’s passersby. They had a large continental breakfast that we devoured, and then we headed across Denver to pick up the RV. Our little RV did a pretty good job going through the mountains of Colorado, puttering up and down the steep roads. As you’d expect with Colorado, there was beautiful scenery along the way, especially with the recent blizzard. It is impressive how quickly the men and women working the snow plows are able to clear the roads. We stopped in Avon at a restaurant Michael visited a lot growing up, Northside Kitchen, and we enjoyed burgers on the Benderz Burger side of the building.

After many hours, we hit the Utah state line and made way towards Moab. We had reservations at ACT Campground where we were able to easily pull up, park the RV, and sleep for the night. It took some time to figure out all the intricacies of the RV, but we got all of our bags and food unpacked and set up shop. I tried to sleep in the tiny little bed with Michael, but started feeling super claustrophobic (later I realized it may have been the earlier nauseous of pregnancy). I kicked Dexter out of the table bed and curled up there.

The first park on our list was Arches National Park. I have a new goal to go to all the US National Parks, and I purchased my handy park passport, so I could get all my stamps. I’m aware this isn’t nearly as cool as stamps from countries, but while I’m working full time, this will have to do. We also purchased an annual park pass since we were going to five parks on this trip alone (and it was ultimately cheaper than individual entrance fees). Arches National Park was filled with cool formations, curvy roads, and a lot of red rock. Moab (the location of Arches National Park) is home to so many adventurous outdoor activities (ATV riding, hiking, motor biking, mountain biking, canyoneering, rock climbing, river activities, etc.). We drove all around the park, hiked, and took pictures. I was bummed that the parks didn’t allow dogs, but we found places along the way for Dexter to take some much needed breaks from the RV. We also visited Dead Horse Point State Park (which was super beautiful, and I highly recommend it). We continued to drive around until the sun went down, pulling off into campgrounds to make lunch and map out our next route.

The next morning we woke up at daylight and made our way to Canyonlands National Park. As you might expect, the views of the canyons were amazing, especially with the morning sun hitting them. It didn’t take long to go through Canyonlands, so we headed on over to Capitol Reef National Park. Dexter was such a good sport through all the car riding and curves. He’d rather go through that than us leave him at home.

Capitol Reef National Park was really cool in its own way. We were surprised at how different all the parks were so far, and all were named appropriately. Arches, as you’d expect, had cool formations and arches that you maneuvered through to see each one. Canyonlands had pull off points were you could see deep and breathtaking canyons for miles. Capitol Reef was a drive-through park where you could explore the valley and see amazing/large rock structures along the way. The colors in the rocks had interesting lines and patterns, and I could see where they got the “reef” in the name. We pulled over in the park and had a nice lunch in a campground and let Dexter out on a long leash for an extended period of time. There was a cold and refreshing river throughout the campground. The park is prone to large floods, and I could believe that after seeing the rush of the river and the gully around us (creating real gully washers).

Our drive from Capitol Reef was through a Dixie National Forest, and it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was completely unexpected, and it had some jaw-dropping scenic pull-offs.

We got to Bryce Canyon National Park by sunset, and got to see some stellar sights with the sun hitting off the sides of the canyon, and the sun setting. It got really chilly once the sun went down, so we set up camp in the park and turned the heat on for the night. We woke up early and drove through the entire park, stopping at all the pull-offs and admiring the unique pillars and patterns in the landscape. We got up early enough that we got to see the sun rise on the other side of the canyon. At this point, I started feeling pretty sick/nauseous, probably a combination of too much time in the RV, winding roads, and early pregnancy hormones.

Capitol Reef National Park

Zion National Park was really incredible. It had a little bit of everything. We drove through winding tunnels, cutting it close to the edge with the size of our RV, saw amazing rock formations, deep canyons, and just beautiful landscapes in general. We stopped at several places to take pictures and take in the views. I’ve heard Zion has some amazing trails, and from the looks of the surroundings this would be the case. Neither of us were feeling up to strenuous hikes (nor did we have the gear), so we took some of the shorter strolls. I’ll have to come back some day to experience the hiking. 

All five parks were incredible, and Utah is lucky to have such natural beauty all packed into one state. This is a trip that could take months to experience everything because it has so much to offer. We ranked our favorite parks as follows: Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Arches.

We made the long, long journey back through Colorado and Kansas. We felt free once we returned the RV in Denver and got our car back. We arrived back in Kansas City to celebrate some of Thanksgiving with Michael’s family and get settled before returning back to work the following Monday.

If you ever get a chance to do this drive through Utah, do it.