Day 8: Salt Lake City

On day 8, we finally left the Zion RV River Resort and headed to Salt Lake City, which was about a 5 hour drive when towing and taking gas breaks.  We got into SLC late in the afternoon.

The dogs enjoying the ride.  Ellie's new favorite sleeping position, on Hachi's back.

First stop was the Wasatch Brewery in the Sugarhouse neighborhood for some craft beer.  It was interesting since Utah has some of the strictest alcohol laws, being a Mormon state and all.  Some of the things we learned about alcohol in Utah: 1) All beer sold in restaurants have to be lower than 4% ABV, 2) you can't have a sampler because you can't be served more than one beer at a time 3) if you purchase a growler, you can't have any other glasses of beer on the same tab. 

But the decor was nice.  We went in for a late lunch/early dinner at like 3pm so it was basically empty, except for some "hard core" Utahns drinking 4% ABV beer at the bar.

Then we went to City Creek Center, a brand new shopping mall next to the main Mormon campus and owned by the LDS church, to get my consumerist non-nature fix for the week (though the shops were not great--just boring chain stores that can be found everywhere).  But the mall was pretty cool in that it's an open air mall but has a retractable glass roof to enclose the mall during winter months.  

And that's it for day 8.  Next stop: Wyoming!

Day 7: Bryce Canyon

After we spent all day on our feet hiking through the Narrows, it was a nice change of pace to have someone hike for us.  And by someone, I mean some horse.  If you ever go to Bryce Canyon, riding down to the canyon floor via horse is the way to go.  It's the best way to get up close and personal with the formations that Bryce Canyon's famous for (called hoodoos).

The best part of Bryce Canyon are those colors!

hello hoodoo

And these were our horses!  My horse is on the left and his name was Vodka (of course I'd get the only horse in the yard named after alcohol!).  The cowboy tour guide who assigned us our horses took one look at me and gave me Vodka.  I'd like to think it's because Vodka was the prettiest horse in the yard and not because I look like an alcoholic.  And that's Vodka's BFF named Dollar on the right, and he was Brian's horse.  During the whole ride Brian and I kept yelling "Dollar Vodka" just because it was so fun to say.

Ah, that day was so much fun.  I miss you Vodka! (the best horse ever!)

Day 6: The Narrows

My only decent picture from the Narrows.

The Narrows, aka one of the toughest hikes of my life, started bright and early (got there at 8am) so that we could avoid the crowds.  It started with a close encounter with a couple of deer, less than 4 feet away, and beautiful if not cold day.  We rented hiking gear from a shop in the town right outside of Zion National Park after doing some research.  We rented neoprene socks, water sneakers, and some waterproof pants. I know we took a picture of it but I can't seem to find them now so here are other people's pictures:

And I'm glad we did since it kept us dry and warm for most of the hike.  It only failed us when we got to a point where the water was higher than the waistline and then the water leaked in (and that's the point we pretty much turned around to go back).  It also included the wood walking stick which looked goofy but was quite a life saver, especially when walking through places with rough currents.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  First off, what is the The Narrows?  It's one of the more popular hikes in Zion where you are walking through the Virgin River between large canyons.  Again here are other people's pictures:

On a busy day it can look like this since there are certain "optimal" spots in the river where you can cross from bank to bank, so those places become spots for traffic jams.  Don't they look like ants?

This is how it was like when we went.  Not too bad but pretty deep water, and we encountered places where the water was deeper than this.

You're basically walking in the river for a large part of the hike, especially the further you go (in the beginning you can cross the river and go from bank to bank).  And it's not easy.  First walking through water for hours is a good calorie burner but super exhausting.  Add to that slippery round river stones, freezing water, and mini white water rapids where the current is really strong and it makes me wonder why it's so popular.  Maybe tourists tell other tourists how it's a "must see" and dupe them into perpetuating the popularity of the hike.  Well to be fair it is gorgeous, but I think you get more canyon beauty per unit of energy expenditure with Antelope Canyon (see Day 5).  We went about 4 hours in and another 4 hours back, so about 8 hours of walking through water with a couple breaks in between.  We just turned around when we felt like it since the Narrows pretty much stays the same (same beauty) even if you go a short distance or a long distance.  But the Narrows hike can go for even longer than that!  Some people hike from the other entrance to the river with camping gear, camp overnight, and then get out via the main entrance to the hike (basically hike it in reverse).  2 full days of walking through water!  Eeesh

I only have that one picture up top since I kept most of my gear wrapped up in waterproof bags to keep it safe.  But that meant taking a picture was a 15 minute event of unwrapping everything and then wrapping it back up.  But despite the ordeal, that's pretty much my most favorite picture from the whole trip, or maybe it's because of the ordeal that I love that picture the best.  I had to earn that one.  But yea, if you're ever at Zion National Park you should hike The Narrows.  I promise you won't forget it ;)

Day 5: Antelope Canyon

Well Happy 2015 folks!  It's taken me longer to recap my trip than the actual trip itself, and that's because I'm a lazy blogger.  But I figured I can't just stop mid trip without AT LEAST recapping Antelope Canyon.  It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and these photos don't do it justice.  I need to go back so I can try and take better pictures (or I should probably at least edit these to make them look better, but like I said I'm a lazy blogger).  

There are 2 Antelope Canyons, an upper and a lower.  We went to lower, which doesn't have as great of a lighting but it's also slightly less crowded.  And let me tell you it's a challenge not to get any people in your shots since they herd tourists through these canyons like cattle.  But still, I would say if you're in the area you MUST visit this place.  

My favorite part of the tour was when a tour guide played the Native American flute and it echoed throughout the canyon.  A sound that so perfectly matched to the surroundings that it gave me goosebumps.  

At this point my camera ran out of batteries (I know, such poor planning!) so I resorted to my iPhone and a point and shoot camera.

Yay for iPhone picture processing.

And this is what it looks like going in and out of the canyons.  You actually don't know it's there unless you fell in, which is how the Native Americans found it in the first place (well a goat fell in).  

We stopped here on the way home.  It's quite impressive.  But natural canyons>man-made dams.

And that was our one day in Arizona.  We headed back to our RV parked near Zion and spent one more day there doing one of the hardest hikes of my life (a different kind of hard from Angel's Landing).  Oh and thanks to Lana for posting an encouraging comment on Facebook so I get on my lazy butt to sit-down and write this!

Day 4: Angel's Landing at Zion National Park

For our second day at Zion, we decided to tackle one of the most popular and more dangerous hikes in the park: Angel's Landing.  This is one of the toughest hikes I've ever been on.  First it's a long way up just to get to the base of Angel's Landing and then to actually get to Angel's Landing you are scrambling over a narrow pathway of rocks.  The pathway is about a foot or two and there are places on the trail where it's less than a foot so they provide you with some heavy duty chains to hold on to.  On the other side of the path?  A sheer drop off the cliff.  There are many warnings (over the PA system of the shuttle, at the start of the trail and at the base of Angel's Landing) for those with a fear of heights to not do it.  I think one of the signs actually said 9 people have died doing this hike in the last 10 years, so I just hoped I wouldn't be the one for 2014 since the fatality rate seems to average 1 a year.  BUT you are rewarded with some spectacular views!

This is just to get to the base of Angel's Landing.  A ton of switchbacks to get you up the plateau.

Midway up.  What a view!  I wonder if the first people to settle Utah laid eyes on a similar scene.

And from the top.

This is at the top of the plateau and these were the kinds of rocks we were scrambling over.

Our little airstream (keychain) made it up the top too.

Closer look at mini airstream.

Looking right off the side.

And here's a better perspective from the base of Angel's Landing which is straight up at the top.

Day 3: First day at Zion National Park

So to continue to day 3 of our trip (only about 18 more days to write about!), our first national park was Zion in Utah.  We started the day a bit late (past noon) since we wanted to enjoy our first day of no driving and take it easy in the morning.  In the last post I mentioned we stayed at an RV resort, which is basically a really nice trailer park (with a higher price tag) but it's worth it.  There are clean laundry facilities, a pool, and each RV space is a bit bigger, giving you a little bit more privacy.

Anyway, since we started the day late we decided to do some easy hikes around the park.  There's a great shuttle system within the park since parking at different trailheads is limited (also cuts down on traffic through the park and the amount of pollution).  At the Zion lodge stop (which is somewhere I definitely want to stay at in the future), are the trailheads for the Emerald Pool hikes (upper, middle and lower).  I would say that this was one of the best easy hikes in the park.  For a relatively short distance and very little elevation gain, you get some nice views and cool experiences (like walking underneath a waterfall).

Our first hike started at the Zion lodge shuttle stop

Lower Emerald Pool Hike (ok so it doesn't quite look like a waterfall here but there was definitely water falling--just not a lot).  I think during wetter seasons (years?) it's more prominent).

I think this was the middle Emerald Pool?

We wrapped up this hike, which took us about 2 hours or so at a very leisurely pace.  And then headed over to the east side of the park to do the Canyon Overlook trail.  This was an easy half mile hike that gave us amazing views.  The best time is at sunset since it's quite easy to get back down in the fading light and on a clear day you're probably awarded with some spectacular views (unfortunately for us it was a bit cloudy that day).

Day 2: Barstow > Las Vegas > Zion, Utah

So we were originally just going to pass through Las Vegas since we go multiple times a year, but c'mon who can just pass through Vegas?  Nope, definitely not us.  We succumbed to the siren call and made a quick trip out of it.  And I have to say I'm glad we did.  It was probably my best 3 hours spent in Vegas.

Since we rarely go to the downtown side of Vegas we decided to just skip the Strip and go for the more laid back part of town (we were not feeling especially glamorous having just come from a night in Shady Lane--we were newly-minted truly trailer park people).

This was my second spin on my first machine!  $20 in, $92 out (that's a profitable 2 minutes).

They need to update their machine, most of these people are dead.

Then in honor of the return of the Walking Dead (this was awhile ago), another $20 in, and about $275 out.  I found my luck with the slot machines so I just decided to go with it.  I made $300 in about 30 minutes (10 minutes of which were spent watching the machine rack up the money)!  I'm not usually a slot machine person, but I have to say it's become more appealing to me in my old age...

Took the winnings straight to the Beef Jerky Store and purchased a whole lotta snacks, about 3 grocery bags full.  It's a good thing we did since we needed them during our long road trip.  We finished it all before we got back to Cali.

And then dinner at Sushi Mon (all you can eat sushi).  The last bit of Japanese food to last us the next couple of weeks on our road trip (as we head into cattle territory).

By the time we pulled out of Vegas, the sun was setting.  This is the view from the back of the truck (Luckily unobstructed because the airstream was temporarily parked at another trailer park.  This was when we were driving back to pick it up).  We pulled into Zion late, around 10pm, but luckily had little trouble setting up camp because we were at an RV resort, which is completely different from a trailer park (but more on that on the next post)!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I thought I'd start off this holiday season by finally getting around to chronicling our road trip in our (rented) 27' airstream!  Beware, the posts will be lengthier than usual since there's so much to talk about!

And here she is!  What a beauty!

A little bit about towing an airstream for the first time.  Well, this was the first time I've driven a truck, let alone towed something so massive so you can understand the MAJOR difficulties I had.  Especially when driving from SF to LA on the I-5, which was the most congested highway that we encountered on this trip (in hindsight).  So it was a real sink-or-swim moment.  Luckily (for me), Brian drove first so he got to experience all the problems first.  And the biggest problem was trailer sway.  As newbie towers, this was not something we expected nor something we even experienced before.  I guess the closest thing I can describe it to is when your car is hydroplaning.  You can't really use the brakes nor control the steering wheel very well.  You can only hope to slowly counteract the sway with the steering wheel while gradually decelerating and hope not to hit anything in the process!  Luckily the Ford F250 we rented had a trailer brake which helps (if you know how to use it right, which of course we didn't during that first day.  A later very informative YouTube clip on the second day showed us how to do it right).  At some points it felt like the trailer was controlling the car and not the other way around.  The trailer sway got particularly bad when there were high winds, going downhill or when a large speeding big-wheeler passes (and super terrifying when a big-wheeler speeds pass you downhill in a high winds area).  Luckily we only had one major near-miss, but no accidents.  Staying between two lines was been harder.  And did you know that outside of the yellow lines there are rumble strips to let you know that you're veering off course (I never knew that since I've never strayed outside the lines before!).  I got to know the sound and feel of those rumble strips very well (basically every time I drove).

And here we are driving from SF to Barstow.

Thank goodness for towing mirrors (absolutely essential)!

And finally resting after a long hard first day of driving.  We drove from LA to Barstow and it took us about 5 hours I think.  We tried to split the driving 50/50 because it is absolutely exhausting towing a large trailer in such an uncomfortable truck (the truck had ZERO amenities).  This is the dinette and the dog bed was underneath, also where the heater vents are conveniently located so the dogs loved it there.

And the secondary dog area, the hallway leading to the bedroom.  On the left you have the shower and closets (in the foreground) and on the right you have the bathroom (where Hachi is sticking his nose into). 

The next morning in Barstow:

We had the pleasure of getting to know Nespresso during our trip, provided by the rental company.  After 3 weeks with Nespresso, we are converts.  We love it!

I also took along my fav, the nutribullet so that I could still get something healthy on a road trip.  Being able to bring everything you love is one of the best things of taking a trip in an airstream (or any trailer really).  Sorry for the ugly brown shake, that's what happens when you mix greens and acai (but it was delicious!)

And here's a pic of our freezer (so that we wouldn't have to cook from scratch and could spend more time adventuring).

And this was our first RV park on our trip.  Yep, it was called Shady Lane and yep, it was shady (and keep in mind there were 0 large trees on the premises).  This was taken as we were leaving because we actually pulled into this place around 9pm.  And it was even shadier then!  The people who helped us were a little scary looking (real characters!) and that first night I thought "What did we get ourselves into?" and "Will we get through it alive (considering our terrible towing skills and now literally shady RV parks)"?

But make it out alive we did and now Vegas ho!

Ellie was happy to make it out alive too.

The dogs' temporary abode while we drove.

On the way to Vegas!