Utah Road Trip - Part 1

Utah is not necessarily the first US destination on everyone’s list when thinking about a trip to the States but having been tempted to travel there by the Utah Tourist Board, it quite quickly became one of mine. With mesmerising scenery, endless roads, varying climates and the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, it was certainly somewhere we wanted to explore. We travelled as a group of eight, our family and our friends and fellow travel-junkies, the ‘Worths’. There are three main cities that you can fly into to start your Utah journey from, the state capital, Salt Lake, the fabulous city of Las Vegas, or the more commercial (and for us, travelling at Easter, cheaper) option of Denver in Colorado. If you’re not a fan of driving, then perhaps this holiday would not be for you as distances are quite vast, but the scenery along the way takes away the boredom (iPads for kids were essential too). We upgraded our car from a smaller 4x4 to a monster truck (well it felt like it), but it was well worth it. Not only did we feel like we belonged on the road (a BMW X5 looked like a Fiat 500 in comparison), but we also had a really good amount of space in the front and back for the long journeys as well as ample boot space for our ever-increasing luggage! After an overnight stop near Denver airport we headed for the adrenalin junkie capital of Utah, Moab, just a mere 350 miles. Here we stayed for three nights at the Aarchway Inn, just to the north of town. Basically, a posh motel, this place was great. We had a lovely spacious room, there was a nice outdoor pool and hot tub for the kids to burn off a bit of energy along with a play area too. One of the nice touches were the numerous BBQs scattered throughout the grounds and the free use of BBQ utensils provided. In Moab there are not only great National Parks to visit including the beautiful Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park but also Dead Horse Point State Park which is worth a visit too. We took a rafting trip along the beautiful Colorado River - a little tamer than we had experienced in the past, but great for the kids! We also hired mountain bikes and battled some brilliant trails which had different ability levels, again great for families. Moab is a pretty cool town, and of all the places we stayed (with the exception of SLC), had the most shops and restaurants. On one of the evenings we had dinner at the Moab Brewery – a cool place that not only brewed its own beer, but also distilled its own Vodka and Gin. As Evie has Coeliac Disease, we were unsure how easy it would be to find gluten free food for her, and although it varied considerably from one restaurant and place to another, she was generally pretty well catered for. After Moab, we travelled to Monument Valley, located south on the border between Utah and Arizona. What an amazing place – if you’re into your Westerns, then this is the place to visit – truly stunning, the images in my head will stay with me for a lifetime. We were lucky enough to do some horse riding here, a tour done by the Navajo local people, and around some of the less-seen areas of monument valley that are not accessible by vehicle – a once in a lifetime thing to do. We stayed at the famous Goulding’s Lodge here, which is a short drive to the Visitor Centre at MV, so a great location. There’s not really much else to do and see in this area (apart from the magnificent Monument Valley) so don’t expect McDonalds or Subways here – you’re in the middle of nowhere! We knew we had quite a long drive the following day, from Monument Valley to Zion National Park, but we split the journey up nicely by stopping in a place called Page on the shores of Lake Powell. From here we had lunch at a great little spot overlooking the beautiful Colorado River and the enormous dam beyond. We also took the shuttle to see the fabulous Horse Shoe Point, and for the Geology geeks amongst you (me included!) it’s such a great example of a bit of river carving. Having managed to get a bit sunburnt in the morning, we then experienced snow storms during our journey over the mountains to Zion National Park – we were travelling in April to be fair, and the altitude for most of Utah is pretty high! We stayed at the Zion Mountain Ranch which is located to the eastern side of the park. Unfortunately, the road between our accommodation and Springdale (the gateway to Zion National Park) had collapsed due to excessive snow fall in the previous weeks, so we had to take a long detour to get into the park. Luckily, we chose monster trucks for our hire cars, so were able to take a short cut to the park along a rocky and dusty track and were lucky enough to witness some spectacular views on the way. Zion National Park did not disappoint – clearly a lot more money has been pumped into tourism here. The roads are great, the Visitor Centre is brilliant (to be fair, all of the visitor centres we visited were great and highly recommended as a stop-off point) and there are endless cool shops and restaurants just outside the park and in nearby Springdale. One tip would be to get there as early as possible so you can take advantage of the free parking by the Visitor Centre. From here you can take the free shuttle through the park which acts as a hop-on-hop-off service between the many points of interest. We chose to visit Angels Landing (along with the rest of the hoards) – a strenuous hike (and scary at times) to the top of one of the escarpments. Not for the faint hearted, the views are pretty spectacular, and we certainly felt like we’d managed to burn off a few of the 5 million calories we’d eaten over the previous few days. Children aren’t allowed to complete the final section of the hike due to the thinness of the track (it’s pretty dangerous), but that was fine by me as I would have been much more scared than the kids!