Photo Friday: Road Trip to Utah

I was going to share photos today from my April backpack in Grand Gulch, but I realized there were too many fun shots from the roadtrip parts of the journey, so I'm starting there. On April 15 I left Seattle, headed to southern Utah via Salt Lake City airport, where I picked up my friend Gretchen. We had a half day extra before meeting other friends to backpack, so we visited Little Wild Horse Canyon, a beautiful slot canyon where I was very careful not to hurt myself.*

*See report from last year on my spring trip to Utah.

On the Road

I do love me a good road trip. Leaving Seattle in the dregs of winter and heading into the Canyon Country is a special bonus.

Made it over the Cascades with only a few snow flurries, and could enjoy a look back at snow-covered mountains and interesting lenticular clouds.

Rest stops can be interesting. I was intrigued by the truck they had to invent in order to transport windmill vanes to the wind farms.

I camped the first night in a state park in Oregon, which is nice as they have showers. I have a strong preference for dispersed camping, however, and stopped outside of SLC to enjoy an evening and morning before picking Gretchen up. This allowed me to go for a walk (at least a *little* exercise!) and do some writing.

Simple camping set-up. Since the ground was unlevel and had cow pats and thistles, I took the option of sleeping in the car. Note Petey Possum hanging out in the cupholder on my chair.

Working on the MS.

Once I got Gretchen from the airport, we zipped south for a few hours and found a campsite not far from the Little Wildhorse Canyon trailhead.

Camp.

 

We were up at the crack of dawn, which allowed us to enjoy a fairly amazing sunrise before breaking camp and hiking.

Heading into the slots. (Photo by Gretchen)

 
Things get tight in places, but we encountered none of the standing water that can make this hike more of a challenge.

Patterns built of ancient sand dunes and the effects of wind and water.

Just enough challenges to make it fun.

We hoped for desert bighorns, but this was all the wildlife we got--lizards enjoying the warm sandstone.

We were out before lunchtime, and continuing south, with stops for lunch and water, as well as showers at an RV park in Hanksville--knowing that would be the last good bathing for a week.

We crossed the Colorado River at Hite--which used to be a bustling marina on Lake Powell, but is now a slow-moving part of the river, as lake levels have dropped a long way since peak. All facilities are closed, which is too bad--the campground had lovely showers!

Lake used to cover pretty much all the flats down by the water. The river has cut through the hundreds of feet of sediment, creating terraces.

Just in time for dinner we dropped down the Moki Dugway--a dirt segment of highway 261 that switchbacks down the face of the cliff, dropping 1200' from Cedar Mesa to the Valley of the Gods, where we had arranged to meet the rest of the group at a dispersed camp.

I read once that the road is deliberately left unpaved as that helps keep people from trying to drive it fast.

One more fun feature, from the trip home. Did you know that Idaho has a Potato Museum? Of course it does! At the urging of my brothers, I made a stop.

Billboards on the freeway advertised the world's biggest spud. I think this was it, so not a real spud. I guess it would be hard to preserve that.

No surprise--the cafe had real fries and they were good.

We can mostly skip over the historic memorabilia that--ahem--matches stuff from my childhood in Idaho. But I was impressed with collections of peelers and potato mashers (yes, I found several much like mine there, too).

 

And then I was back in the cold and snowy mountains. Wind and rain and near-freezing temps convinced me to find a hotel for my final night.

 Next week I'll share some of the really cool stuff in Grand Gulch!

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 


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