We departed from Moab in the late morning and made the ten minute drive to Arches National Park on the outskirts of town. When we arrived at the visitor center we were highly discouraged to go backcountry camping in order to protect the biological soil crusts within the park.
The biological crust grows in patches that look like black, mossy, burnt crust on top of the soil. Some say it resembles burnt popcorn… We were told that 1 inch of growth can take nearly 100 years. These crusts are extremely important to all life in the park as they assist in anchoring down plants in the windy and dust filled region. If we still wanted to camp, we had to be 100 yards off the trail, could only walk on rocks, and our tent had to be set up on rocks… Challenge accepted!
We explored for the remainder of the afternoon visiting sites such as Balanced Rock and Landscape Arch. We finished up with a 3 mile hike on Devil’s Garden Trail to a point known as Dark Angel. Dark Angel is a freestanding 150 foot sandstone pillar where we wanted to set up camp. We avoided stepping on the soil and we hopped along the boulders and rocks until we found ourselves along a cliff face that overlooked the valley below. With spectacular panoramic views, we knew we wanted to set up camp nearby.
We set up our Tribe Provisions tents but had little intention of sleeping in them as we placed our pads and sleeping bags on the ground less than two feet from the cliff’s edge. After treating ourselves to a little hot cider and bourbon, we watched the sun disappear behind the mountains in the distance. Once we got into our sleeping bags, we stared up at the endless sea of stars, spotting a number of shooting stars and satellites.
Waking up in the morning darkness was a bit slow and bone chilling, but well worth the spectacular sunrise we witnessed. Once the sun rose, we quickly made breakfast and got moving to warm ourselves up and to visit Arch’s most famous feature, Delicate Arch.
After leaving Arches NP, we stopped in the little town of Panguitch, Utah about an hour outside of Bryce Canyon National Park. We came across a great RV park called, Hitch-N-Post which turned out to be a great stop for us. $22.00/night and it had all the amenities we needed including wi-fi, laundry, and most importantly, showers. The only thing we didn’t like about Panguitch was it didn’t have one single bar…
In the morning, we finished drying our laundry before heading to Bryce. It was a beautiful drive down the famous Route 12, which was voted one of the prettiest highways in the world. We arrived at the Visitor Center mid-day where we obtained our Bear Canister for camping. While camping in many of the parks, you are required to store anything with a scent (food, sunscreen, toothpaste, etc.) in a Bear Canister or a Bear Box. We spent most of the day hiking through Bryce Canyon’s famous Hoodoos and exploring the canyons. What’s a Hoodoo you may be thinking? Hoodoos are unique rock formations that look like totem poles and are formed by the ice and snow that frequent the canyons.
Along the short hike to our campsite we came across a sign that read, “You are sharing this area with Black Bears.” That was a nice thought as we were about to start cooking. Also, because we were sleeping in the desert, we both decided to leave behind our Tribe Provisions tents and sleep in our hammocks. BIG MISTAKE!! After a sleepless night of freezing our butts off, we later found out that Bryce Canyon is at an elevation of about 8,500 ft and experiences more than 200 nights a year below freezing. Not ideal for sleeping in an open, uninsulated hammock. Packing up camp around 5:30 am, we were both so distraught over our sleepless night that we just wanted to leave Bryce Canyon and make our way to Zion National Park.
Pulling into Zion NP was unlike anything we had seen before. The twelve miles of winding road and hairpin turns from the entrance to the visitor center offered some of the most unique and spectacular rock formations either of us had ever seen. We arrived at the visitor center exhausted, and we opted to nap in the parking lot for the remainder of the afternoon to let the crowds die down. We overslept and ran out of time to do much at the park, so we grabbed a buffalo meatloaf burger at the nearby Brew Pub and spent the night at another RV park. We’re starting to love RV parks.
The rain started in the middle of the night and continued through the entire day. We went back to the park to secure a drive-up campsite for the night to be close by incase the weather let up. With our inexpensive place to park for the night, we lounged all day and tried to break a mental sweat with some light reading. For dinner we picked up some sausages, buns, and beers, before we retreated back to Vanjoelina.
Our final day in Zion turned out to be an amazing day and fortunately the rain may have scared away many of the tourists. We used this day to reach one of Zion’s most spectacular hiking destinations, Angel’s Landing. The Angel’s Landing hike is an experience worthy of anyone’s bucket list. Although anyone is allowed to make the trek, we seriously recommend being in decent shape and hope you don’t have a fear of heights.
The hike starts out fairly easy on a paved trail and then transitions to switchbacks with a quick gain in elevation. After the first two miles, the hike gets particularly interesting. The last half-mile of the trail is hardly a trail at all but a nearly vertical, narrow, sandstone ridge with 1000 ft drop offs on both sides. Often, the only way to keep yourself from falling to death are the chains that have been anchored into the side of the rock face for hikers to hold. We experienced frequent traffic jams of hikers because much of the trail has only enough room for one person and cannot accommodate the two-way traffic. In two separate instances, we had to wait a few minutes for hikers that were having panic attacks and froze up due to a fear of falling. Quite fun!
We still made excellent time with all the stops and it was certainly worth it. The view from Angel’s Landing is another place you have to see in person to truly understand how unbelievable it is. The view of the valley and river below appear as something you see in the movie Avatar or some other science fiction film. We devoured some Epic Provisions protein bars while resting and taking in the views before it was time to work our way back down.
We wanted to wrap up our day hiking the infamous Narrows at Zion Canyon, which requires hiking through the Virgin River but to our misfortune, this hike was off limits to visitors due to high water levels. Instead, Frank decided to befriend a squirrel. We won’t report him to park officials for interfering with wildlife!
Vanjoelina Jolie 