Utah - June 2022
Utah is one of my favorite states.
The first time I went to Utah was in 2015, on spring break with a couple friends from dental school. On that trip, we flew into Vegas, drove in the middle of the night to get to Zion and spent a couple days at Zion National Park.
Since then, I’ve wanted to return and explore more of the beautiful state. Utah is known for “the Mighty Five”: Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks. Many people visit all five in a single road trip.
At the end of 2021, I learned about a dental course that was going to be hosted by one of the biggest names in dentistry, whose headquarters is in Utah, and the lecturer is one of the biggest educators in dental sleep medicine. I took this as an opportunity to advance my knowledge and bring something back to my practice, but also to take a couple extra days and explore more of Utah.
I called up my travel buds - my husband and my cousin - and we planned some adventures before heading to the dental course at the end of the week.
Itinerary
Day 1:
We took an evening flight to Salt Lake City, landed late and spent the first night in a (kind of shady) hotel.
Day 2:
Before starting our drive into the desert, we went to the grocery store to pick up provisions for the week. Our first stop was Goblin Valley State Park, which is an hour and a half outside of Moab and known for its hoodoos. The hoodoos are formed by wind eroding the sandstone. We hiked the Valley of Goblins and the Goblin’s Lair Trail. We only spent a couple hours here, but in the future, I’d love to camp here during the New Moon. Goblin Valley is an International Dark Sky Park. We continued onward to Moab, checked into our VRBO - super cute and comfortable, but sadly is no longer available - before heading to the Blu Pig BBQ (would not recommend).
Day 3:
We spent our first full day in Moab at Canyonlands National Park. I honestly didn’t have much expectation for Canyonlands - I didn’t know what to expect. It wasn’t a NP that was high on my list to visit, but since we were in the area, of course we had to! Arches usually gets all the fame of the Moab area, but man is Canyonlands beautiful! The vastness of the canyon leaves me speechless.
We hiked Shafer Overlook (0.44mi - a quickie, but with great views), Mesa Arch (2.07mi), Grand View Point (3.01mi) and Upheaval Dome (2.26mi).
We went back into town and picked up pizza from Antica Forma, to enjoy dinner while watching the sunset at Dead Horse Point State Park. (Side note: Antica Forma passes the Kevin Pizza Approval Test).
Day 4:
Bright and early at 6AM, we met up with our guides, Faith and Aaron with Moab Cliffs and Canyons for a rock climbing experience we had booked in advance. (I learned after the fact that Faith Dickey is a really cool and inspirational human being - she is a professional high liner, as well as a guide for rock climbing, mountaineering and rappelling. She encourages women to enter and excel in the climbing world, and has since opened her own guiding business). Kevin and I have been interested in rock climbing and enjoy it, but it’s hard to make it a consistent part of our lives because our “local” climbing gym is 40 minutes away. Chris, on the other hand, is basically a pro climber. In any case, we were all stoked for this day and to trad climb our first multi-pitch route. It was my first time climbing outdoors, trad climbing (cleaning the cams) and rappelling.
Faith and Aaron drove us to the trailhead. We parked along the river on the side of the road where it seemed like there was nothing special. We hiked up to the base of climb, which took about half an hour. The route we climbed is called Terma, and we climbed a chimney after called the Spear of Destiny.
After our climbing adventure, we went to Antica Forma for lunch (I told you - this pizza is Kevin-approved), then back to our condo to nap. In the afternoon, we stopped at a little food truck park where I got gelato and the boys got coffee. We drove out to Castle Valley to visit Castleton. We admired her from afar, it was too hot to hike up to her - but I would love to climb Castleton at some point if I ever get good enough!
We drove back into town, picked up burritos from Gilibertos, which Faith and Aaron had recommended to us (these burritos lived up to the hype). We set out for a sunset hike at Corona Arch (2.6mi). We got there with plenty of daylight still out, took some photos. As the sun was setting, we enjoyed our burritos and a couple of Coronas. The sun set and the stars came out to play - perfect for some astro in the dark skies of Moab. We had set up the camera, and the three of us were laying there, discussing how small we feel and probably talking about aliens, when Chris turned to the left and said, ‘Oh no, clouds are coming.’ I stopped the camera and repositioned it toward the “clouds” and sure enough, we had had the camera directed the wrong way. We scouted a new spot in the dark to be able to capture the arch and the Milky Way, and luckily had time to get some good shots before it got too windy and too late. Hiking back in the dark was a little sketchy at times, as the hike includes ladders and cables. We were careful and were fine, but hiking back in the dark is not for everyone.
Day 5:
Arches National Park implemented a Timed Entry system, for which you have to reserve, in advance, a time slot to enter the park. Our Timed Entry was between 6-7AM, and we started with the Devil’s Garden Hike (5.85mi) before it got too hot. This hike passes by Landscape Arch, Double O Arch, and we went further down the trail to Dark Angel before turning around. We drove to the Windows Section of the park, to the Parade of Elephants, Turret Arch, the Windows and Double Arch.
The history of how the arches form is quite interesting. 65 million years ago, the whole area was flat. Slowly, the region started rising, exposing the sandstone to erosive forces such as wind and rain. In the wintertime, water in small nooks of rock freezes and unfreezes, expands and contracts and slowly creates small voids in the rock, that can collect more water that freezes, turning these small voids into fins and fins into arches.
In the afternoon, we left the park and went to the Moab Informational Center to pick up our permits for Fiery Furnace the next day. Then we went back to our condo to take a nap. In the evening, we picked up Gilibertos again and set off on another sunset hike, this time to Delicate Arch (2.08mi), the iconic arch of Arches National Park. We were not the only ones who wanted to see Delicate Arch at sunset - it was packed. We were, however, the only people in our area who had the foresight to bring dinner with us. We started hiking down before the sun fully set, and didn’t have to hike much in the dark.
Our final adventure of the day was to attempt astro at Balanced Rock, which is more a pull off on the side of the road than a hike. Despite the people walking through the area and cars passing by, we actually got good shots!
Day 6:
Fiery Furnace is an area within Arches National Park that is filled with slot canyons open to explore. I had booked us permits for Fiery Furnace for our last morning in Moab. Fiery Furnace is different from other hiking trails, as there is no one trail, but instead many possible routes to take, some of which lead to dead ends. It was a lot of fun to explore on our own, knowing there was no right or wrong way to go. We spent a couple hours here - it was nice to be able to take our time, not feel rushed or that you are in people’s way on the trail (as you may sometimes feel on other hiking trails). Also, you’re like in the rocks, in slots, and some of these canyon walls are very tall, it was nicely shaded in most areas.
After our self-guided tour of Fiery Furnace, we had lunch at Devil’s Garden picnic area in Arches NP - shade was hard to come by, so we shared a table with a couple that was van-life-ing across the country.
There is a significant difference in the vibe and culture between the National Parks and local non-National Park areas. As you can imagine, the National Parks are extremely crowded and popular, despite the NPS’s best effort to reduce the influx of people with the Timed Entry reservations. We had asked our climbing guides, Faith and Aaron, for recommendations of local hikes and they recommended Grandstaff Canyon (4.01mi) to Morning Glory Arch. We hiked Grandstaff for our afternoon adventure, and had almost made it to Morning Glory Arch - we could see it from afar - before the rain started coming down. One of the most important guidelines when hiking canyons in the desert is that they can flood quickly, so we turned around so we could get home safely.
We treated ourselves to a sit down dinner at The Spoke on Center, instead of grabbing take out to eat on the trail yet again. They had a great garlic aioli for their burgers - you know me and my love of garlic!
Day 7:
Before leaving Moab, we spent the morning at Fisher Towers. When I was doing research on climbing, one of the routes that interested me was Ancient Art, but I wasn’t sure I had the skill to do it. Even though we didn’t climb it, I wanted to see it. The area of the Fisher Towers was really impressive. You can get up close and personal with the rock towering above you, and across the valley sits Castleton.
We stopped at Sego Canyons to see the “Rock Art” which are petroglyphs. You drive through what seems like a ghost town to get there.
Once we got to Provo, we did another short hike to Bridal Veil Falls (0.75mi). Even though it’s short, the trail was difficult to follow. We climbed up the scree, but there may have been an actual trail that leads you to the same place.
Day 8:
I was in class all day. Provo is where BYU is located, so the boys explored the BYU stadium and visited some museums.
Day 9:
I was in class until 13:00. After which we started heading back to Salt Lake City. We picked up cronuts from Donut Star in preparation for our hike to Donut Falls. I still dream about that cronut, it was so good!
Our final stop before heading to the airport was to Antelope Island State Park which sits on the edge of the Great Salt Lake. We struck up conversation with some locals who were telling us about how much the lake has receded in recent years. We drove around the island and saw a large herd of bison. We stayed out of their way and admired them from a distance. What a neat, unexpected way to end our trip!
Concluding Thoughts
Moab is the desert after all. I recommend getting early starts to beat the heat. We ended up returning to our condo mid-day most days to nap and cool off.