The Great American Road Trip: Utah

On July 21, our first order of business for our full day in Salt Lake City was joining a city tour, which left from a hotel downtown just up the street from our first stop: Salt Lake City's Union Station.

According to our tour guide, the train station in Disney's Magic Kingdom (in Orlando) is modeled off this Union Station. I didn't fact check him but I could definitely see it.

Our tour also included going inside the Utah State Capitol. Pennsylvania's capitol building is really opulent and beautiful but Utah definitely gives us a run for our money.

Inside the Utah State Capitol

Utah State Capitol

View of downtown SLC from the capitol steps. The mountains are so close to the city! Also, the square building on the left with the dome on top is the building where Seraph Young Ford cast a ballot in 1870, the first American woman to vote. (The building used to be city hall but it was moved to the capitol grounds in 1961 to preserve it.)

We continued on our tour, driving past the former Fort Douglas, which was closed in 1991 and acquired by the University of Utah, and served as the Olympic village when SLC hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. Our next stop was the This Is the Place Heritage Park and monument. The paragraph below is essentially a history lesson of the Mormon Pioneers, because I couldn't resist sharing what we learned. Feel free to jump over it if you're not interested.

Salt Lake City is basically the epicenter of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), as historically they had not been welcome in many (or any, really) of the other places they attempted to settle. Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, was murdered in 1844, which made it pretty clear to the remaining Mormons that they couldn't safely stay in their current location of Nauvoo, IL. They planned a mass exodus, totaling about 70,000 people, who crossed from Illinois to Utah by wagon (which is more than 1,000 miles). They followed a trail established by a group who went ahead, planting crops along the way to feed the traveling pioneers and gathering information about trail conditions. It's a really impressive undertaking, honestly, and I really didn't know anything about it until we went to that part of the country. But anyway, when the pioneers reached the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, Brigham Young, the new leader of the church after Joseph Smith's death, proclaimed "This is the place." According to our tour guide, Young's wife and most of the people around him basically thought he was off his rocker because the Salt Lake Valley is a desert and they needed to be able to grow their own food, but clearly he knew something they didn't because it all worked out. Pioneer Day is now celebrated across Utah every July 24, and the This Is the Place Heritage Park was erected in the spot where Young allegedly saw the Valley for the first time.

Monument at This Is the Place Heritage Park

We didn't spend long at the heritage park, but we took a peek into the section that you have to pay to enter, and they have it set up like it would've been in the past, with old-time log cabins and such. We didn't have enough time to properly explore but I'm sure it's interesting.

The National Pony Express Memorial is also in Salt Lake City. Did you know that the Pony Express was only in operation for 18 months between 1860-1861, and was discontinued because of the creation of the transcontinental telegraph? I was surprised it was such a short time, since I know we all had to learn about the Pony Express in school.

Our last stop on the tour was Temple Square, aka LDS headquarters. Our tour included attending a concert on the world-famous pipe organ in the Tabernacle.

Assembly Hall at Temple Square (I was kind of obsessed with the landscaping here)

Tabernacle

Pipe organ inside the Tabernacle

Quick, sneaky video I took during the performance (which I freely admit you're 100% not supposed to do)

The main Temple is being renovated, which is expected to take about 4 years, so it won't be open again until around 2023.

The tour was very informative, and our tour guide was great, so if you find yourself in Salt Lake City, I would definitely recommend the Ultimate Salt Lake City Tour with City Sights.

We continued a little bit more sightseeing on our own, swinging by the Beehive House (which was owned by Brigham Young), the Joseph Smith Memorial Building event venue, and The Gateway, an open-air shopping and dining area.

The Beehive House

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

The Olympic Legacy Plaza at the Gateway

We ducked into a souvenir store very briefly, then went back to our Airbnb to put on our bathing suits, because we were heading over to the Great Salt Lake. I had read that the lake had a bit of a fish smell because one of the only things that could live in the lake, due to the high salinity, was brine shrimp. I figured we would still be fine, considering the ocean on a bad day can smell pretty fishy, but boy, was I wrong.

As soon as we got to the beach parking lot, I realized the smell was considerably stronger than I anticipated, but we headed for the beach anyway (which was a bit rocky and narrow), and there we met the other thing that lives on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, apparently: sand fleas. Within moments of stepping onto the beach, the fleas were all over us. Thankfully they weren't the biting kind of fleas, as far as I could tell, but being covered in bugs is still not the most pleasant sensation, so I hurried into the water to get them off me. I quickly realized that the lake itself was full of sand flea carcasses, and to add insult to injury, the bottom of the lake felt like walking in a swamp, like thick mucky mud instead of the sandy bottom I was expecting. I wanted to try to float in the water, since the high salinity is supposed to make you feel basically weightless, but the experience was so unpleasant overall that I only got waist-deep before I hustled back out (Julia, smartly, didn't go in past her ankles).

We rinsed our feet off at the showers in the parking lot and high-tailed it out of there. No regrets about going to check it out but I wouldn't recommend anyone else plan on swimming there, like I foolishly did!

The Great Salt Lake

Lucky you that you can't smell these photos

We drove back to our Airbnb to relax in the air conditioning for awhile before we went to Cafe Molisse for dinner, a very delicious and beautiful Italian restaurant that I would absolutely recommend.

The next day, we had a delicious breakfast at Sweet Lake Biscuits and Limeade, and then we were back on the road. Arches National Park was about 3.5 hours away, but we were staying at a KOA Campground in Moab, so we drove a few miles past the park to get checked in.

We were staying in three KOAs in Utah right in a row, and I noticed when I was making the reservations that they all had really affordable cabins (with actual beds in them!). I decided to upgrade us one night to a cabin, and the other two we would spend in our tent. The Moab KOA cabin was the cheapest, so I went for that--and we got lucky that was the one I chose, because the weather was punishingly hot that day. Don't get me wrong; I expected Utah in July to be hot, and it was! But that day got over 100 degrees, and the UV index was at I think 8 or 9, which meant sun poisoning for us fair-skin types was not off the table. We also happened to arrive at the hottest part of the day, so that certainly didn't help. Julia is incredibly sensitive to heat, and has had heatstroke several times, so we didn't want to risk it, and decided to wait to go into Arches until the evening. We hung out at the cabin and I made some pasta for dinner on our camp stove (A massive cloud went over the sun while I was cooking, confirming my suspicions that Mother Nature loves me), and finally headed over to Arches around 7pm.

Our first stop was the Wall Street section of the park (so named because people thought the towering rocks looked like skyscrapers), but Arches is a pretty small park, so I suggested going all the way to the end to Devil's Garden after that and working our way back from there, since obviously we didn't have a ton of daylight left.

Wall Street

Wall Street section of the park

We were joking that the smaller formation on the left resembles God's Thumb from the movie Holes, an undeniable classic.

Devil's Garden has a bunch of trails that I'm sure are stunning, but as I've mentioned before, I'm not exactly the picture of fitness, and it was also basically dusk when we got there, so we only saw a few of the arches in that part of the park. But it's so pretty there!

Tunnel Arch

In Devil's Garden

Trail in Devil's Garden

Pine Tree Arch

You can play Where's Clare? in this photo!

Beneath Pine Tree Arch

Also in Devil's Garden

We were losing light pretty quickly after we finished up at Devil's Garden, so we were hustling to get to the Delicate Arch viewpoint, which is arguably the most famous arch in the park. The sun ended up setting while we were there and we did some night hiking, so that was really fun! (And so much cooler as soon as the sun went down.)

Skyline Arch

Delicate Arch from the lower viewpoint

Delicate Arch from the Upper Viewpoint. Quick story about this one: we assumed the view would be better from the upper viewpoint, so we decided to climb up to it, scrambling over rocks in the dark, and really getting our workout in because it was steeper than we expected, only to realize the view from the lower viewpoint was probably better. Oh, well! How often can you go night hiking in Arches National Park??

I Photoshopped the above photo so you can see (roughly) what it would look like during the day. Also, you can actually hike out to Delicate Arch, but that trail is definitely beyond my physical capabilities lol

Hiking back down

We drove back to the campground and spent the night in our cabin. In the morning, we visited the Windows section of Arches before we continued on to Bryce Canyon National Park.

North Window

Parade of Elephants

On the road again, we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park, which was 5 hours from Arches. We had the pleasure of driving down Scenic Byway 12, which is ranked one of the most scenic drives in the world, so no complaints there! We passed through parts of Capitol Reef National Park (which I don't doubt is stunning, but this trip was already a marathon; we had to draw the line somewhere) and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

Views from Scenic Byway 12

Grand Staircase Escalante

Bryce Canyon was arguably the most accessible national park that we went to, because we did no hiking at all and I didn't feel like we missed anything. People who are disabled or can't walk long distances would absolutely not feel out of place there, and it doesn't hurt that every view is breathtaking. Bryce Canyon is full of hoodoos, "formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks," according to the park's Wikipedia page. Similar to Arches, we drove all the way out to the end and worked our way back.

Rainbow Point at Bryce Canyon

Ponderosa Point

Agua Canyon

Natural Bridge

On the way out to Bryce Point

Bryce Point

Inspiration Point

Fairyland Point

As I mentioned earlier, we were staying at a KOA campground that night, and it wasn't far from the park but it was right at the foot of Grand Staircase Escalante, which was really cool.

We love a campsite with a view!

I made some more pasta for dinner that night, and we also picked up a few other provisions at the camp store in the national park, including little pre-wrapped meat and cheese platters, so Julia was happy about that for sure. It started drizzling while we were eating dinner, but the rain stopped after too long, so I thought we were in the clear. But the wind absolutely whipped through the campsite all night long, rattling the canvas tent around us and making it nearly impossible to sleep because the tent was shaking so hard and making so much noise. Julia, to her credit, staked the tent really well, so I wasn't worried we would blow away, but the noise was indescribable. Around 2am when we were both still lying awake, I remembered I had packed earplugs in case we ended up at a loud campsite or if we were too close to other people, so I ran to the car to get them and we were finally able to sleep for the rest of the night.

In the morning, we made the quick trip from Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park, which was less than a 90 minute drive. But we finished Scenic Byway 12 that morning and I think that was arguably the most beautiful stretch.

Scenic Byway 12

How appropriate that "A Thousand Miles" is playing in this video LOL

We entered Zion from the East Entrance, and passed through the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel. We have a photo from the tunnel, below, but were so awestruck by the beauty on the other side that we didn't think to take photos of it. You'll have to take my word for it that the Canyon Junction section of the park is breathtaking.

Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel

We then drove to the visitor center, because most of the park was only reachable via a shuttle that was operating for both crowd control and Covid social-distancing purposes. We took the shuttle all the way to the end to the Temple of Sinawava stop to hike The Narrows, which is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon, and most of the hike is within the Virgin River. As we were there during the summer, you have to be very wary of flash floods; a park ranger told us that the day before, a 15-foot wall of water washed through the canyon, so if it even starts to drizzle a tiny bit, the smartest thing is to hightail it back to higher ground. But the weather was beautiful while we were there and we absolutely loved hiking the Narrows (even though we only did a small part and you could hike up to 16 miles if you want!).

Path to the Narrows

Also on the way to the Narrows

Hiking in the Virgin River

The sticks really came in clutch, because the water wasn't super fast but the river rocks were incredibly slippery.

There wasn't really any other hiking that was calling our names (although the hiking options in Zion are incredible. Look up the trail to Angel's Landing for a laugh), so after we explored the Narrows and doubled back to the shuttle, we decided to check out Kolob Canyon, the other section of Zion National Park.

Big Bend in the main part of Zion

Kolob Canyon

When we got to Kolob Canyon, thunder started rumbling, and shortly after, a huge thunderstorm blew through. We were so glad we hiked the Narrows earlier in the day!

Lightning at Kolob Canyon

Our KOA campground for the evening was in between Hurricane and St. George, UT. Julia had heard St. George was nice, so we decided to go explore and go out for dinner after we set up our tent. The campsite at this KOA also had a stunning view!

Gorgeous campsite at Hurricane/St. George KOA

Town Square Park in downtown St. George

We really enjoyed walking around St. George, and had a really good dinner at George's Corner Restaurant. We spent a peaceful night in our tent (no wind whipping around and keeping us awake, thankfully!) before getting up early the next day to cross the border into a new state: Arizona.