8 days in Utah - The Story (Sandy, Roy: appointed, hotel, home)
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Hello everyone, the much emancipated Utah trip happened last week, and a little into the week before that one. I had been looking forward to this trip all year, Wyoming was visited last year, and that was unbelievable as well. Coming from Wisconsin, we ventured on through Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado. Shortly after getting into Iowa, and passing Dubuque, which all of us are big fans of, both passengers started to complain about how boring the rest of Iowa, and Nebraska were. I told them, think of it as the calm before the storm. That didnt seem to help. We arrived in Moab late Friday night after a long long drive. The next morning, I was the first to get up, the people I travel with are slugs in the morning, so I took advantage of the moment. I drove up and visited Thompson. Someone had spoken about it on here, and it was close, so I said why not. A pretty neat little place. The cafe on the corner especially. All the retro seats are still in tact at the front bar, along with a humungous plastic 60's looking clock sitting on the back. The Thompson hotel was also enchanting. I snapped some photos and headed on back. When I got back, both were showered and ready to go. We hit up Arches first. I was unaware that you had to hike to the Delicate Arch, and lets just say it was a kick in the arse. I had a gallon of water, by the time I made it up to the arch, it was boiling hot. When we entered the park, it was tolerable outside, maybe 80...by the time we hit the top of the arch, I swear it was damn near 100...the walk down was just as hard, mostly because my water was gone. After that, I didnt have too much motivation to get out of the car and walk to much of anything else besides a gas station to refuel my body. We ate lunch at a Italian Place, but i forget the name. It was pricey, but they had custom pizza's with a large selection of toppings, and satisfying...Tomato and Garlic for this cat. We continued the day and headed to Canyonlands. Now, a big goal on this trip was to bring back some stunning photography work....that I did, but not of this place. Poor lighting, and rain put a big damper on my day here. I got some shots, but I've defiantly done better. Another damper, this was my favorite NP out of all of them in the state. The place is massive, and it was pretty empty when we strolled on through. Arches was great, but too many people. It reminded me of Yellowstone, just by how many people were out and in about in the park. We wrapped up the night by making gin and tonics, and roaming around downtown Moab. The next day, I got the boys out of bed bright and early. We rented a jeep, my friend drove. He was super excited about this, but had never really "offroaded" before...I was browsing through the trail guild, and he mentioned one of the trails I was eying up. Little did he know it was a Level 6 trail, and as difficult as it gets. It was a 12 mile course, and it took 2.5 hours. It became pretty aggravated sitting in the back seat that long, bump after bump...I was ready to be done and over with it. We left town around 6, and drove all the way to Torrey, were we stayed that evening. I have a feeling I missed a ton of scenery on 24...the next day, I contemplated going back down 24 but then realized how far we had traveled and 12 was on my list for the current day, so I sided against it. I had heard tales about the highway, and its beauty. They were pretty accurate...really really cool stretch of the world. 12 took up all of Monday, along the way we stopped in Boulder, at a bar, I forget the name, and had lunch. A couple about my age owned it, and had put together a pretty fabulous menu. I had the pastrami burger, which was cooked perfectly, and the whole baby spuds were some of the best I've ever had ( I cooked for 6 years, I know food It was raining again, and as we ventured through Escalante Stairway, my low battery light appeared on my camera. We decided to find a place to stay, and take it easy the rest of the night. We ended up in a place called Tropic, a neat little place I thought, and a perfect location since Bryce was next on the list. We ate at Clarkes. Now if you have good vibes towards this place...look away. They sat us in the indoor section, after we asked for outdoor seating. No one came to us for 15 minutes. Finally, we decided to seat ourselves outside. We bugged someone about a server, and after about 25 minutes, someone finally took our order. Now, I dont mind crap service as much as I mind crap food. I ordered a burger, I requested it as rare as possible...not hard to do. I got my food, burger was completely cooked through, my fries looked like they were about a half hour old, and not even hot. My friend, got a quesadilla...I asked to try it, and realized the tomatoes on it...were rotten. I spit the first bite out, and then told our waitress about it. She discounted our check, but I was still extremely upset about it. Rotten tomatoes taste bad, they smell even worse once they are cut up. They arent hard to spot. It is possible the cook was unaware of it, and if that was the case, they should consider a career change, perhaps selling snow boots, or window chimes....but definitely not cooking food. We wondered back to our room, which was on the extreme end of town. I was outside getting some fresh air, and smoking a cigarette when I heard a meow. Im a huge animal person, I have 3 cats. I love cats. A stray one was wondering around, and I lured him into me. He extremely friendly, and followed me like a dog. It was crazy cool to be playing with a cat since I hadnt seen mine in a few days. I decided to name him tropic, I will post a picture of him with the rest. Now, onto Bryce. It was a bit chilly out, heavy fog, and lots of clouds. I was feeling robbed again of good light. Just before we got to the exciting parts of Bryce, the sun came out. Ta Da. The day was saved. Pictures cant justify this place. It is enormous, and almost surreal. I feel like you have to be there to actually take it all in. Amazing place, but once again...tourists...everywhere...As soon as we finished the park, I got out of the area really quickly. I love the west so much because its so big, and empty...and filled with gems that only certain people can appreciate. We finished up the day cruising around, making random stops so I could get my photo fix in. In fear of running into another Clarkes, we decided to play it safe and eat at a subway, which has never been bad. That evening, we ended up in Beaver...I said with a name like that, its bound to be dynamite. It turned out not to be as exciting as hoped, but I did enjoy the best meal of the whole trip there. Nestled across from the Shell Station, was a Mexican place. It was small, no one was in there. It smelled good, and the prices were even better so we tried it out. I got a carne asada rice bowl....which was crazy good, and the portions were unbelievably large. 2 really good things for a large eater like myself. The next morning, I wanted to check a mining town out on HWY 21....We passed through Milford, which I enjoyed cause they had a large trainyard, I love trains, and a bridge which overlooked most of the town. We proceeded towards someone anonymous mining towns. I saw the landmark off the side of the highway, which was a lonely highway, and stopped there. I'm looking around, and I'm like...wheres the town?? I realized it was up a gravel road a few hundred feet. A dangerous gases, open mines, yadda yadda yadda sign appeared. I've never been one to follow certain rules. If someone catches me trespassing, I'll leave if asked, and you can write me a ticket if you really want to,but I am an adventurous,curious, urban explorer kinda guy, and its going to take more than a sign to hold me back. Challenged accepted. Decaying buildings, fallen over sheds, an old mine....made the hike up totally worth it. I snapped my photos and left. I then visited a couple more, and then continued on with the day. By early evening, we ended up Cedar City. I wasnt too crazy about the place, although they did have a Taco Time. We were also within 130 miles or so of Vegas, but our funds were running low, so we passed. We decided to keep going, and ended up staying in La Verkin, which I enjoyed much more. The next morning, Zion was in the forecast, but before that, we stopped in Grafton to see what all the hype was about. Although there wasnt as much there as I hoped, I still found it charming, and managed to shoot some great pictures of the place. I met a nice couple there, and we exchanged thoughts about different places like this we had been. We are well into the morning, and approaching the afternoon fast. The temperature was rising rapidly and we are rolling down highway 9 when a group of sheep decide to stall us temporarily. Along our trip, I've had to stop for cows, bulls,buffalo, and even ducks...but not sheep. I have no idea where they came from, but there were about 30 of them, bahahahaing in the middle of the highway. We got past them, and wondered through a couple little towns...one being a little old nifty place, the other being a total tourist trap....We finally made it into Zion, now mind you, we had just seen the 4 other parks in the state, so we were unsure what Zion was going to do. Honestly, it didnt do a whole lot. The massive mountain tops were sort of majestic,, but the big horns that ran in the middle of the road, and jumped up onto a 7+ foot rock formation were the pinnacle memory of the park. Right around the bend, were about 10 more, just roaming around. I was thankful enough to get out without scaring them too much and take some fabulous photos of them. After we finished up Zion, we headed north, 9 to 89.Along the way, in Orderville, I saw a sign that said "5 dollar license plates'' at Lance's Antique Store. I stopped and bought a couple, other places were charging up to 25 bucks per plate. I also scored a "Rocky" laserdisk. Im a huge fan, so I was thrilled about that, and he didn't charge much either. At the end of the day, we found ourselves near Bryce again. We stayed in Panguitch. The next morning, I decided to give hwy 24 another shot...and I'm glad I did. Along the way, we stopped at Goblin Valley State Park...a fascinating place with virtually no one in it. We ended up staying in Hanksville, which wasnt anything to write home about. I stopped at the gas station which was about the only thing that was open at the time, to get something to drink. I was considering a bag of beef jerky, but then I looked at the price tag. 16 DOLLARS !! No thanks. The cashier, along with what appeared to be the rest of the youngguns from town, were in the their own world, as I waited anxiously to pay for my items. I finally got checked out, and headed back to our room. Frosty beers, star gazing, and a peaceful evening concluded the day. I still find it amazing how quiet it gets in parts of the state. We pulled over on 24 the first time we were on it, at night, to use the imaginary facilities, and just stood there, and listened...tranquility I tell you. The next day, we spent a lot of time driving. I found a lot of miscellaneous things to photograph, and made the day worthy after all. We stayed in Price that evening, I didnt mind the town one bit. We ate at the Main Street Grill, which had a salad bar for only 3 bucks with any meal, I was sold. I had a spicy cheeseburger that was prepared perfectly, along with sweet potato fries, which were good as well. The next day, I visited Royal, which I found on a ghostown website...as I'm scoping the place out, my friend some how got something in his eye, and demanded we go to a hospital. So back to Price we went. After they fixed him up, they wrapped half his skull in gauze and tape. He looked like a mummy. I guess they were out of eye patches, he did survive though. We wrapped up our Utah experience by going up 191 into Flamming Gorge. Its one place I didnt stop last year while we were in Wyoming, and I didnt feel like driving through the Rockies again on the way home, so it worked out well. Not a bad way to wrap up one of the best experiences of my life !! Im a man who likes numbers in a sense...some from our trip. 4689 roundtrip miles.199 gallons of gas.AVG MPG 24.0.AVG MPH 58.7. Sorry this ended up being so long, but I hope you enjoyed it !!
I enjoyed your story- seems like a fun road trip. Please post pictures of your trip! Would love to see the desert scenes and pictures of the towns if you shot some.
I'm well aware I didnt use paragraphs, if its honestly too difficult to read, then sorry ? I can read it, so can you. I'm not here for you to point out my literature flaws, this is not a paper....
Not trying to snark about your writing skills, just that with the smallish print on the screen, it is very hard to read the large block of print. I did want to read your story of your trip and am disappointed that I cannot.
Well, I'm sorry everyone else had a hard time reading it. I kind of enjoyed the stream of consciousness writing and engaging writing style and found that I could keep track of where I was by moving the post up to the top of the screen and just reading the top line then moving it up again.
Glad you had a good time in Utah. Next time talk more about the scenery and less about the food and I'll enjoy reading it even more.
Sandy..I posted photos in the Utah section if you want scenery.
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It was raining again, and as we ventured through Escalante Stairway, my low battery light appeared on my camera. We decided to find a place to stay, and take it easy the rest of the night. We ended up in a place called Tropic, a neat little place I thought, and a perfect location since Bryce was next on the list. We ate at Clarkes. Now if you have good vibes towards this place...look away. They sat us in the indoor section, after we asked for outdoor seating. No one came to us for 15 minutes. Finally, we decided to seat ourselves outside. We bugged someone about a server, and after about 25 minutes, someone finally took our order. Now, I dont mind crap service as much as I mind crap food. I ordered a burger, I requested it as rare as possible...not hard to do. I got my food, burger was completely cooked through, my fries looked like they were about a half hour old, and not even hot. My friend, got a quesadilla...I asked to try it, and realized the tomatoes on it...were rotten. I spit the first bite out, and then told our waitress about it. She discounted our check, but I was still extremely upset about it. Rotten tomatoes taste bad, they smell even worse once they are cut up. They arent hard to spot. It is possible the cook was unaware of it, and if that was the case, they should consider a career change, perhaps selling snow boots, or window chimes....but definitely not cooking food. We wondered back to our room, which was on the extreme end of town. I was outside getting some fresh air, and smoking a cigarette when I heard a meow. Im a huge animal person, I have 3 cats. I love cats. A stray one was wondering around, and I lured him into me. He extremely friendly, and followed me like a dog. It was crazy cool to be playing with a cat since I hadnt seen mine in a few days. I decided to name him tropic, I will post a picture of him with the rest. Now, onto Bryce. It was a bit chilly out, heavy fog, and lots of clouds. I was feeling robbed again of good light. Just before we got to the exciting parts of Bryce, the sun came out. Ta Da. The day was saved. Pictures cant justify this place. It is enormous, and almost surreal. I feel like you have to be there to actually take it all in. Amazing place, but once again...tourists...everywhere...As soon as we finished the park, I got out of the area really quickly. I love the west so much because its so big, and empty...and filled with gems that only certain people can appreciate. We finished up the day cruising around, making random stops so I could get my photo fix in. In fear of running into another Clarkes, we decided to play it safe and eat at a subway, which has never been bad. That evening, we ended up in Beaver...I said with a name like that, its bound to be dynamite. It turned out not to be as exciting as hoped, but I did enjoy the best meal of the whole trip there. Nestled across from the Shell Station, was a Mexican place. It was small, no one was in there. It smelled good, and the prices were even better so we tried it out. I got a carne asada rice bowl....which was crazy good, and the portions were unbelievably large. 2 really good things for a large eater like myself. The next morning, I wanted to check a mining town out on HWY 21....We passed through Milford, which I enjoyed cause they had a large trainyard, I love trains, and a bridge which overlooked most of the town. We proceeded towards someone anonymous mining towns. I saw the landmark off the side of the highway, which was a lonely highway, and stopped there. I'm looking around, and I'm like...wheres the town?? I realized it was up a gravel road a few hundred feet. A dangerous gases, open mines, yadda yadda yadda sign appeared. I've never been one to follow certain rules. If someone catches me trespassing, I'll leave if asked, and you can write me a ticket if you really want to,but I am an adventurous,curious, urban explorer kinda guy, and its going to take more than a sign to hold me back. Challenged accepted. Decaying buildings, fallen over sheds, an old mine....made the hike up totally worth it. I snapped my photos and left. I then visited a couple more, and then continued on with the day. By early evening, we ended up Cedar City. I wasnt too crazy about the place, although they did have a Taco Time. We were also within 130 miles or so of Vegas, but our funds were running low, so we passed. We decided to keep going, and ended up staying in La Verkin, which I enjoyed much more. The next morning, Zion was in the forecast, but before that, we stopped in Grafton to see what all the hype was about. Although there wasnt as much there as I hoped, I still found it charming, and managed to shoot some great pictures of the place. I met a nice couple there, and we exchanged thoughts about different places like this we had been. We are well into the morning, and approaching the afternoon fast. The temperature was rising rapidly and we are rolling down highway 9 when a group of sheep decide to stall us temporarily. Along our trip, I've had to stop for cows, bulls,buffalo, and even ducks...but not sheep. I have no idea where they came from, but there were about 30 of them, bahahahaing in the middle of the highway. We got past them, and wondered through a couple little towns...one being a little old nifty place, the other being a total tourist trap....We finally made it into Zion, now mind you, we had just seen the 4 other parks in the state, so we were unsure what Zion was going to do. Honestly, it didnt do a whole lot. The massive mountain tops were sort of majestic,, but the big horns that ran in the middle of the road, and jumped up onto a 7+ foot rock formation were the pinnacle memory of the park. Right around the bend, were about 10 more, just roaming around. I was thankful enough to get out without scaring them too much and take some fabulous photos of them. After we finished up Zion, we headed north, 9 to 89.Along the way, in Orderville, I saw a sign that said "5 dollar license plates'' at Lance's Antique Store. I stopped and bought a couple, other places were charging up to 25 bucks per plate. I also scored a "Rocky" laserdisk. Im a huge fan, so I was thrilled about that, and he didn't charge much either. At the end of the day, we found ourselves near Bryce again. We stayed in Panguitch. The next morning, I decided to give hwy 24 another shot...and I'm glad I did. Along the way, we stopped at Goblin Valley State Park...a fascinating place with virtually no one in it. We ended up staying in Hanksville, which wasnt anything to write home about. I stopped at the gas station which was about the only thing that was open at the time, to get something to drink. I was considering a bag of beef jerky, but then I looked at the price tag. 16 DOLLARS !! No thanks. The cashier, along with what appeared to be the rest of the youngguns from town, were in the their own world, as I waited anxiously to pay for my items. I finally got checked out, and headed back to our room. Frosty beers, star gazing, and a peaceful evening concluded the day. I still find it amazing how quiet it gets in parts of the state. We pulled over on 24 the first time we were on it, at night, to use the imaginary facilities, and just stood there, and listened...tranquility I tell you. The next day, we spent a lot of time driving. I found a lot of miscellaneous things to photograph, and made the day worthy after all. We stayed in Price that evening, I didnt mind the town one bit. We ate at the Main Street Grill, which had a salad bar for only 3 bucks with any meal, I was sold. I had a spicy cheeseburger that was prepared perfectly, along with sweet potato fries, which were good as well. The next day, I visited Royal, which I found on a ghostown website...as I'm scoping the place out, my friend some how got something in his eye, and demanded we go to a hospital. So back to Price we went. After they fixed him up, they wrapped half his skull in gauze and tape. He looked like a mummy. I guess they were out of eye patches, he did survive though. We wrapped up our Utah experience by going up 191 into Flamming Gorge. Its one place I didnt stop last year while we were in Wyoming, and I didnt feel like driving through the Rockies again on the way home, so it worked out well. Not a bad way to wrap up one of the best experiences of my life !! Im a man who likes numbers in a sense...some from our trip. 4689 roundtrip miles.199 gallons of gas.AVG MPG 24.0.AVG MPH 58.7. Sorry this ended up being so long, but I hope you enjoyed it !!
