We typically plan our trips several months in advance and although Tracey looks at the historical weather statistics for the areas we plan to visit, it is always a bit of a gamble as the departure date approaches. This was a 14-day trip to Southern Utah, Salt Lake City, St. George, UT, and Las Vegas, NV. We liberated Tofu from their indoor bougie storage prison and Tony spent a day loading up the van with all our gear while Tracey pre-cooked and prepped meals for the trip. Both Google Maps and Waze were routing us through Phoenix due to a winter snowstorm near Flagstaff which made our usual country and mountain road route unadvisable. The traffic was epic even by Phoenix standards and it took us double what it normally takes to get through the city. The construction and accidents worsened as we crept north towards Flagstaff with freeway closures and detours. With daylight waning and us both feeling exhausted from doing nothing all day, we stopped for the night at a primitive, but newly renovated, Forest Service campground near the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. We were an hour short of our intended destination.

Day 2 involved 9 miles down a washboard dirt road going 10 mph to arrive at the Wirepass Trailhead. Buckskin Gulch is one of the longest slot canyons in the USA. The first few miles of the hike were a leisurely walk through a wash. After entering the canyon, we arrived at a T-junction where we found numerous petroglyphs carved in the rock and many hikers awkwardly milling around. We continued to follow our planned route and arrived at the first “pool” we would need to cross in the slot canyon but found numerous hikers gathered there. Some hikers were just going for it and splashed right through the middle of the pool, others were trying to step on rocks to keep their feet dry, others were standing on the sidelines watching, while others were trying to discourage hikers from continuing by telling them that pools further down the trail were waist deep. We had done our research and knew what to expect so we stripped down to shorts and put on our Keen sandals and plowed through the first pool. The water was muddy brown and icy cold, but worse the bottom was a mixture of large slippery rocks or silty sticky mud which grabbed and sucked shoes in place like quicksand. We used our hiking poles to probe in front of us so we had an idea of what to expect. For the next 1.25 miles we went through 10 different pools of various sizes and depths with the deepest being a few inches above our knees. After the water crossings concluded, the path of the slot canyon trail changed to a fine red beach sand. There were very few people on the trail past the first pool. This slot canyon runs almost 16 miles so we only did a portion of it, but we would love to return for an overnight camping and hiking trip in the future to complete the whole length. As the sun was getting lower and the canyon was getting even darker, we turned around and headed back through all 10 pools again. With our lower legs and toes red and numb for the frigid water we quickly dried off and put on our dry socks and dry hiking shoes for the end of the hike back to the van.

We drove the 9 miles of washboard road back to the paved road and we found a wild camping spot for the night. It was about this time that Tony began really complaining about pain in his tooth and jaw. He had a cracked tooth recently and he had a new crown placed right before we left on this trip. His Ibuprofen use ramped up which is a sign of how bad things really are as he never takes medication.

Day 3 was a long drive to Salt Lake City with a quick walk enroute on the Bridal Veils Fall trail near Provo, UT.  Tony was able to get in a short bike ride in spite his tooth still throbbing with pain any time he ate, drank or even cold air touched it. We had reserved a KOA campsite in Salt Lake City – our first time at a KOA for either of us! We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t horrible. It was not in the greatest neighborhood, but the park had 24/7 security, the staff were friendly and the facilities were clean.  We selected this campground because it was directly on the Tram/Trax Green Line which would be convenient for a concert where we had tickets the following day.  Now will we stay at KOA again? Maybe, but probably not.

Day 4 and after a restful night’s sleep at the KOA, we headed to the Backcountry retail store where Tony bought a few items. This small retail store for the outdoor apparel and equipment retailer is attached to its warehouse so we were able to “shop” their entire website inventory with the warehouse workers picking and delivering to the store anything we wanted to try on. Kinda cool! Next up was the Patagonia Outlet in the Sugar House district of SLC. This store was a bit of a disappointment as all the clearance items were incredibly small or large sizes and there really was not much to choose from. A stop at Whole Foods for lunch and grocery provisions completed our morning. Tony’s tooth was really throbbing consistently at this point so after contacting our home dentist, he located a local dentist for a “bite adjustment”. The local dentist had an appointment the following morning and even accepted our insurance. With Tony hopped up on Ibuprofen, we took on a lovely hike in the West Valley up a steep mountain and we were dutifully rewarded at the top with beautiful views of the city. As is our pattern, Tony got in a short bike ride with some serious hill climbing before we returned to the KOA. A quick shower and a rushed dinner where we did not even have time to clean up our dinner dishes, we jumped on the Tram which whisked us to Temple Square for a planned concert at The Depot. Our tickets said 7:00 PM for the concert, but this was the time the doors opened so our arrival at 6:30 PM was much too early. After queuing with other early arrivers on the street and noting we were by far the youngest people in the line, we were led to our seats in what Tony called the “Old Person’s Section”. The venue held 500 people and there were only 25 assigned seats in the Mezzanine with the rest of the concert goers being required to stand, with no chairs, on the main floor. As the time the concert approached, our “Old Person Section” began to fill up with other Old People like us while all the 20- and 30-year-olds stood below us. Michael Marcagi put on a great concert. He is a Cincinnati, OH native and a newer solo artist, but both he and his bandmates were incredibly talented. Their music was a mixture of rock, country and folk music with the lyrics being creative and thoughtful. Overall, a fun time and definitely an artist we would see again in concert. We were home on the Tram within 20 minutes of the end of the concert where we cleaned up our crusty dinner dishes and climbed into bed just before midnight (this is late for us).

On Day 5, Tony woke up with his tooth continuing to throb and now had pain in both his upper and lower jaw so he was glad he made an appointment for a local dentist. We serendipitously found Sugar House Park where we parked up and relaxed before Tony’s dentist’s appointment. The local dentist ground down not only his new upper crown but also his 3-month-old lower crown so that his bite was normal. She said his pain should subside in 2 or 3 days. We walked around the 1.7-mile loop within Sugar House Park, which was formerly a large state penitentiary, and we made lunch before heading out for yet another hike. More hiking was not meant to be as the 1^st trail we selected was more reminiscent of a game trail that went straight up the side of a loose dirt steep hill. The 2^nd back-up trail had a sign warning about recent car break-ins. Instead, we headed back to the KOA and had a lazy evening of cooking dinner, watching Ted Lasso (we are late adopters and still only on Season 2) and going to bed early. Tony’s tooth started to feel a bit better at this point.

Our experience with Salt Lake City was mixed. The area itself has beautiful hikes and lovely walkable neighborhoods, like Sugar House, which reminded us of the Tennyson area in Denver, CO where we had lived. The Tram system is convenient and the city has awesome public transportation options. There are many cool stores, restaurants and boutiques. The downsides of SLC are the maze of overlapping freeways right through the middle of the city which seemed continually congested. There was a constant “haze” from pollution omnipresent over SLC our entire visit.  In the area near our KOA, there were a lot of unhoused people and open IV drug use. Lastly, there is an LDS vibe that can be felt in most aspects of SLC which feels weird for non-LDS members.

We left Salt Lake City at daybreak on Day 6 to beat the traffic. The first few hours were uneventful, but then we found a large storm producing high winds and rain. Driving even slower than usual (did you know the speed limit is 80 mph in Utah, meaning most people drive 90 mph?) finding a comfortable speed around 68 mph and with a tight grip on the steering wheel, we made it safely to Snow Canyon State Park near St. George, UT. The park was not terribly busy, so after checking into the only campground, we waited out the rainstorm before heading out for our first hike. We typically go on 1 middle distance hike each day, but in doing so we miss many of the shorter hikes so on this visit we decided to string together some of these smaller hikes which leave from the campground. As soon as we stepped out the door of our van, we could smell the post-rain creosote. It has such a unique and fresh smell that is hard to describe but quite pleasant and we really enjoy it. The rain scared away the rest of the tourists so the park was empty and we had the trails to ourselves. We hiked Jenny’s Canyon trail which was a short but sweet trail consisting of a mini slot canyon and an overlook. Next was the Pioneer Names trail which hugged the walls directly up against the bases of the giant red stone cliffs. We also hiked across sand dunes which were thick with fine red sand before walking back to the campground on a lovely paved multi-use pathway just as the sun was setting and the rays produced a lovely glow on the red cliffs while casting long shadows across the entire valley. A quick and easy dinner, followed by a few hands of Monopoly Deal and a bit of TV watching in bed, we were both sound asleep by 9 PM.

Snow Canyon State Park (UT) is one of the few places we continue to return to repeatedly. The park is nestled in between huge red and white sandstone formations. At this visit, we both immediately noticed the substantial number of massive construction projects, not just for homes and retail, but for entire resorts. Driving along familiar roads we were a bit disoriented as there were so many new buildings that were not present during our last visit 2 years ago. Snow Canyon State Park is situated where the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert and Great Basin deserts meet which provides an interesting and diverse geology. During this visit we were lucky once again with the weather, which was unseasonably warm producing highs in the 60’s and lows in the 40’s (°F), with only a couple of exceptions.

The next morning on Day 7 of our trip we set our sights on the Johnson Canyon trail which was closing for the season the following day. This canyon has the only continuous water source for the entire park and therefore hiking access is limited after March 15^th to allow the animals to freely obtain water. We were told when we checked in at the campground that the trailhead parking was closed and the ranger advised us to instead utilize a picnic area parking lot a mile or so up the road. We did as instructed only to find the trailhead parking lot was actually open.  The Johnson Canyon hike was another lovely trail which took us across slick red rock, over black and craggy lava fields, through sandy washes and into a narrow canyon that was a riparian area consisting of a stream, a small waterfall, places where water was dripping/oozing from the red rocks and lots of trees with their first light green leaves having just recently appeared. The leaves were so green and translucent the leaves almost appeared to be illuminated from within. It was incredibly special to see.

After the hike we headed into St. George for lunch at the vegan café called Gaia Garden Café. We ate here before and it did not disappoint this time. While we noted the new construction on our arrival, the subpar urban planning only became evident to us as we navigated the streets. Almost all of the arterials were “stroads” which have all the worst aspects of a street and road combined including lots of strip malls with frequent driveways, 6 lanes of traffic, sidewalks nobody would ever want to walk and poorly maintained bike lanes and multi-use paths which just disappear without notice pushing cyclists into multi-lanes of traffic. This area is sadly becoming less pedestrian and bicycle friendly at each visit. A few more stops for provisions had us back at the park with time for Tony from the south to north park entrances and back again logging a PR (personal record) beating his previous best by 4 minutes. This is one of his favorite routes and it is well utilized by other cyclists, too. Tracey had scoped out another “quick hike” she felt could be fit in before dinner and more importantly before the approaching storm arrived, so we headed to the Cinder Cone trail on the far north side of the park. We corkscrew hiked to the top of a 500-foot extinct volcano which provided views of the crater and a panoramic view of the park. The storm moved faster than we anticipated as snow arrived as we were walking around the rim of the crater. Luckily, it was pelleted snow with only moderate winds on the descent back to the van. Within minutes of us arriving back at our campground, it rained heavily for the next 5-6 hours including an increase in wind and a drop in temperatures to the high 20’s (°F). Our campsite had electrical hook-ups so we turned on our trusty ceramic heater and stayed warm while Tracey cooked lentil-mushroom tacos for us, we played more hands of Monopoly deal and watched the latest episode of Season 3 of the White Lotus which we previously downloaded when we were in town as the internet is fair at best in the park. Tony’s tooth continues to feel better, but he is not yet eating on that side of his mouth but no longer taking Ibuprofen so a step in the right direction.

On our final day in the park and Day 8 of our trip, we decided to do a morning hike directly from the campground which had us walking over slick red rock, over more lava fields, past lava tubes before we started walking through miles of thick deep red sand. It was slow walking on this type of terrain, but the temperature was crisp, the sky was clear and we only saw a few people on the trails the entire morning. Our hike took us into a canyon on the west side of the park that was not nearly as interesting as the other canyons we had visited so we elected to take a detour on our return and hiked the portion of the northern side of Padre Canyon instead. This canyon was amazing with a small stream running down the middle, steep red cliffs on all sides, water pools and boulders we had to rock scramble over.  This is certainly a trail we will hike in its entirety on our next visit as it felt like a hidden gem that is not well used. Our detour added some mileage to our planned hike ending us at 6.5 miles with 3 miles being through fine deep sand. Tracey cooked a quick lunch and then proceeded to take a 3 hour “nap” while Tony got back on his bike for 16-mile ride, but this time as a loop around the park. He noted the bicycle path outside of the park which allows for this loop was in quite poor condition and needs a lot of maintenance if it is going to be touted as a bicycle route in the future. The park was extremely busy since it was a Saturday and the weather was fantastic, so we opted for a lower key afternoon at the campsite. Dinner was what we call a “fend for yourself” which meant cereal, toast and a protein shake. Tony found a dishwashing station to use at this campground like what is popular in Europe.  In bed and asleep again by 9:30 PM although the neighboring RVs noisy propane furnace kept waking Tracey up all night, we remained toasty warm using our little electric (and silent) heater.

On Day 9, we departed from the campground at 7:30 AM to get one of the few spots at the trailhead which would accommodate the size of our van. We were the first vehicle in the lot so we proceeded to have a leisurely breakfast in the van before hiking our final trail in Snow Canyon. We were only the 2^nd group to set out for this hike which again took us across red slick rock, over several large lava fields, down into a canyon, up 90 uneven “steps” and then up a steep rock scramble to Scout Cave. The other group in front of us had already arrived at the cave and was enjoying a celebration of their abilities of getting up to the cave so Tracey didn’t have the heart to tell them the descent was much harder than the actual ascent due to the loose rocks and steepness based on her previous experience hiking this trail several years ago. After a few photos and a Larabar break, we carefully descended only to find many groups of hikers, families, and dog-walkers coming in the other direction towards the cave. We prefer hiking when there are fewer people and more solitude so we made the right decision to hike early.

We elected to stop and eat lunch once again at Gaia Garden Café on our way through St. George enroute to our next stop at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Tony is no longer having any tooth pain and he can eat on both sides of his mouth now. A short 110-mile drive through twisty I-15 with cliffs of white sandstone on both sides and multiple viewpoints of the Virgin River made for quite an enjoyable drive. When we exited the interstate, both of us were quite disappointed as the area was full of trash, lots of cheap stores and gambling centers and the terrain itself was not anything exciting. Tracey was starting to feel like she might have let us down on this leg when we arrived at Valley of Fire State Park and our opinion completely changed. In the middle of this wasteland we had driven through was a beautiful red sandstone cliff oasis of a park. We are quite excited to begin our exploration of this park!

Onwards to Part 2 of this road trip!