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Hiking Blog
Archive
2024
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2019
Utah
September 12 - 19, 2019
September 12
Antelope Island State Park
This was the first day we landed but we were still hyped to go to a park ASAP so we headed to the one nearest our AirB&B. We were lucky enough to see bison immediately. There were also massive fields of sunflowers. But just the sight of big hills and general elevation changes, along with the big lake, were breathtaking.
September 13
Fish Lake National Forest
My whole reason for wanting to go to Utah in the first place was to complete item #1 on my bucket list - visiting Pando. Pando is estimated to be the world's oldest organism, potentially tens of thousands of years old. I took some time just to sit against a tree and breath in the scenery and the excitement of getting to be in its presence. Quaking aspens are also really neat trees, the leaves were still green and they were doing their signature leaf-shaking move (the sound was so pleasant).
The weather was gorgeous, perfectly clear skies and cool without being cold. We did a hike around the lake then attempted to climb the mountain top, but got far too winded when we were less than halfway to the top. We decided to come back after a couple days of adjusting to the elevation.
Capitol Reef National Park
We'd seen capitol reef driving around the previous day and decided to stop in the visit because it looked amazing just from the road. It was very much worth it. We took some random trails and they took us over a mountain and into a valley through some rock arches. The sun was setting by the time we left.
September 14
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
This park was a wonderful surprise. It wasn't originally on our itinerary, my boyfriend decided to add it to our list after I mentioned my love of waterfalls. It had by far the most diverse hike - we started out in a red rock deserty area similar to Capitol Reef and it led us high and low past grass fields, lakes, trees, and followed along a river with reeds until we reached the end - Lower Calf Creek Falls. It was MASSIVE - 126 feet. We waded in the water along with all the other sightseers and rested for a while just enjoying the sight and smell of the place before heading back.
September 15
Bryce Canyon National Park
I hated this park. Don't get me wrong, the views were wonderful, but to say I hate heights or am afraid of heights is a significant understatement. I am PETRIFIED of heights. I got about 3-4 feet away from the edge and looked over, but did not put my toes to the end of the sand (where there was no barrier!) like most of the other people I saw. The entire place freaked me out. We followed some trails that went deeper into the forests in the park and that was much more pleasant. We saw several horned lizards (Phrynosoma), an animal I'd always wanted to see in person (they shoot blood from their eyes as a defense mechanism!) We came upon a large, very fresh pile of what had be bear shit based on the size, and decided to head back after that.
Fremont Indian State Park
This was a much less terror-inducing than the morning had been. It was a big valley full of Native American petroglyphs which were amazing to get to see up close. There were several rock climbable rock formations which was a lot of fun, and true to my style I got clumsy and fell but was perfectly fine. The sun started to set on us so we headed back to our motel.
September 16
Fremont Indian State Park
We gave this park another visit in the morning as we hadn't had enough time to fully explore it the evening prior.
Fish Lake National Forest
We did another repeat visit in the afternoon to give the mountain another attempt. This time we were successful! There were times we got winded and I found it was much easy to quickly hop up the rocks billy-goat style than march up slowly, sadly this technique did not work for my boyfriend but it made my life much easier. Breathing still felt a bit thin near the top (and we didn't make it all the way to the summit, it wasn't much farther elevation wise but length wise it was farrrrrr and we didn't have time before the sun would set).
September 17
Arches National Park
Distance: ~10 miles
This was by far the most hiking-intensive park we visited. We did every single trail in the park, hitting it end to end. There are really no words to do justice to how beautiful it was. Every single direction and angle and plant and dead log looked so picturesque. It was magical passing under rock bridges and through thin wind-carved crevasses between massive rocks.
I almost feel silly admitting it, but it very strongly reminded me of Durotar in the Warcraft games, which is very obviously based on an environment like that. It gave me the simultaneous feeling of being immersed in a video game memory while also being awe-struck by nature.
September 18
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands was interesting. We saw a massive river-carved canyon, it kind of looked like a miniature Grand Canyon (which we passed in the plane on our way to Utah and got to see from above). We saw some massive hills that looked like they were made of green powder, a Park Ranger informed us they were full of iron that had not yet been oxidized. There were also lovely little streams carving through the place surrounded by tall grass.
We did a couple of high elevation areas here, which I hated. We looped around some touristy place with an Instagram-ready arch and the predictable huge line of people taking photos under it. I got a shot from afar but did not try to get in there myself. We also found a trail that went straight up the rocks at an almost 45 degree angle, and we actually climbed it. It lead to an area above with sand, windy trails, trees - just more general pretty Utah wilderness. Once the sun started to set we headed out, and I did not enjoy getting back down that steep-ass trail.
September 19
Antelope Island State Park
Our flight home was in the afternoon so before we went to the airport we headed to Antelope Island for one last visit. We took a longer path through the vast field of sunflowers and I just could not get enough pictures. We also got to see an entire herd of buffalo traveling across the island, including some little babies! It was a great way to end the trip.
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