An Epic Road Trip Through Utah
For Memorial Day Weekend this year, we took a week off and decided to go on a road trip to explore responsibly outdoors. We planned this trip to be a compilation of backpacking, car camping, and photography missions and mapped out a route that took us all over Utah. We went to Grand Staircase Escalante, Moab, Monument Valley, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, and more. After this trip we’ve experienced all five National Parks in Utah (visited two others on our last trip) and we are certain it won’t be our last visit to those beautiful places. It was a little bit of everything and a very memorable trip. Plus, it was our longest trip getting to use our new mattress topper for the Jeep and we can safely report - it is SO worth it.
We camped near some massive Buttes on our way to Grand Staircase Escalante. The sunrise and sunset coloring on the buttes was a spectacular welcome to Utah and a prime photography stop.
From there, we continued the road trip and found an Aspen grove above the desert for some car camping on the second night. The juxtaposition of being in a field of green Aspen trees, looking down over the desert was so unique. We camped in the Jeep and enjoyed some wine and a “fancy” car camping dinner as we watched the sunset. For dessert, we enjoyed some of our leftover Iceland Cookies - yes, we STILL are working our way through those 20 boxes we brought back a year later and we figured a road trip was a great time to make a dent in that stockpile.
We continued into southern Utah to reach the trailhead for our 1-night backpacking trip we planned. For this overnighter, there are no water sources so you have to hike in all of the water you plan to drink and cook with. Talk about heavy backpacks! As we loaded up our backpacks full of several liters of water each and doused our bodies in a ton of sunscreen to combat the direct sun and 90 degree temperatures, we were starting to question our decision to hike deep into the desert.
The trail itself wasn’t anything special and our motivations were starting to dwindle a bit as the hike progressed; however, it was all worth it when we finally set our sights on the destination.
We camped up on the edge above the water, sparingly used our limited water for cooking, ate dinner and watched a beautiful sunset. With the hot temperatures, even at night, we were able to sleep without the fly on and it created a magical experience waking up to that view from the comfort of our sleeping bags.
The journey continued - this time to a location that we scouted out for photography via a lot of Google investigation. The temperatures continued to climb as we drove there and we were greeted by triple digit temperatures and full sun upon our arrival. We found a great car camping spot and perched up for the day. The photographs that Grady wanted to take would be at sunrise and sunset so we needed to figure out a way to stay comfortable during the heat of the day. We got inventive and decided to use some sticks and the tarp that we’d been using as the tent footprint to create a makeshift tarp. The structure wasn’t super sturdy, but the shade made such a difference and created a great spot to nap in our camping chairs.
Sunset, astro photography, and sunrise all delivered excellent lighting and this ended up being a gem of a photography destination.
Our trip took us on a quick jaunt back to Monument Valley to capture the iconic shot of the Monuments from Forest Gump. Yes, we did drive all the way back down there just for that shot! I even washed my hair and made dinner on the side of the road as Grady was waiting for the right time to capture the photo.
In our full tour of southern Utah, we headed back North towards Moab and decided to head into the Parks next - traveling to Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches. We did not go to any of these parks on our last trip to Utah so we were excited about the adventure. I hadn’t heard much about Capitol Reef, but I was blown away. We did a 4WD road through the Park that involved fording a river, driving through sand, and led us through varied scenery. We hiked around some impressive rock formations and found great vantage points to take in the beauty of the surroundings. The Jeep did great on the sand and through the river and we’re excited to continue taking it to all of these less accessible places.
Little did we know, we’d be taking it to an even harder to reach place so soon. Through our thorough maps searching, we found a photography spot that we wanted to camp near. We didn’t realize quite how difficult the road would be, but after some big “step ups” and loose rock - we made it to the view we were hoping for. Funny enough, the only other people there were on ATVs - I think they were pretty surprised to see us show up in the Jeep!
Our trip ended with time spent in Canyonlands and Arches. At Canyonlands, we went to some of the quintessential spots like Mesa Arch and Green River Overlook. We knew that sunrise at Mesa Arch would be busy, but we didn’t realize quite how much of a scene it would be. The “Tripod Army” was in full force that morning with 50+ photographers all there to get the same shot. It certainly made it feel less special, but the view was beautiful through the arch. Sharing the view with 50+ other people was one thing, but then one of the other visitors started singing the National Anthem the moment the sun came up. It was a scene to say the least.
We had an equally unique experience at Arches that started with a huge thunderstorm and amazing lightning show at Double Arch, but really peaked when we hiked into Delicate Arch close to midnight for some astro photos. With our headlamps illuminating the way, we stumbled upon a man in the dark who appeared to be very lost. He asked us if he could walk with us because he was lost. At first, we were a little apprehensive about walking the dark trails with this random man, but he soon started spilling his life story - telling us about how he was from North Carolina and was visiting Arches on a trip with his wife. It sounded like his wife wasn’t a big hiker so he came out here to hike alone at night with no navigation source or headlamp - some of the most foundational mistakes. He stayed with us the entire time so that we could guide him back to his car. We were glad to help out - even if it was very startling to find a man wandering around aimlessly in the dark!
Our plan was to camp near Moab after we hiked out of the Delicate Arch expedition and drive home the next morning. Given all of the camping restrictions in Moab county, we ended up needing to drive a lot further to find a camp spot and decided to go all the way into Colorado before camping. We listened to Avicii on repeat to keep us awake on the drive in the middle of the night. We were relieved to finally find a good spot to camp, but I don’t think we’ll ever forget blasting those songs as loud as the music could go in the car and jamming out after an unforgettable week in Utah.
The video below chronicles this trip. Check it out!