We start with a couple park reservations to loosely structure the trip around and then we ramble. If there is a back way to get there, take it. Sometimes weather changes our plans and we head to lower elevation or contemplate popping down a state to find somewhat warmer weather.

When we are out west we always scheme how far away it is to
Big Bend or Joshua Tree. During the winter the southern deserts are the place to be. This trip we ended up staying in Utah and Colorado rather than retreat to lower states. It turned out pretty well.

Drive to Albuquerque NM. The usual I-40 route, boring but effective. The next day we drove to Zion National Park. New Mexico into Flagstaff then north to Lee’s Ferry area to cross the Colorado River on 89A. This road stretches across northern Arizona and into southern Utah. Once you get near the Colorado River this drive on the back highways is really beautiful and takes you by the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where the historic lodge burned down recently in a forest fire. Made it to Zion in the dark.

Morning Coffee in Zion, and everywhere else, brought to you by: Hoboken! By this time the old Dodge has covered over 1,000 miles of its first adventure trip in our ownership. So far so good.

The sunrises in Zion are super duper. The sand stone lights up before the rest of the shadows leave and the dawn breaks with a nice sky to rock contrast. The first photo is also of the sunrise in Zion.

We were able to get a permit to hike Angel’s Landing the first day in the park so we hopped on a shuttle and headed for the trail head.

We spent a few more days in Zion just rambling around. We drove the old tunnel road out of the canyon toward Mt Carmel. Found a dirt road on our Utah map, an actual map not a google map, and went exploring the back roads up above the Zion Valley.

Ended up in Cedar City and took I-15 back to Zion to camp and make dinner. Hiked one of the Kolob Canyons trails. Finally our last day in Zion it rained and the temps dropped so we headed on toward Bryce Canyon.

We arrived at Bryce and expected to camp that night but it was a nice thick snow fall evening, so we opted for an extra night in the lodge instead of trying to cook dinner in the snow. Sleeping is ok in the cold, other camp activities are a little less enjoyable. You can
hunker down in a zero degree sleeping bag in the back of the Dodge and sleep a solid 11
hours.

Not kidding, we slept 10 to 11 hours every night because when the sun goes down and you just go to bed. It was a splendid time to be at Bryce Canyon. The snow and the clouds made the rock formations and trees even more interesting to see.

We stayed there for two nights and hiked when it was sunny. Played cards in front of the massive fireplace in the lodge. Cooked some pasta in the parking lot by the truck. Still kinda dirt bagging it but with a comfy heated room to sleep in. After a couple days we figured we would find some lower elevation to see if we could get out of the snow and to some warmer weather.

Leaving Bryce we were torn between heading to Sedona or Moab. We had no more specific reservations in Utah so it was a coin toss to drive south or stay around that South East corner of Utah. We drove out of Bryce through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Incredible drive, you have to see it to believe it.

We made it to Boulder, Utah and talked with a local lady about the Burr Trail, a long, back country dirt road leading down to the very end of Lake Powell. She advised us that with all the rain and snow it would be a muddy mess and we would likely get stuck and need rescue but not have cell service to call for said rescue. That was enough info for us. While we are open to some unknowns, the thought of sinking a fat diesel truck into clay mud by ourselves didn’t sound appealing.

So we drove on. Between Boulder and Torrey we ended up on a snow covered pass where we puttered along at 15mph in 4 wheel drive for what felt like multiple hours. It was stunning but the roads were unknown and we very gingerly made our way over and down to dry pavement again with much relief.

We drove onto Hanksville past Swing Arm City, where the late, great Ken Block has filmed some insane automotive shenanigans on the crazy moon-scape hills that exist there. It was truly otherworldly, like we had driven into a Star Trek episode.

From Hanksville we turned south to head toward Hite Crossing. Down closer to the Colorado River and Lake Powell the cliffs grow and it is the closest thing to driving around in a boat on Lake Powell that you can do on wheels. Big sand stone cliffs rise on each side of you as you wind through. We made it to Natural Bridges National Monument to camp. It was a down pour ten minutes after we arrived so we had a pint in the cab and jumped into bed to wait for morning.

We woke to a stunning landscape and made breakfast burritos at one of the overlooks. We hiked a bit, made more coffee and looked at the map. To go south was now a very
roundabout, long drive to Sedona. There aren’t a lot of roads in this area and the ones that exist are forced to go around Lake Powell. We opted for Moab and then through Colorado as we headed back toward Oklahoma.

We made it past Monticello on highway 191/163 and saw a dirt road off to our left. It had a trailhead sign that we stopped to check out. We didn’t have much to do in Moab so we went. See a road take a road, simple logic. It ended up being one of the best unlooked for spots we discovered. It was the Needle Overlook road. There were camp grounds and little dirt roads all over. We had no idea what we were headed toward but it was a good road to drive and that is about all it takes for us to keep going.