Felt like it was time to get out of the snow for a while so we put the truck camper on the pickup and headed for southern Utah.
Our first stop was Capital Reef. We camped in Fruita campground within the park. We hiked through the tall, narrow canyon of Grand Wash from the scenic drive road out to the main highway and back.
We also hiked a good portion of Capital Gorge, including a side trail to the “tanks”. The pioneer register was neat.
Next stop was Bryce Canyon. I have to say the Queen’s Garden / Navajo Loop Trail was probably the most scenic trail I have EVER been on, period. Truly an amazing place. We stayed at the campground just outside the park. The big campground wasn’t open this early in the year, but there are some sites behind the lodge. We stayed there because they had showers and electric hookups and we needed to recharge. Not a nice campground, just a place to park basically, but like I said we needed to freshen up.
Our next stop took us to Zion. We were blown away by the sheer height of the cliffs. Our favorite hike was the Hidden Canyon hike. On the hike back from Hidden Canyon we went up the trail the other way and found Echo slot canyon along the stream. We climbed into the streambed and walked to the top entrance to the slot canyon and looked in. We didn’t have repel or jumar equipment with us so we couldn’t go in, but we’ll remember it next time for sure. There are good anchors at the top. You can pretty much forget about using GPS on the Hidden Canyon hike, the signal just bounces everywhere.
We also did the Emerald Pools trails across the road from the lodge. The trail was excellent but it was overcrowded with heart-attacks waiting to happen, who wandered over from the lodge.
After Zion, we headed back toward home via I-15 and I-70. That was when the nightmare snowstorm hit us. The drive back took forever. We stopped in the Moab area and camped at Sand Flats. It’s probably our favorite place to basecamp in the world and since we were in the area and tired of driving through a snowstorm, we decided to spend the night.
And of course, the next day as soon as we got east of the divide, we got stuck for hours in Denverite ski traffic, who managed to form a huge pileup in the tunnel just east of Idaho Springs, backing up traffic for miles. Couldn’t stand it anymore and ended up taking Oh My God Road home, not fun in winter. Welcome home I guess.
