Chapter 4: The Parks of Utah
Chapter 4
10/03/2020 - 10/10/2020
10/03
I headed to the town of Jackson Hole and looked for a place to shower, haven’t showered in like a week. The community center had showers for $8. I held off. I wasn’t paying that much for a shower honestly lololol. I skated around the town and checked out some shops. Next stop was Utah! I took the drive to Salt Lake City and did some house keeping. I changed my oil, hit up a laundromat, ate some yummy food at a vegan diner, and found somewhere to crash for the night! I posted on my Instagram asking if anyone lived in Salt Lake City, and a friend from home knew someone who went to college in Salt Lake! I finally showered, and then I just chilled at Tstone’s house with his roommates.
10/04
Tstone led me to The University of Utah where I discovered Red Butte Garden. The botanical garden was all festive for Halloween and it was gorgeous omg it was amazing. I spent the afternoon and then headed south. I stopped at Home Depot where I bought a chisel and a hammer for rockhounding! I never hunted for crystals, so I was super excited! Utah is definitely a gold mind for crystals. As soon as the sun went down, it got scary. Absolutely pitch black. It was weird. The sun would go down and then the moon wouldn’t appear for another couple of hours. Weird. My plan was to drive through part of Capital Reef National Park and camp out near the exit. I pulled off and drove up to a hill overlooking the dark landscape. I went to bed not knowing what the outside looked like. Even when the moon came out, it was too cloudy to see anything.
10/05
My first stop during my Utah stretch of this trip was Arches National Park. Everything was orange rock. And dry. And hot. Complete silence. I wanted to rockhound and dig for crystals along the way, so I found a handy map that explained where crystals and rocks can be found throughout Utah. I stopped off the side of the road and stumbled upon a volcanic hill with tons of jasper, agate, chert, and petrified wood. I was so happy (: I stopped at a couple more places along the way, but no luck!! So I headed to Arches! I waited at least an hour to get into the park, it was sooo busy.
Throughout the day, I hiked and checked out some super cool rock formations! The arches were crazy cool. I ended up staying until it got dark and snapped some long exposures of the milky way on my camera. I wasn’t sure where I was going to stay that night, so I ended up driving a little north and found BLM land to set up camp. It was soooo difficult trying to find a spot to park. Hundreds of trucks and RV’s scattered the land. I pulled up to an empty spot, made some pasta, put my cardboard cutouts in my windows, & went to bed.
10/06
Canyonlands National Park was about 30 miles west from where I camped around Arches. I got up at sunrise and awkwardly tried to do some yoga while a bunch of people in their RV’s watched me (: Breakfast has been the same the last couple weeks: oatmeal, banana, raisins, peanut butter, banana, jelly, green superfood, cinnamon, peanuts, etc... (I literally add whatever to it lolzz)
Canyonlands is split up into 3 different regions: Island In The Sky (the only one I did), The Needles (a small 10 mile stretch of road far south of where I was, I didn’t think it was worth it), & The Maze (strictly 4x4 vehicles). I headed to the park, stopped at the visitor center, and parked at a trail head that lead to Mesa Arch. Compared to other parks, this national park was super super small. I squeezed in 2 hikes and had a ton of time to pull off along the road (around 4 hours spent total, definitely not a full day park*)
I headed to Moab to do some grocery shopping & figured out what I was going to do for the rest of the day. I planned on backtracking my route. I decided to head back to where I camped a couple nights prior to heading to Arches. I ended up stopping around the same place to rockhound for a half hour, & ohhhh baby!! I found giants!! After driving through part of Capital Reef National Park, I headed south to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. It was getting dark, like super dark (literally almost slammed a cow in the middle of the road). Like guys, these skies are rated one of the darkest in the US, so when I say dark, I literally mean RGB black #000000.
I pulled off into an empty dirt lot, and surprisingly enough I had the entire place to myself. Low key super freaked myself out and got into my head about aliens watching me because I was literally the only person in this dark empty lot in the desert(: Dinner and long exposure pictures of the night sky was the nightly routine.
10/07
I woke up alive, but had no idea within the next 24 hours I’d be faced with literally a life or death situation. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is this huge slab of land in southern Utah that divides the Mighty 5 National Parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, Capital Reef, and Zion. My first stop was 5 minutes down the road to Lower Calf Creek Falls. The 1 mile 600’ decent into the canyon KILLED my knees, but it was totally worth it. I had the entire waterfall to myself :) I haven’t showered in a couple days. Here was my chance!! I stripped & literally dove straight under the falls without knowing how freezing the water was. It felt sooo amazing though omg.
A super cute coffee shop popped out of the deserted mountains. A double shot of espresso over ice was calling my name. I ordered my drink & a choco chip cookie & asked about hiking recommendations. I trusted the barista, so I headed to another trail! I hiked in 4.4 miles & discovered a natural bridge towards the end.
I’ve been looking forward to doing this next hike for quite sometime: Peek-a-boo Canyon. Did not realize it was 38 miles of rock and sandy undeveloped road to get to the trailhead. Wouldn’t recommend a car or trailer heading down this road, lots of people were pulled off or driving super slow. However my Rav 4 lived up to her expectations. But wowza, the entire hour drive literally rattled my insides.
After finally arriving at the Peek-A-Boo trailhead, I quickly finished my leftover pasta from the night before and headed off! I didn’t think it was going to get dark as fast as it did, but the multiple people coming up from the trailhead reassured me that it was about to turn pitch-black lol. I still trekked ahead. There were three main slot canyons at the very bottom of the 2-mile decline into the actual larger canyon. I had to rock climb 15’ up into the first slot and then it was miles of just continuous twisting and turning. I reached my exit of Peek-A-Boo and then had to enter Spooky Slot Canyon to continue the loop to exit.
I had no knowledge of what lied ahead within this portion of the hike. All of a sudden, there was a 20’ drop where I had to descend myself using a rope that was tied to a boulder. Surprisingly, the skills I learned in the rope climbing/tying class last semester was coming in handy!! Like guys, there was a point where I literally thought I was going to plummet to my death. It was getting super dark, I was the only one left in the entire canyon, and now there’s a huge drop-off ahead of me. Awesome.
I safely made it down and had to literally squeeze my insides in order to fit through the narrow inlets. At this point, it was almost pitch-black outside. I finally made it out and heard voices! I spotted a group of 20-year olds who were also heading out of the canyon! I hiked out with them and we ended up driving a couple miles down the extremely bumpy road to camp at an empty parking lot. The 5 of us were eating dinner when all of a sudden two men asking for our help came up to us. They had 3 friends who were trapped at the bottom of the canyon. 5 hours. Wearing shorts and tank tops (it gets like 30 degrees at night.) No food or water. It’s pitch black outside. No service. Can you imagine, like holy moly.
They left to go into town to get more help. While we were enjoying the rest of our dinner, the missing people showed up!! They were petrified omg. Their friends came back and they headed off back into town.
10/08
We got up early and went our separate ways. I headed back to Peek-a-boo Canyon and hiked another canyon slot. I grabbed a couple more picture and headed west towards Bryce National Park, but first I had to drive an hour and a half back down the bumpy road! My tire pressure light was on. This time, something wasn’t right. I could feel it. I stopped at a garage in the town of Escalante and turns out there was a small leak on my back left tire! They patched it and I was on my way! I stopped for gas, picked up some canned veggies, and stopped at a small 1 mile hike called Mossy Cave. I drove into Bryce and overheard at the visitor center there was going to be an astronomy presentation tonight. YAY!!! I put my name down and had a couple of hours in the park to do whatever. I drove to the end of the park and hiked around for a bit. I made some pasta at a pullout and watched the sunset over the mountains.
Bryce National Park was recently certified as as International Dark Sky Park, one of the darkest places in the US. The Milky Way was easily visible and the during the presentation, the park ranger used a high-powered laser pointer to pick out constellations and stars. It was super neat. I headed 20 minutes west to camp at Dixie National Forest.
10/09
I woke up and planned to go back to Bryce and do some hiking! It was sooo packed omg. Parking took me 15 minutes. Bryce was super tiny, so the main place to park and hike was centered on the Bryce Amphitheater. I hiked Queen’s Garden Trail from the Sunrise trailhead to the Sunset trailhead. The rock formations here were crazy. Like how does that happen.
I ate lunch and headed south towards Zion, but first I stopped at a couple of rock shops! The man working gave me advice on where to rockhound and even gave me a homemade map! Septarian nodules was the primary focus in this area. I headed up the dirt road and was unluckily for the first hour of hunting. I was in riverbeds and climbing up hills. Getting so filthy and cutting my legs up from spiked plants and branches. Suddenly, shards of crystals everywhere. I walked further up and balls of nodules. It was crazy. They were so heavy, I’ve never seen anything like it. Unfortunately I only brought a backpack, but I managed to gather a lot! I headed out before sunset, but had no idea where I was going. I was just heading towards Zion. I camped 20 minutes outside of the East Entrance of Zion National Park in a giant desert.
10/10
BIG PROBLEM. Ok, so Zion National Park is like the king of USA national parks. Like it’s a must, so I wasn’t wasting this opportunity. Zion only allows shuttles and bicycles into the park, no private vehicles. To get tickets for the shuttle, one must log on at 9am the day prior (or 1 month beforehand) and quickly buy the tickets. They sold out at 9:01am. It was crazy. People were selling and buying tickets on the AllTrails hiking ‘comment section,’ something I’ve never seen before lol. I’m assuming it was super busy because it was Columbus Day weekend. My only option was to rent a bike. I called all the bike stores, and found out that they were already rented out or it was first come first serve. GREAT!!! It was an hour drive to Springdale (the town that housed the entrance to Zion.)
I got up at 5:30am and zoomed my way to the bike stores. The second store I came upon had only one bike left, so I snagged it! I must have grabbed the last bike in the entire town, crazy luck! What was I getting myself into. The park is 15 miles long roundtrip with a steady incline. Plus I was about to do 3 of the most strenuous hikes I’ve ever faced. My knee is still hurting, but I developed to just ignore it. The mix of essential oils and creams helped tremendously for the pain. First hike was Emerald Pools, a moderate waterfall hike.
Second hike was the infamous ‘The Narrows.’ This hike was special because the entire hike is in a river. The walls of the gorge were sometimes 1000’ tall and the water sometimes reached up to the waist. It was freezing. Like I mean freezing. So many people were wimping out. The risk of flash floods was super serious. So many people were slipping, but literally little kids were up for the challenge. My main goal was to travel up to where the river split into 2, a section called ‘Wall Street.’ Roundtrip 6 miles. I noticed a lot of people from LA. Influencers on their weekend getaway to the woods!!! Literally there were girls with GUCCI BAGS in this river. Like I turned to the girl next to me and we both laughed lol. Like what the heck. After the long afternoon of fighting the current, I finally reached my bike. For the most part, everything was downhill.
The last hike of the day was Angels Landing. A 1,500’ foot incline to the top of mainly switchbacks, awful. 5 miles. The last portion of the hike was absolutely atrocious. I had to hang onto a metal chain for a half hour and balance myself up a narrow rock formation with steep drop-offs on both sides. Quite terrifying. I befriended the two people in front of me because we were all freaking out lol, but we finally made it! I headed back down, and biked the beautiful scenic road through Zion at sunset. I returned the bike, and camped in an empty dirt lot a couple miles away. My last night in Utah.
