Life On the Road Update Week 3 – Traveling in Utah

Yeesh! Life on the Road Week 3 has FLOWN by! Dewey joined us last Thursday for a week while we are traveling in Utah. It’s been great having him around though adding one more person to tiny camper living has been interesting. Much of our day is spent moving things from one surface to another to function. I’ve been sleeping with my purse and backpack on my feet for a week. All the shuffling is worth it, though, because we were missing the daddy!

He joined us in Cedar City, Utah. As we were heading out of town, we hit up the petroglyphs in Perowan Gap and Brians Head Peak. Both were cool to see but didn’t take a ton of time.

Since Dewey was with us, we decided to stay in Zion National Park the entire time other than his first night (he arrived earlier than first planned). In hindsight, I would not make that decision again. Zion is amazing but we didn’t need 6 days there. The mandatory bus system to get you into and out of the park grates on you as the days pass. You park on the road in the town near the gate and take a bus to the gate. Then you que up to get on another bus that takes you to stops within the park. The process is LONG. To get to the last stop in the park can take you up to an hour and 15 minutes. Then you hike for an hour and have to ride a bus to another part of the park. I totally understand why the busses are needed but it does not leave you feeling at one with nature.

Yesterday was our best day here by far. We did the hike from the Zion Lodge up the Grotto Trail to the Upper and Lower Emerald pools. We then took the Kayenta trail to the Grotto trail head. It was a great hike and not too easy and not too hard. We saw lots of cool scenery, a few pools, some weeping rocks and lots of squirrels. There are a few hikes that Zion is known for but they were a bit out of our desire or ability level (walking through freezing water or huge drop offs anyone?). You can check out the different Zion Hiking Trails.

When we got back to the bus, we were done with the park. Dewey decided we should head back to the car, reenter the park and drive the Zion-Mt. Carmel highway. It is a super cool drive that I highly reccomend. It has tons of switchbacks and a tunnel with galleries blasted in the side so you can see the scenery as you go through it. It is a marvel of engineering and I can’t believe that it was built in the 1920s!

Leaving the park by the East Gate, we decided to keep going and check out the Coral Pink Sands State Park. It is a tiny little park with giant pink/orange sand dunes that you can explore. For me, seeing sand dunes is a beach thing so my brain did not expect to see them in the middle of Utah! It was interesting to see the plants that grew on the smaller sand dunes on the edges compared to the large, active sand dunes in the middle with no signs of life. We saw lots of animal tracks throughout including lizard, rodent and what we thought might be a snake track! Plants also left tracks from being blown back and forth in the wind.

Walking was not easy so we decided to forgo climbing up the largest dune. Instead, we watched as two girls rode down on their snowboard. Such a cool yet alien looking place to visit. It was a bit off the beaten path but it made our day. Dewey found this little gem for us. I hadn’t even heard of it!

We finished up the day with dinner in Arizona (right by the border…part of our loop route back to Zion). Cooper was back at the trailer waiting for us to get home and take him for a walk. I think he likes the little trailer because he can see it all and when his people are home, he can sit on them as much as he wants….they have no where else to go.

So week 3 is in the books and we’re heading to Week 4. I wonder where it will take us! I think we are done traveling in Utah. It’s been an awesome few weeks.

Check out all our update posts here. You can also follow along on FB and Instagram (sometimes the pics will be the same because it is easier with our craptastic internet).