28/50: Utah
After returning from our wild journey to STATE 27: ALASKA, we flew back to Seattle, where our Airstream was parked in my aunt and uncle’s driveway, and our kitty Noel was boarded. We were supposed to fly to Hawai’i for our next state project while we were “nearby” on the west coast, but Hurricane Lane hit the islands the day we were supposed to arrive.
Thankfully the hurricane wasn’t as destructive as it could have been. Still, we wanted to ensure our Hawai’i participants could focus their time and energy on their families and community, so we postponed that project and headed southwest to our next state project in Utah.
This meant we had some unexpected extra time before the STATE 28: UTAH project was scheduled, so we took the time to explore several national parks in southern Utah, starting with Zion National Park. But first, we had to pull over and ceremonially put our 28th state decal on the back of the trailer while pausing to take in the beautiful scenery around us.
The drive to Zion Canyon Campground was just as majestic as the red cliffs we camped under.
Driving through and exploring Zion on the first day alone made it one of my favorite national parks. It’s no wonder it’s the 3rd most visited park in the country. But according to the National Parks Conservation Association, before it was ever Zion, it was first Mukuntuweap National Monument. This native Paiute-inspired name was deemed too hard to pronounce for white Americans, so it was rebranded less than ten years later in 1918 to become the Zion National Park. Over 4,500,000 people visit each year. No matter what name it’s called, it left us speechless.
Our first hike was a sunset trek on the Canyon Overlook Trail.
On our way back to the car, we ran into a mountain goat traffic jam before our next venture on the Zion Narrows Riverside Walk.
In case you haven’t caught on yet, I’ve been collecting an ongoing series of “Footscapes” photos. Zion had plenty of beautifully colored and patterned scenes worth adding to the series.
There were also some crazy cool rocks. Yeah, I know, that sentence sounds ridiculous, but one looked like crinkled wax paper, and another looked like a Jackson Pollock drip painting. Who knew rocks could be so mesmerizing?
We had one more mini-adventure in Zion before we had to continue, and if I thought the rocks were incredible, the rock walls were even more remarkable, especially the ones we could climb. It was like adult recess but without the whistles.
As if Zion wasn’t breathtaking enough, we also visited Bryce Canyon for a few days. We got there before sunset to get a lay of the land and take in all these hoodoos, which is a real geological term — not a doughnut boutique in Portland. The volunteer experts of Wikipedia say that hoodoos, which are also known as tent rocks, fairy chimneys, or earth pyramids (all great names, as well), are formed by frost weathering and stream erosion. Nature.
Southern Utah is one of the dark sky parks that make this area home to one of the best stargazing in the world. The night we were there just happened to be when they hosted a Ranger-led telescope program late at night. They had three different telescopes set up in the Ranger station parking lot. It was completely dark — no lights, no moon, no flashlights. It was a trip just trying not to trip, especially with so many strangers orbiting around us.
Each telescope had a line, and when it was your turn to step up to the peephole, you’d enter the depths of space. One was Saturn and her gorgeous rings, another a cluster of stars, and the third was something else really spacey. I loved it all. There is nothing like being under a blanket of stars and the Milky Way; it makes you feel so small and full of possibilities.
We need less light pollution in our country and more dark sky parks. Find one near you right now.
The following day we were ambitious with our hike. Even though we scoped it out the day before, we couldn’t have accounted for the heat and the elevation change. The hike was bigger than our stamina. We pushed through it, though, with wobbly legs and all.
Our next stop was a finger drive away on the map to Capitol Reef National Park. We only stayed for one night at the Fruita Campground, so after setting up camp, we made the most of our time with a hike on the Capitol Gorge trail.
We returned to the campsite as the sun set and had a vegetable campfire cookout. Designated as an International Dark Sky Park in 2015, Capitol Reef is home to one of the darkest, purest skies in the world. Yet, all we could do was lean back and admire the flickering balls of hydrogen and helium gases above us more than 4+ light years away. Fathom that one for a minute.
We then headed north to Salt Lake City for our STATE 28: UTAH project. Our camp spot wasn’t quite awe-inspiring as the others have been recently, but at least this one had good WiFi, full hookups, and was only a short drive into Salt Lake City.
Neither of us knew much about SLC besides its home to the Mormon Church and the Utah Jazz.
What you don’t see in this beautiful hilltop view overlooking the city is the Pole Creek wildfire in the distance that started a few days after this photo was taken. Like so much of the country out west, wildfires have been a consistent threat. The Pole Creek fire caused 2,000 homes and 6,000 people to evacuate and took a couple of months to be contained. It was a surreal feeling looking out from our project days at the Adobe offices and seeing the smoke blanket the sky.
Not sure where else to start exploring SLC other than Temple Square, the center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We walked the gardens and admired the detail of the buildings, not entirely understanding all that we were looking at.
One thing we learned from our STATE 28: UTAH participants was the significance of all the beehives; from the details on the LDS buildings to the state highway signs, it was used everywhere. Long story short, the beehive represents the community, and the bees working together to make it buzz are the people. Salt Lake City Magazine has a more detailed explanation worth further reading if you are inclined to brush up on some historical symbolism.
The one thing we forgot to do while in Salt Lake City was to visit the Family Search Library, which is the physical location and part of Ancestry.com. Kendra already did a pretty deep dive into her family when we were in STATE 07: CONNECTICUT, but there were still some unanswered questions — and even more unknowns on my side. So if you ever find yourself in Utah, save money and search for your heritage. We know we will whenever we make it back.
However, we took a late afternoon drive up to Park City, where it played host to the 2002 Winter Olympics, the annual Sundance Film Festival, and is even home to a Banksy piece.
After some time in the city of a salty lake, we were eager to get one last taste of the Utah wilderness. While on our way to our next state of Colorado, we headed southwest to Goblin Valley State Park for a night. Never heard of Goblin Valley? Either had I, but it’s aptly named once you see a valley full of these little goblin-looking hoodoos.
By the time we returned to our Airstream, the sun had set behind the giant cliffs. We walked into the trailer and saw that the window screen had been pulled inward. Immediately, we feared that (1) Noel may have gotten out! She has gotten her claws stuck on a screen before and has accidentally pulled it down trying to free herself, and (2) maybe someone broke in while we were out?! Thankfully, neither was the case. Noel was still in the trailer, and nothing seemed to be taken.
[Insert sigh of relief here].
Kendra put the screen mesh back into place, and we went on with our evening in peace with a front-row seat to the desert landscape.
That night the moon was full but the stars still came out with not a cloud in sight, yet again in southeastern Utah.
We woke up the following day to the sun hitting the red sandstone formations behind us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to enjoy it as we had to continue to one more stop before we reached Colorado.
That next stop was in Moab and Arches National Park to mark the exclamation point of our time in Utah. We settled in and made it to the park to catch the sunset over the layers of arches, formations, valleys, and mountains.
We did a morning hike down Park Avenue before we looked for the main attraction.
Then we made it to the famed arch, the one that adorns the state license plate, gift shop merch, and much more. But, unfortunately, we didn’t make it to it, but rather across the valley from it. Arches National Park is currently home to over 2,000 arches that have formed very slowly over time through a lot of erosion.
Utah is a sight to see. Plenty of sights.
