Utah
From the Hardesty family gathering in Flagstaff filled with stories, fishing, and games, we drove back north for the Mountainfilm festival in Telluride. Some close friends from Denver met us there which made for one hell of a weekend! We traversed the Via Ferrata together before watching Scott’s short film (Dawn to Dusk) played among other films by filmmakers he has looked up to for years. A surreal moment we won’t soon forget.
After some tough goodbyes, we decided to check out Durango for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I was a bit under the weather so our days here were spent relaxing and catching up on some work. We quickly decided to push on to Utah after learning some high school friends were in Bryce Canyon National Park and wanted to meet up. After finding a shortcut on a dirt road, we made our way through the desert into Bryce.
Sally and Cori are some of the most badass backpackers and outdoor enthusiasts we know. They both work at an outdoor education camp in Houston and spend their summers exploring the country’s backcountry and national parks. We met up last year with them in Vail after they decided on a whim to hike Long’s Peak one morning. Bryce Canyon was no exception. After a day hike to break us in, we obtained permits for the Under-the-Rim trail. 23 miles in two days was a rough start to our backpacking season, but with these buds it was impossible to have a bad time.
A lesson we learned about vanlife shortly after Bryce Canyon was that it pays to have a plan. Even if you veer from that plan in the long run, it sure beats sitting around asking again and again: “well, what should we do next?” It took us the entire evening to decide to go down Hole-in-the-Rock road and check out the various trails and canyons down that way. We were extremely lucky that we happened to wander into Utah Canyon Outdoors where Caitie gave us the scoop on the area and pointed us in the right direction. If you are ever in Escalante, be sure to stop in as it will definitely be worth your time.
Braving the desert heat, we descended into Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Canyons before hiking into a gulch farther down the road. This gulch promised water, arches, and various side canyons waiting to be explored. It most definitely didn’t disappoint.
We packed out and parted ways with Cori and Sally who were eager to get out of the desert and on to Colorado (where they would get engaged on top of Mt. Bierstadt!!). From there we pushed Buster to his limits and made it all 64 miles down Hole-in-the-Rock road. At the very end, we hiked down the hole for a swim in Lake Powell. We couldn’t help but be in awe of how the Mormon pioneers were able to get their wagons down this treacherous canyon even after blasting through with dynamite.
A quick beer in the tiny town of Boulder, and we were off down Burr trail into Capitol Reef National Park. Our best sunset yet watched us fall asleep before a long, hot day of driving into Salt Lake City.
The haze and heat of Salt Lake greeted us as we wandered around the city in search of a cold beer. We got some work done over pitchers before heading up near Snowbird for some cooler weather and some climbing. This was our first time climbing with only the two of us and while it was a bit scary, we felt confident and prepared in our safety and knowledge of climbing.
Stansbury Island was our home for the night. A campfire on the sand and serious talks over dinner were far from the happy-go-lucky vanlife expectation, but a necessary part of growing in a relationship. Talks like these can wake you up to what's actually happening in your life and can push you to keep growing, to make a change, or to make a decision on what you want. As difficult as they are, these conversations can be essential and necessary for clear communication and understanding in any relationship. Vanlife isn't all sunshine and rainbows. There are good days and bad days just as there are in any given situation. Taking in the bad is what makes us appreciate the good.
We left Salt Lake City refreshed and ready for a new chapter of our journey. Idaho and our first workaway experience was on the horizon. New state, new experiences, new people. We were ready to get our hands dirty and learn as much as we could about ranch life. Mecham ranch, here we come.