I Found My Heart in Utah

My Top Three Must Sees in Utah

As my chapter in Colorado came to an end, the proceeding chapter in Utah was being written. Heading North to Wyoming was the original plan, however the temperamental weather had different plans for me. Looking for warmer passage, Utah was the superior choice, and had just as much to offer a lone adventurer.

Moab

My first stop in Utah was the small desert-mountain town of Moab. I had heard so many amazing things from friends about Moab, and so I was ecstatic to get there.

Moab reminded me of my hometown in Pennsylvania – just trade the black coal hills for the red rocks, and voila! Moab has a ton of off road trails for ATVs and jacked up trucks – just like my hometown. It’s a small town where the locals all seem to know each other. The main difference, Moab is well kept and thriving, whereas Mt. Carmel is disintegrating and withering.

To give you an idea of the local vibe there requires a quick story. One evening after hiking for several hours, I stopped in a bar/restaurant to refuel. The bar was surprisingly packed for a weeknight, and the bar stools were close together. I sat next to a guy who was a little younger than me. Because we were sitting so close, I was a little self conscious because I was dirty, sweaty, and smelly from hiking all day. I turned to the guy and said, sorry if I smell, and explained why. He just laughed and said welcome to Moab, we’re all dirtbags here! That wasn’t the response I was expecting, but it couldn’t have been more perfect. After chatting with him and spending the week there, I realized the town was full of climbers, base jumpers, bikers, hikers, skydivers, van-lifers, and a few other ‘ers’. It makes for a lot of sweaty, dirty, smelly, carefree, adventurous, earthly, worldly people who don’t give a f**k what you’re wearing or how you smell! My kind of people 🙂

Arches National Park

If you go to Moab, you literally have to go to the Arches National Park. It’s a quick drive from the city, or you can camp within the park itself. I mentioned in a different post that I thought the Flatirons in Boulder was the coolest hike I’ve done but have since found others that surpassed it… well I was referring to this park.

There are tons of other hikes nearby that are outside of the park – some with waterfalls, pools, caves, and petroglyphs. Others are set up for 4×4 vehicles that can also be done on foot. All of them were unique and breathtaking, and made me realize that I was falling for Utah! It’s hard to put my finger on it, but there’s something magical about the mountains in Moab and throughout Utah that I’ve never experienced previously. I still have many other places on my bucket list to see during this adventure, but Utah is a top contender as a place to settle.

Ideally, I recommend taking 2 – 3 days to explore as much of the park as possible. If I remember correctly, it took about 30 minutes to drive to the furthest trail if going directly to the end point – and there’s tons to see in between.

The first day I decided to drive to the end and hike Devils Garden, which is one of the longest trails there and has 5 or so Arches. Part of the trail is supposed to be more ‘off grid’ with less visible trail markings. Leave it to me, I ended up hiking in the wrong direction, however it was way more interesting that way. For the first 4 miles or so, I didn’t see a single person and I was able to experience deep silence that’s hard to find – and it was blissful.

Since I did the trail backwards, it’s hard to say how well it’s actually marked but I did get off track at least 10 times. Luckily the trail is marked on google maps, so I wasn’t worried when it happened. My sense of direction is decent, however I don’t recommend following the footprints in the sand because that’s mainly what caused me to go astray. There are a ton of false trails that other people have accidentally gone down, which gives you a false sense of confidence that you’re on the correct path. Seems like a analogy for life…. something about making your own path, and don’t follow along where the majority of others are heading.. you get the idea.

In other areas of the trail, the path stretches up large boulders and rocks which don’t exactly leave visible footprints. Because of the angles, and maybe because I was going backwards, there were times I was looking at the GPS for where I was supposed to go, and when I looked in that direction I thought to myself “there’s NO way I’m going up that!”. It took some backtracking and exploration to figure out where and how to continue on the trail in certain areas.

The trail had some markings made of stacked stones, which seemed to jump out at me in those scenarios I couldn’t visibly see where I needed to go. In one such area, I climbed up a rocky surface and saw even higher up where I needed to go. This was about the midway point, and also the most difficult part of the trail for me. I had to shimmy my way up a rock and attempted to continue up the steep rocky surface. It seemed out of my skill level at this point to get over this rocky mountain, but I tried anyways.

On my first attempt, I crawled on my hands and knees thinking somehow I’d be safer that way. When I got to the middle of the rocky incline, I froze with fear and decided to turn around and back down, which was just as terrifying as going up. After I calmed down, and thought I was defeated and had to turn around, a couple hikers popped up at the top of the mountain where I was trying to get to.

They were the first people I saw on the trail after being alone for almost 2 hours. It was one of those moments where I felt like the universe provided me help when I needed it the most! I told them where I got stuck and was about to turn around, and they offered to help me try again! They were much more experienced climbers than I was, and they pointed out where I should step and how to dig my toes into the rock. It made such a huge difference… also, don’t hike / climb on your hands and knees – it’s the worst thing you can do. With their guidance I made it to the top, conquered my fears, and was able to finish the trail. It was a rewarding experience in more ways than one!

Later down the trail, I crossed paths with a girl in her 20’s who was also hiking alone. We stopped to chat for a second about what was up ahead, since we were going in opposite directions. She was impressed that I was hiking alone, and said that her parents got stuck on the trail and so decided to go ahead by herself for the first time! She asked if I wanted to hike along with her, and even though I backtracked a little bit, decided to go for it!

I’m glad I did, because she was so sweet and we were immediate friends! We finished the rest of the hike together, saw some of the coolest parts of the trail, and made it back to her family just as it was getting too dark to hike. It was more meaningful to share the beauty of the park with someone else, and to see each other push through our fears along the scary parts of the trail!

Zion National Park

My next stop in Utah was Zion National Park. You can camp right within the park, however I stayed about 20 minutes outside in a small town called Hurricane.

This park is a little different from the others I’ve been to because there’s a shuttle that runs throughout and stops at a few specific locations. If you happen to have a small car, you can try to drive through the park yourself, however parking is very limited and tight. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to park anywhere if I had my Airstream hooked up. Luckily the shuttles are super convenient and run every few minutes, so I didn’t need to worry about finding parking near the trails.

What I found most mesmerizing about Zion was the contrast between the tall, warm colored rocky mountains and the low, lush, green valleys that supported life and growth near the water. It was another reminder to me that life on earth as we know it wouldn’t be the same without water. In a way, water is life.

The biggest draw to Zion is the permit-only hike called Angel’s Landing. I didn’t get a chance to hike it this time, however there are tons of other beautiful trails that are worth checking out in the park, and outside of it too.

After I finished a day of hiking in Zion, I stopped for food in another small town in an area called Virgin. As I was enjoying a warm meal and a delicious margarita, a guy in his 30’s sat next to me and we started chatting. He was also a nomad of sorts, and lived in vans for a few years. He was into all kinds of things I had no experience with, like film making, photography, stargazing, and the list goes on. I was intrigued, because I love learning new things and especially what other people are passionate about.

He was kind enough to invite me to a stargazing session (he helped create the business) and I took him up on the offer. It was a very cold, dark night when we went, but the stars and planets were able to show off and shine in the moon’s absence.

The set-up was awesome – they had large, cozy bean-bag chairs laid out for the guests with blankets and binoculars waiting. There was a table with hot chocolate, tea, and stickers. The coolest part was the telescopes – they had 4 or 5 set up and focused in on different objects in space. Some I’ve never even heard of, and others like the rings of Saturn, seemed almost fake! It was a pretty amazing experience to see and learn from an astronomer who lead the session. It’s not everyday you meet someone who studies space and is so passionate about it. At the end of the session, there was a photographer there to take your picture with the amazing backdrop of a million, billion stars! It was quite an experience, and I felt so blessed to have such an opportunity from a chance meeting of sitting next to someone at a bar.

A few days later, I met up with him again for an off-the-map hike of Zion. There are other ways to access the park that are lesser known, and don’t require a park pass. The trail we hiked paralleled a stream, and had multiple pools that were deep enough to swim in. The weather was still pretty hot at this point, but the water was cold enough to take your breath away. We jumped into 2 different pools, and one of them was from a few feet up. The trail was better than any you could find within the park, especially because no one else was around and there were no restrictions for swimming.

My week in Zion was especially memorable to me, and the memories will remain close to my heart. It was the first time in my travels that a complete stranger took me under their wing, and was so giving without any expectation of self gain. He so willingly showed me the best parts of the area, it was like I had an unofficial tour guide. His kindness and generosity opened my heart and my eyes to the fact that there are amazing people out there who will treat you well if you let them.

People don’t often realize that it’s harder to receive love than it is to give love. Most of us are subconsciously taught that love is conditional – children get rewarded for good grades, behaving well, and following in their parent’s footsteps career wise. We think we have to be and act a certain way to be accepted and loved. When you experience kindness without any expectation of being a certain way, or doing anything in return, it changes you. I feel like I remembered my value because of a single person’s selfless actions. If more people were kind just for the sake of being kind, the world would be a much more peaceful, happy, healthy place.

Bryce Canyon National Park

After an amazing week in the Zion area, I headed to the Bryce Canyon area. It’s only about a 90 minute or so drive from Zion, but the weather was drastically different, and I wasn’t mentally prepared for it! It went from summer-like weather to 3 inches of snow and freezing temperatures at night time. On the bright side, I learned a ton about how my airstream handles colder weather and the precautions needed to keep things from breaking. The biggest lesson, cold weather camping sucks lol!

The most amazing thing about Utah is how drastically different the landscape is from area to area. The mountains in Moab, Zion, and Bryce were all so different from each other and breathtaking in their own way. I couldn’t believe how different Bryce was from Zion, especially since they’re so close together.

I didn’t get to see as much of Bryce as I would have hoped because of how cold the weather was. Just an hour hiking in cooler temperatures is so exhausting for me, even being bundled up. Luckily you can still see some amazing views without really needing to hike at all.

The park has a main trail that runs along the perimeter and looks down into the Canyon. There are a few drive up locations with absolutely stunning views. I decided to do a longer hike on a slightly warmer day, called Fairyland. It was like being transported to a different planet or point in time, because of how unique the rock structures were.

It took me around 3.5 hours to complete the 6 mile or so loop. I started getting worried about hiking in the dark, so at some points in the trail I jogged a bit to save on time. Because the hike went into the Canyon, there were some very steep inclines and declines and dramatic temperature changes. I ended up finishing just as the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Towards the end of the hike, I saw a family of deer that were not afraid of me. A buck, 3 doe, and a fawn, all seemed just as curious about me as I was of them.

Overall it was a peaceful, beautiful, and unique hike. I’d love to go back to Bryce when the weather is warmer, although seeing it with a little bit of snow coverage was quite enchanting!

A little kindness goes a long way.