Canyonlands – Island in the Sky
We’ve never really done a long national trip so this time we decided to use our vacation club and booked a condo in Eden, UT. Eden is about an hour north of Salt Lake City. We got a direct flight from Detroit which was nice for a change. For a rental car, we booked what we thought would be a Jeep from Fox Rent A Car. Of course, this is the only car company that isn’t at the airport so we had to wait for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to where we waited for an hour to check in and get the car. The car of course wasn’t ready for us (really?). We got a lovely Kia Sportage that was DIRTY. We were so frustrated after wasting time we didn’t want to waste any more and headed out. Our condo, Powder Ridge Village, was at the
Wasatch Mountains
top of the mountain. We were honestly not sure if the Kia would make it up there. The road up the mountain was a seven mile incline full of twists and turns. As we were driving up we were surprised to see snow. Apparently, within the past week they got a big dump of snow unexpectedly and it was the most amount of snow they’ve got in 10 years. Chains are required on tires in the winter. The snow and avalanche can get so bad they will close the road on the mountain and sometimes you are stuck in or stuck out. They actually have avalanche scientists that work up there in the winter. The snow on the sides of the roads was so high in some spots that it was level with our car windows.
Bonneville Salt Flats
For our second day, we decided to drive to the Bonneville Salt Flats which was a three hour drive. Along the way we were excited as the speed limit increased from 70 to 75 and finally 80mph. It was fun to go that fast (legally). The drive wasn’t too exciting however it was cool to drive around The Great Salt Lake and see various mountains and salt flats along the way. The Bonneville Salt Flats themselves were awesome. They are huge and are right along the highway. There is a rest area that you can stop at and walk out on them. There are also faucets to rinse the salt off when you are done (a necessity). The salt flats had several inches of water on them. As you walk out further the water gets less and less and since there is water you aren’t allowed to drive on them. The color, mountains and reflection of the water was so picturesque. When we had enough of the flats, we decided to cross the border into Nevada. As soon as you cross, there are about four or five casinos. We stopped, ate and played the slots a little. We came out about $70 ahead and decided to pack up and head back.
Our third day there was a Monday so we thought it would be a great day to get up early and head to the Hogle Zoo. The drive got frustrating as our exit was closed, there was a decent amount of traffic and there weren’t a lot of other exit options to take. Our GPS kept wanting to take us back the same way so it took some time to figure out manually how to get there. We got a nice tour of residential Salt Lake City on the way. We arrived about the same time a ton of school kids did. They were so loud and running everywhere. We were able to get away from most of them. They should have been in school! The zoo was pretty decent though. The layout was nice. I had been looking forward to seeing the polar bear and it wasn’t in the enclosure so I asked a staff member if it would be out later. They told me it died recently. So, that was awkward, but we did get to see tigers, snow leopards and a bunch of other animals. After the zoo, we headed into Salt Lake City to take an old time trolley tour. The trolley had crackerjacks and coke in glass bottles for us. It took us around the downtown area explaining some of the history and stories and we stopped every once in a while to get out. We spent some time in the Temple Gardens, took pictures of The Beehive House (Brigham Young’s house), and got to tour the Capital. It is interesting because there is no security at the capital at all. Nothing stops you
Bison
from walking into the governor’s office or the supreme court. After the trolley tour we stopped at Antelope Island where we got to see antelope and bison. At one point we stopped to walk across the dunes to get to the Great Salt Lake. Kyle didn’t want to go but I insisted we have to touch it. So we did and it was pretty gross because it was so low. On the way back up to the car we got attacked by sand fleas. They were all over our skin, clothes and in our hair biting us. It was miserable. We tried one other stop and it was just as bad so we booked it out of there. On our way out we got to see a bunch of bison laying on the beach. It was a pretty funny sight. We had dinner that night on Ogden’s Historical 25th street and went back to the condo. Ogden is known as Salt Lake City’s devilish sister.
Golden Spike
The next day we decided to go north to the Golden Spike National Monument. We weren’t expecting much and maybe would be there for 15 minutes but we were there for an hour and a half. We got to see where the transcontinental railroad was completed. The spot is currently marked by a gold colored laurel tie. The actual four gold spikes used in the last tie are in various places throughout the country; one of which is believed to be in the earth somewhere in California after the building it was in collapsed during an earthquake. We were there on May 9th and on May 10th was the 148th anniversary so we got to see them practice some re-enactments for the following day. They had two train replicas of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific which blew steam and sounded whistles. It was pretty fun to watch them. After the Golden Spike, we drove through Logan’s Canyon byway which was a scenic route stopping once or twice along the way and up to Bear Lake. Bear Lake was very pretty and is on the border of Utah and Idaho. We decided to drive up to Idaho where we had lunch, then cross over into Wyoming to head back to our condo. The route we took was very cool to see the vast rolling hills and then traveling through various ravines.
Arch’s National Park
For Wednesday, we headed south to Moab. The drive was very long and got pretty boring but once we got closer it was much more exciting. We visited Arches National Park first. The park was pretty awesome. It’s hard to describe the red rock scenery and arches you see everywhere. We got out a did a couple short hikes. The park wasn’t very busy actually and the temperature was just right because it can get pretty hot down there. After Arches, we drove over to Canyonlands National Park: Island in the Sky. The Canyonlands are split into three groups: Island in the Sky, Needles and the Maze. They are all in the same park however they are not connected and are all slightly different. For Island in the Sky, you are mostly looking out over various canyons and rivers that carve them. It was really cool to see and the sun was setting on them so it offered nice colors. We stayed the night in Monticello since we were over four hours away from our condo.
Goblin Valley
On Thursday, we hit the Canyonlands: Needles. Needles is more like Arches National Park but without the Arches. Most everything you see you are looking up at. I liked Arches the best and Kyle liked Island in the Sky the best. Neither of us really cared for Needles but in its defense, we did a lot of driving and looking and it all just kind of blended in after a while. After Needles, we drove to Goblin Valley State Park. Goblin Valley consists of hundreds of these odd shaped rock formations carved by the wind over time. You hike down to the Goblin floor where you can walk amongst them and climb if you want though they advise you not to. They are all so different and it was fun to walk in them almost like a maze. We were glad we stopped here.
Our last day, we didn’t do much. Went to breakfast in Eden, watched Law and Order reruns, ate pizza rolls and took a nap. In the evening we went back to Historical 25th Street in Ogden for dinner and then went to a comedy show. The comedians name was Todd Johnson and he was pretty funny. Watch his video on YouTube. We still laugh about his show. T-O-D-D TODD!
Utah was pretty unique and surpassed both of our expectations. They have some interesting liquor laws which will get more interesting in 2018 when .05 becomes the new BAC legal limit. At times it felt like we were in a different country. For the majority of the state we didn’t have cell service (Verizon’s map is a little inaccurate if you ask me) and there aren’t a whole lot of back roads due to the terrain. The northern part of the state is completely different from the southern part of the state. Overall, Utah was a pretty good trip and worth the weeks’ time.
