August 31 – September 6, 2018
Jonathan and I left on our next adventure on Friday with an evening flight to Salt Lake City. After arriving late, we took the shuttle to the Tru by Hilton hotel. We checked into the brand new hotel. I’m pretty sure we were the first people who stayed in our room so that was a bonus.
On Saturday, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel before taking the shuttle back to the airport to pick up our rental. We were then off to get coffee at Eva’s Bakery before we went on a tour of Salt Lake City with Salt Lake Trolley Tours. After the tour, we walked around the city before going to the Red Iguana for lunch.
The Queen Elizabeth Tile 
Since we were in Salt Lake City we decided to drive out and see the Great Salt Lake. I’m glad we saw it, but it was quite smelly!
After a quick stop at the lake, we were on our way to Moab, UT where we stayed at the Adventure Inn for two nights. Since we discovered how much we loved the pizza out west on our Colorado trip, we opted for pizza for dinner and went to Antica Forma which did not disappoint.
On Sunday morning, we headed out early and drove to Dead Horse Point State Park. We walked to the point from the visitor’s center without realizing we could have driven there (oops!). Needless to say we were exhausted and hot by the time we made it to the point. It was still a fun hike and we had the trail to ourselves (probably because everyone else was smarter than us and drove there, ha!). We walked the paved road back to the visitor’s center and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the food stand there before heading to Canyonlands National Park that afternoon.
At Canyonlands National Park we decided on the Island in the Sky portion of the park. We drove and walked to the following areas: Grand View Point, Upheaval Dome, Whale Rock, Green River Overlook and finally to Mesa Arch.
After a long day, we had a great Italian dinner at Pasta Jay’s . Even though it was so hot that day we enjoyed eating on the patio. We ended the day by walking around Moab’s Main Street which also included a stop to try the Cryocream (liquid nitrogen ice cream) at Moab Garage Co.
On Monday, we got up super early and drove to Arches National Park in the dark so we could hike to Devil’s Garden to watch the sunrise. We had the place to ourselves. Even though it ended up being a little cloudy and the sunrise wasn’t spectacular, it was still awesome to be out there alone with the mule deer we encountered. While it was still early we hiked to Landscape Arch, Skyline Arch, Windows Arch and Park Avenue.
We drove back into Moab to check out of our hotel and grab a snack. We then headed back to Arches to hike to the iconic Delicate Arch. It was definitely worth the long hot hike to see; however, we should have done our research and done this hike early that morning.
Before leaving Moab that afternoon, we ate lunch at the Quesadilla Mobilla food truck and it did not disappoint.
We headed out for Torrey, UT that afternoon and stopped at Goblin Valley State Park along the way. We saw the thousands of odd rock formations known as “hoodoos”, but in this park they are referred to as “goblins”.
After walking through the goblins for a little while, we continued our drive to Torrey where we checked into the Austin’s Chuck Wagon Motel. We asked the lady at the front desk if she had any recommendations for dinner. She suggested we try the Torrey Grill that was located in the RV park down the road. It may have been located in a campground, but the food was amazing and we would definitely recommend going there for dinner.
After a night at the Chuck Wagon Motel, we had breakfast at the Chuck Wagon General Store next door before driving to Capitol Reef National Park. This park apparently is not as popular as the other four national parks in Utah, but we really enjoyed it. We drove to the Capitol Gorge Trail and hiked through the gorge where we saw a pioneer register along the trail before hiking up to see the tanks.
Pioneer Register 
Before leaving the park, we went to the orchards and picked some fresh fruit and walked to see the many cool petroglyphs in the area.
Scenic Byway 12, which was a beautiful drive, took us to Escalante, UT where we ate dinner at the Escalante Outfitters Cafe. We spent the night at the Entrada Escalante Lodge.
On Wednesday morning, we drove through Grand Stair-Escalante National Monument on the way to Bryce Canyon National Park. We did some research the night before and put together a hike for the morning. We did the Queens Garden Trail and combined it with the Navajo Loop Trail. It was a great way to see the hoodoo rock formations up close in the canyon. After ending the hike at Sunrise Point we drove to a few another points in the park: Aqua Canyon, Natural Bridge and Bryce Point.
Later that afternoon, we drove to Springdale, UT. On our way we drove through a portion of Zion National Park and saw several bighorn sheep. This was a highlight of my trip since I had never seen one before and had been wanting to for so long. We checked into the Quality Inn for the night and had dinner at Oscar’s Cafe before checking out the town.
The next morning, we got up early to go to Zion National Park. We got there early since parking Zion is hard to come by and the shuttle is the only option in the summer. We rode the shuttle to the last stop in the park and walked the Riverside Walk to the beginning of the Narrows. Many of the people on our shuttle were heading out to hike the Narrows. It is now on my bucket list to do. After the Riverside Walk, we hopped on the next shuttle and got off at three more stops that day to explore the weeping rock, lower emerald pools and the pa’rus trail (that lead us back to the parking lot).
We left the final park of our trip and went to Meme’s Cafe for a late lunch before leaving for Las Vegas.
In Las Vegas, we stayed at the Paris Hotel and Casino where we had an amazing view of the Bellagio fountains (Room 3023). We ate dinner at Yardbird at the Venetian. We shared the chicken & waffles with a side of macaroni and cheese (it was more than enough food for both of us and we still talk about how good it was). While in the Venetian, we found Carlos’ Bakery and ordered desserts to take back to the room. We walked down the strip and saw the volcano at the Mirage eruption before going back to our room to enjoy the desserts we bought and watched the Bellagio fountains from the comfort of our couch.
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel before walking through the gardens at the Bellagio and exploring the strip. Next, we made a quick stop at the iconic “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign before heading to the airport for our flight home.
All of the parks in Utah are a must see and neither of us can really pick a favorite. They all have unique things that make each of them great. I think it’s also safe to say we will both be returning to Utah at some point in our lives to explore all of the parks again!
Note: Something we used a lot on this trip was a flexible cellphone tripod with a remote that I purchased on Amazon (the one I bought was less than $20). This was as easy way to get pictures of both of us when others weren’t nearby.
So Many Places So Little Time 