Utah Re-Revisited

A Long But Not-Long Drive

This begins the part of my trip that I just didn’t have a solid idea of what I wanted to do until a few days ago. My first idea was to hit Great Basin National Park in Nevada and then camp in Capitol Reef or Canyonlands National Park the following evening, but my extra day in San Diego put me in one of the latter on a friday night so there were no campground spots available in either park. Not to mention the fact that there isn’t much around Great Basin NP and I didn’t want to chance staying in a grungy motel over night.

Ultimately, I decided to re-trace the path I took from Grand Junction, Colorado, to St. George, Utah, in reverse. While it’s “only a drive” it’s a beautiful drive that I was excited to take in the opposite direction because of one spot in-particular that I wanted to see again. After an early rise in Las Vegas, I was on the road a little after 8 AM and headed for Moab, Utah.

The Drive

The drive from Las Vegas northeast to St. George, Utah, passes through the Virgin River Gorge in the very northwestern corner of Arizona. This was a spot that I remembered vividly and was interested in seeing again. It didn’t disappoint and it so magnificent that it makes me want to come back to visit the state park that I believe includes the area.

From there it was into Utah, which, from the south, starts-out rather pedestrian. Then, you go from Route 15 to Route 70 and things get real. After weeks of the landscapes of the southwest, I didn’t think getting back to Utah proper would impress me, but… there’s a reason that I decided to return back home through Utah on my previous trip. The features in Utah are absolutely bananas. You hear it said a lot: “[this place] is like the surface of another planet” but it’s true when it comes to Utah. Every time I turn my head, I’m uncontrollably exclaiming “Whooooaaa…” or “You’ve got to be kidding me!” It’s really such an unbelievably beautiful state.

San Rafael Swell

The San Rafael Swell area was the first spot on my previous trip that got burned into my brain, and that moment occurred after seeing Badlands National Park, Devils Tower National Monument and Colorado National Monument. There was a spot somewhere on Route 70 west of Green River, where the highway descended into a valley (what I know understand is Castle Valley) and it felt like a scene in a science fiction movie where the protagonist’s ship lowered through the clouds of a valley in an alien planet.

On my previous trip when I returned to Utah, I kind of wanted to revisit the spot, but it didn’t fit into my path through Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef. This time it made perfect sense to simply take a day to drive to Moab and include this area in the drive. Again, Utah doesn’t disappoint. When I arrived at the view point off the highway, the sky was a bit overcast, but during the time I was there it all cleared-up and was reminiscent of my previous visit, though it was about 30 degrees colder.

Moab, Utah

From my comforting reacquaintance with the San Rafael Swell, it was off to Moab, Utah, which is only about a half hour from Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands was the plan for Saturday because it’s not as popular as Arches National Park and I didn’t get to spend any time in it during my previous visit. That being said, as I got close to the turn-off south towards Moab from Route 70, I started thinking about trying to make Arches and getting my passport(s) stamped. The drive had taken too long, though, and the visitors center was closed well before I got close to the entrance to Arches, but…

Arches After All?!?

And, this is how my mind works. My plan all along was to bypass Arches in favor of Canyonlands, because on my previous visit I completely dissed Canyonlands in favor of getting into Arches, where I spent a relatively large amount of time. But… I’m HERE, right? So, when I got into my room, I logged-in to my Recreation dot gov account to see if there were any available car passes for Arches tomorrow… on a Saturday… in late May… and sure enough I got one for 6-7 AM. So, we’ll see when I wake-up and what kind of mood I’m in tomorrow morning.