Aidan is moving from Auckland to London and decided to stop by the States on his way to visit me and explore the US for the first time. Shortly after arriving in Denver, Aidan ventured to Rocky Mountain National Park and was pleasantly surprised with the snowy mountains. Upon his return, we went to Aidanâs first American concert at the Bluebird theater. We danced, sat on the floor, and I hugged the lead singer of the opening band. It was a success.
I planned out a 9-day road trip for us to Utahâs Mighty 5 National Parks starting on Friday
Day 1, Friday: Drive to Arches
Aidan had had a disappointing first experience at Trader Joeâs and I was committed to changing his opinion on my favorite grocery store. We stopped in on our way out of town to pick up snacks for the trip. Our next stop was the Target in Glenwood springs for Kianuâs (my Kia EV6) first charge. As we were approaching Moab we were getting low in charge and decided to get some juice at Green River Coffee.
By this time, the sun was starting to set and we had yet to find a campground in Moab. There were a ton of first-come first-serve spots but we were running out of luck late on a Friday night. We were hungry so we decided to eat at a Thai place in town while we both frantically googled camping options.
I found a guy offering a teardrop camper on Airbnb for too much money so I messaged him and asked if we could camp on his land. He told me he didnât have any land and instead drove the camper out to a few different Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grounds and asked for my number to drop me a few pins of locations we could camp at.
We took Stevenâs recommendations and drove straight to one of the spots which took us down a very hilly dirt road. It worked! We found a safe place to camp for the night (38.7100273,-109.7277553) and set up my tent for the first time.
On Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful campground surrounded by red rocks. Aidan and I took a morning stroll to explore the grounds before heading to our first park of the trip - Arches National Park (ANP).
We stopped at the visitorâs center to plan out our day and Aidan made brekki in the parking lot. Delicate Arch was up first and to this day is Aidanâs favorite Arch. Thatâs saying a lot since ANP has over 2k arches alone.
Next up was Devils Garden where we saw the following arches: Tunnel, Pine Tree, Landscape, Navajo, Partition, and Double O. Aidan decided to do a side trail to Dark Angel when I realized the heat was getting to me. I took some micro naps in the shade while Aidan got lost.
On our way down, a storm was threatening and the winds began. It did say there was a 30% chance of rainâŚWe were nervous because we left the tent up.
When got back to the campsite, luckily our tent was still there however not exactly where we left it. Hard first outing for my new tent. We didnât have enough charge to go to Moab for dinner so made a sketchy camp meal of beans, rice, guacamole, and tuna.
We made friends with our neighbor from Salt Lake City and had plans to join his fire when all of a sudden the sand started moving and then a huge gust of wind threw sand all over the car and the tent. We huddled in the tent to wait out the storm. If we werenât feeling dirty before we certainly were then. At least our skin got exfoliatedâŚ
I woke up at 3 am to a beautiful starry night sky and was able to see the core of the Milky Way!
Day 3, Sunday: Capitol Reef
On Sunday morning we packed up camp quickly and went back to Green River Coffee to charge and have a âcuppaâ. The cafe was filled with messages about kindness but the barista was notâŚ
A few hours later we arrived at Capitol Reef National Park. At the visitorâs center they told us that most of the trails were closed due to flash flood risk even though there was only a 30% chance of rain.
We parked at the Hickman bridge parking lot and had ourselves a trunk lunch. When we began the trail, the sky was threatening a storm. A woman asked âis it worth it?â to hikers on their way down as thunder crackled. We carried on. 45 minutes later and we had arrived at..another arch! I guess only Arches is allowed to call them that.
We made it back to the parking lot and who do I see? Someone I volunteer with in Denver! What a coincidence! The second we got in the car, the rain finally began. We decided to stay dry and do the scenic drive which was worth it.
We dropped in the local museum which was composed of 3 gift shop rooms and 1 room with some history from the town.
When we got to Capitol Reef Resort, we decided to put away the car keys for the night. With that kind of freedom, Aidan started ripping into some beers. We both finally had a nice shower and then went to explore the grounds.
First, we found the llamas. They all stared at us for a while while we stared at them. I got sneezed on. We then brought our cups to the gas fire pit (disappointing) and chatted up a couple from Vegas.
For dinner we crossed the road to Rim Rock Restaurant which had a beautiful view of Capitol Reef from all sides. There was a bird feeder and Aidan got to see his first humming birds. I had some high quality local Utah trout and Aidan had classic American ribs. We ended the night by taking advantage of the amenities and watching the Office.