We’ve traveled back and forth to Tucson several times with the trailer, we finally added a side trip to southern Utah in October 2020. We’re self-contained when we travel with our trailer, so during Covid-19 we isolate on the road and activities are outside with masks on!
First stop Moab! What a thoroughly delightful town! In addition to its proximity to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dead Horse Canyon State Park the small town itself is lively and eclectic.
Traffic in and out of Arches National Park can be terrible, so we rose early to get to the park with the added benefit of seeing sunrise on the sandstone.
Moab has a lively restaurant scene. We’d eaten home cooked meals for a week by the time we reached Moab so we jumped at the chance to have someone else cook and serve us at the outside patios.
While Moab’s known for mountain biking, we took a bike ride on the Moab Canyon Pathway, 9 miles one way with a 509 ft climb out, then a speedy coast back.
About a half hour drive out of Moab, Dead Horse Point State Park is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. Legend has it that Dead Horse Point State Park’s name derives from wild horse round ups that penned horses in the canyon. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below. (I hope that’s just a legend.)
Canyon Lands National Park is a bit past Dead Horse Point, it’s a huge park of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, spires and more.
Our next stop was Capitol Reef National Park, after the vastness and busyness of Arches and Canyonlands, Capitol Reef was a lot less crowded and smaller. We attempted a bike ride up the Scenic Drive but after the third seven degree hill we called it turn around time.
Early settlers established the town Fruita along the Fremont River in a beautiful valley inside what’s now Capitol Reef. A few buildings and several producing orchards remain
Our next park was Bryce Canyon National Park which is really otherworldly. The main hike is the Queen’s Garden Trail which takes you from the top to the bottom of the hoodoos in the Bryce Amphitheater.
Our final National Park stop was Zion National Park. Auto access to the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive is restricted, shuttle bus tickets are required to reach trails. Of course we didn’t have tickets, so we biked the drive.
We parked our car in town just outside the park entrance and rode into the park, the Scenic Drive was six-ish medium-ly uphill miles to the end of the road and the famous Narrows. There was a steady stream of people going to and coming from the river start of the Narrows.
The bike back was a sweet downhill with stops at the lodge and Emerald Pools. Exiting the park we were hoping to eat at the first place we hit, the Canyon Brewery but the wait was insane. We came back the next night and were introduced to french fries with Chimichurri Sauce an Argentinian sauce/marinade made with chopped parsley and tangy from vinegar and lime juice.
Just outside of Zion, there’s a ghost town…
Grafton Ghost Town was first settled in 1859. Settlers struggled with devastating floods and native Americans protecting their lands from the intruders. The town was abandoned gradually in the first half of the 20th century. In 1997 a partnership was organized to protect, preserve and restore the Grafton Townsite.
What would have been our final day at Zion found temperatures projected to dropping below freezing and high winds, so we decided to hit the road for the warmth of Arizona before that started. Loved Utah though!
