Well, we're going big this year! Traveling over two thousand miles to finally complete a trip I started to plan way back in 2013. However, shortly after gathering and sifting through information, I discovered at the time of the trip I would be nearly eight months pregnant. Well, that little miracle will be almost six years old at the time of this trip. If you've liked our page on Facebook then you already know we are heading to Utah! So did I call my favorite travel agent? Of course not! I hopped on the computer and found the nearest airports and googled flights and looked up the number for Amtrak and asked how much round trip fare for three would cost. Well, flying was going to be over a thousand dollars for all of us to go. Back in October the price was $970 to travel by train from Syracuse, NY to Grand Junction, CO round trip and was told the longer I wait to book the more the price inflates. Either way we would have to rent a SUV when we got there, adding another $700 to $800 to the cost. Well, guess what folks hubby is driving us out in our own car. Then I researched some of the old brochures and decided to order new ones because a lot can happen in six years! I do get tired of staring a computer screens so sometimes those paper booklets of information are awesome to have. To get this information I searched for Utah Vacation guides. You can do this easily, find the button for brochures and often you can download a pdf of info or simply request the information and provide them with your address. It is free of charge. If you are a member of AAA you can also request guide booklets for the whatever region you plan to go to! Then I explored the National parks websites for a variety of information. How much does it cost to get into a park? Thanks to Mom and Dad it will cost us nothing, as we will soon have an Annual National Park Pass which will get us into any National Park, or National land. It retails for $80. Entry fees into all of the Parks we want to visit would cost more than $80. So your next question might be which parks do you plan on visiting? In order of current plan (I may change my mind) is Dinosaur National Monument, Cedar Breaks National Monument (maybe), Zion, Bryce, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Capitol Reef, Goblin Valley State Park, Arches and Canyon lands National Park. I hope to camp at the two state parks. I have made reservations for two nights in Zion National Park. Arches National Park's campground booked in less than 24 hours! We are going to "wing it" most nights. I have downloaded the app for www.Campendium.com on my phone to help find a campsite if we get into a bind. I have made notes of some BLM land camping opportunities in and around the National Parks. We plan to go in late April. Nights should be in the low forties and days should be warm but not like triple digits. Unfortunately timing to be warm enough to camp also means it will be warm enough for the dreaded Rattle Snakes to be out. I encourage you to pray that we have zero encounters! We may stay in a hotel if the weather is to be bad or if a real bed is badly needed but camping is the cheaper option. We do not have scorpions here in the north either but I do intend to treat the tent and ground cloth with Permethrin in hope that it works in much the same way on scorpions as it does ticks. I made a list of hikes that we could possibly do by visiting each park's website. So anything listed easy to moderate and under 6 miles round trip is fair game. The length and number of trails we do will of course depend on how we fee,l especially our son. I could order a book or two on hiking trails in Southern Utah, however our time is extremely limited so I will just use the parks resources, this go around. I am trying to whip myself into shape and I have been encouraging my son to get up and move about with me. Hopefully spring comes early and we can try to do local evening hikes before the trip so he can get used to hiking everyday rather than just weekend warrior stuff. That has proved to be a problem in the past. Another invaluable resource has been YouTube! Thanks to those hikers who have been there I am now looking forward to a big slice of pie during our visit to Capital Reef. To be honest there is so much to see and do it is overwhelming. To take a break from hiking I looked into going on a jeep tour but you have to be at least seven to eight years old to do that, or most anything else. Well, I guess it just means we get to save our money. It would be fun to Kayak the calm parts of the Colorado River, but again to rent or go on a tour someone didn't meet the age requirement. We could take our own boats but our racks need to be replaced and it would make a big difference in the fuel mileage getting out there too! Recently I dugout the suit cases. When we went to Glacier National Park in 2013 via train I packed all of our camping gear in one big suitcase. Well, our gear has gotten bigger since then so I wanted to figure out just what I could fit in a suit case to try to keep the car neater. The tent, pillows, air mattresses, and our sons sleeping bag fit in it easily with room to spare. Since we are car camping and don't have to worry about Grizzly Bears, I may pack our cook stove, pots and pans in it too. I will want the double zero degree sleeping but that is too huge to fit in the suitcase. I told my husband that if he wanted to take the smaller mummy bags he would have to let me buy a new sleeping that would fit my hips so I can have some wiggle room and be able to sleep (I hate mummy bags)! I am also trying to figure out the best way to pack and carry our camera gear in our 50 Liter packs for backpacking/ day hiking. We will need to be able to carry a lot of water. We used bladders on our trip to Glacier but the last time we used them the water tasted of plastic. I plan to pack our water bottles but may look into how to clean or get different bladders as water is more readily available that way. Oh and make sure everything in the First Aid kit is up to date! Another thing I need to plan is laundry and where I may find laundry facilities. Kodachrome Basin State Park does have laundry and showers. I will also need to do wash the last night of camping because I really don't want to smell our dirty clothes the 30 plus hour drive home! I am sure Moab, Utah must have a laundromat. We did not get out a lot last year but hopefully we will have better weather this year and take advantage of all the sunny weekends. I know I have been pretty quiet on here lately. I don't like the cold either so we've spent most of our winter either home or visiting family! Hopefully I will have lots of new photos and adventures for you in the coming months! Take care! |
Julie MetottNature Photographer, wife, mother, lover of outdoor adventure! Archives
November 2022
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