Boise
We left for our USA road trip at 5 am Sunday morning. As tired as I was, I was super excited to be going on our first big trip of the year! Plus, watching the sunrise was worth it! We drove through Washington and Oregon to get to our destination in Idaho. Most of the way there were farms, lakes, or brown deserty hills. We drove 10 hours to Boise, the capital of Idaho. Boise is the most populated city in Idaho, with around 230 000 people living there. We wanted to go there because my cousin is moving there in a few months and we wanted to check it out. And of course there’s good biking.
For dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory at Boise’s nearest mall! I love cheese cake so I was super excited to be going. It was great, except expensive, but the 2 cheese cakes we got lasted the 4 of us 2 days!
We spent a day in Boise exploring the city, biking trails and taking pictures of trees…well that was mostly just me. We went biking for about 2 hours up in Camel’s Back Reserve. It’s a really great area for biking and hiking. On the ride I ran over a little snake by accident (it survived). We actually saw 2 snakes on the ride, which got me a bit worried about the rattlesnakes. The ride wasn’t my favourite, but it was very pretty looking out at all the other hills when we were at the top. The trail pretty much was uphill for a while, then once we were at the top we got to go down! The downhill was very enjoyable!
Salt Lake City
We left Boise Tuesday morning and drove 5 hours to Salt Lake City. We stopped half way at Twin Falls. After a really good pizza lunch we went to the bridge crossing over snake river. There were some people base jumping off the bridge, which I thought was crazy. I was terrified from just being on the bridge. We watched as someone put a wood plank out for one of the base jumpers then they would stand on it and jump off, pulling their shoot after a few seconds in the air. I have to admit, it must have been nice flying in the air above the river. It was definitely one of the prettiest rivers I’ve ever seen.
As we were driving into Salt Lake City, our 1 night spot before Moab, I noticed how pretty the trees were on the mountains. The fall colours were amazing up there. The Airbnb we stayed at was very cool. In the basement there was a basketball court, where you could play basketball and racket ball, and in the other room, there was a ping pong table! Blake was obsessed and spent most of his time down there.
We went down town for dinner, and ended up at a taqueria called Taqueria 27. The food was so good there, I highly recommend the restaurant if you’re ever there.
We only stayed in Salt Lake City for a night because we had to get to Moab, but we still got to do some stuff. Since Salt Lake City is a skiing destination, there are lots of mountains, so we decided to go on a hike. We split up when we got there because my dad and Blake wanted to go biking, and my mom and I wanted to hike. I was so surprised by how beautiful it was. It was like fall heaven. There were leaves everywhere in the forest. It was amazing!
Moab
On our drive to Moab it was crazy how much the scenery changed. It went from colourful trees on mountains to hilly cool brown desert and rocks. Originally we were going to camp in Moab, but my dad booked a small hotel room at the last minute because the weather was going to be very cold at night. Of course he had to book the hotel across from one of the brew pubs in town, and that’s where we ate for dinner.
Arches National Park
The next morning we left our room at 6:30 am to get to Arches National Park early before the crowds got there. Arches National Park is has more than 2000 natural sandstone arches and has the highest density of natural arches in the world! When I stepped outside of the hotel I understood why my parents had backed out on camping. It was super cold! I had 5 layers on yet I was still really cold. Anyway, since it was so early we didn’t have to pay at the entrance (we did on the way out) so we just drove straight onto the road. On the drive to the delicate arches hike we didn’t stop at all hoping to be at the arch by sunrise. The drive was beautiful though. I’m so amazed by how all the rocks got into place.
We hiked the delicate arch trail. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the arch, which was less than what we expected. It was amazing, because we were passing all these cool giant walls of orange rock along the way. When we were close to the end of the trail where the arch was, there was a small viewing point that we climbed to from the trail that was perfect to see the arch and sunrise together! Watching the sunrise by the arch was so cool! If you’re ever in Moab and plan to go to Arches, I suggest trying to get there for sunrise because you don’t have any line up to get in and it’s spectacular! There were still quite a few people at delicate arch, but I doubt it’s anything compared to sunset.
We ended up going to arches 4 times of the 4 full days we were there. One time we went for a moon walk, because we were there during the hunters moon (October’s full moon). It was very bright outside, for most of the walk we didn’t even need flashlights. If we had been in Moab when the moon wasn’t so bright though, we could have gone start gazing. My mom and I one of the nights tried to go star gazing. I thought it would be great that there was such a big moon, but then we realized that the sky was too bright to see many stars!
The last day in Moab, my mom and I did the Devils Garden Primitive Loop, which is the most popular hike at arches, but also the hardest and longest. The hike is considered the hardest because you have to do some scrambling up rocks, and walking in sand for a few kilometres, which is harder than you think. That’s why a lot of people who do this hike only go until they get to the hard section of the trail. During this hike, there are 8 viewpoints to special arches. We stopped at 6 of the 8. It took us about 2 and a half hours hiking to do the 12.6 km loop.
Canyonlands
The other national park we visited in Moab was Canyonlands! It’s about a 45 minute drive from Moab to get to the closest entrance. Canyonlands is Utah’s biggest national park and contains some of the darkest night skies in North America! We had another early morning going there getting up at around 5:30. Our first stop in Canyonlands was Mesa arch, which is a low arch. We got there right when the sun was peaking over the mountains, which I guess is when everyone wants to be there, because it was really crowded. There were lines of people holding up cameras in front of the arch as the sun rose. My mom quickly counted 70 people, but I think there were more!
Next we went on a 4 km hike called Murphy point to a nice view of the canyon! It took us about 1 hour to do the hike. Along the way there were lots of really cute plants, and cacti. The first section was walking on a path between a grassy field, but then it turned into more of an open path where you could see parts of the canyon. I really enjoyed this hike! After Murphy point, we drove to the grand viewpoint. We thought it would just be a look out, but it turned out to be another hike, so we ended our trip to canyon lands having done a good amount of hiking!
Biking
Although I don’t love biking, since my parents consider this a biking road trip, we did a few rides in Moab. Well…I joined them on one ride, but Blake and my dad biked everyday! One of the trails they did is called slickrock. It’s considered one of the most unique experiences you can have on your bike because the entire ride is on hilly rocks. The trail is very hard and includes a lot of super steep, quick up hills, but the rocks are so sticky it make it easy(ish) not to fall. We hiked a bit of slickrock, but it wasn’t great because we had to watch out for bikes flying by. The area I biked at was called Bar M. The trails we did were easy and not hilly at all, so that was nice!
The Town
We probably spent most of our time in Moab at the national parks. But we did have some time to do a bit of strolling along the shops in downtown Moab. Blake’s favourite store was the T-shirt shop, where you pick a plain t-shirt and a pattern and they print the pattern on the shirt. My favourite store was a cute, non expensive clothing store that sells lots of fun clothes. Of course there are all the touristy gift shops too, if you’re into that type of thing. Moab has a good variety of restaurants! There is even a food truck park!
Our 5 nights in Moab went by super quickly. Even though we did so much, it felt like there was still tons of stuff we didn’t do. Moab was definitely a great destination! I hope to be back one day!