I had a phone screening for a job opportunity at 8 AM, so I awoke early in my Denver hotel room. The interview did not lead anywhere. I was however happy to have a reason to be up and moving before the 11 AM checkout. It gave me time to plan out camping sites for the next two days prior to arriving in LA on Friday afternoon.
I was well ahead of schedule due to the long drive the day prior. There were a 1,000 miles between me and LA. I could easily break that up amongst the 3 days. A 1,000 miles is a lot, but I didn’t think it was so bad after driving 800 miles the day before.
My route to LA would take me through Utah. I was excited by the idea of camping at some of the National Parks in the region. I landed on staying near Moab, UT that evening and near Zion National Park the next day. Unbeknownst to me, I had a photo of the Arches in Moab as a default background to my Windows laptop for several years. It seemed like serendipity.
The difficult part of booking campsites last minute is that most of the good spots are already taken. I reserved a spot near downtown Moab just off the main road at a location that advertised their cottages and lodges. I was able to get a tent site and a spot to park my car.
For the Zion camping, I booked a tent site at Baker Dam in Veyo. It would end up being about a one hour drive from Baker Dam to Zion and was the best available.
I also booked a hotel for the Friday and Saturday nights that I would be in LA. The price for the hotel room was overly expensive, which I was expecting for LA. I just prayed hotels in the other big city tour stops would not be as much.
A sense of stability set in knowing where I would be staying the next 4 nights. It felt good not having to plan anything for the following few days and all my focus could go into enjoying the nature of Utah.
I hit the road out of Denver at about 11 AM and headed into the Rockies. The views on this portion of the drive did not disappoint. I stopped several times at scenic overlooks to take in the views and read about the history of the area. Even the rest stops on the way had beautiful vistas that looked out upon the mountains.
The drive from Denver to Moab took about five hours. The time flew by listening to Western and Americana tunes while enjoying the surroundings. I arrived in Moab at about 4 PM and still had 4 hours of daylight left.
The first stop was the campsite to set up my tent. I had not put the tent together in over a year and the last thing I needed was to be stumbling confused in the dark trying to set it up. The process only took about 15 minutes and I felt like giving myself a pat on the back. Then again, it was a simple Coleman tent that shouldn’t take much time or ingenuity.
The site turned out to be right on the side of the highway. I could hear and see vehicles passing every minute. I was thankful to be staying for only a single day as I didn’t want to drive all the way to Utah to sleep beside a highway.
With the tent up, I headed over to the front desk of the camp in hopes that the Clerk could point me in the direction of a good trail for hiking before nightfall. The Clerk gave me directions to the Mill Creek Trailhead, which was a little over a mile away.
When I arrived at the trailhead, I was disappointed that it was closed due to flooding. Rather than trying to find another trail, I decided to head into downtown to grab dinner.
Downtown Moab is like many other small tourist centric towns in America with a single main street containing hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops selling trinkets and local art. I happened upon Pasta Jays, an Italian themed restaurant that seemed somewhat busy from the outside. The food was nothing to write home about, but was decent enough.
While waiting to be served, I researched places to go hiking the next morning. I ideally wanted to visit the Arches, but soon found out that you could only visit if you had a reservation and none were available for the next day. The one hour timed reservation policy is something that was introduced in 2022 to reduce overcrowding. It’s a good concept and I chalked up my ability to not to visit as my own poor planning. I intended to just head out early the next day to hike in Zion instead of continuing to research destinations near Moab.
After eating dinner I walked to a nearby park and got a few miles in on the trail there. There was an interesting mural painted on a tunnel that the trail went through. Despite being a bit lackluster of a visit to Moab, I was at least delighting in my time outdoors.
Upon finishing the walk, I called it a night and headed back to camp. Other than the constant vehicle noise, sleeping in the tent was not too bad. The inflatable sleeping pad that I had purchased proved to make all the difference. I was happy to be away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago and was getting used to life on the road
