The Great Southwest Road Trip, part I

Where to begin with our road trip. Since you’re reading this, it means at least I have returned alive, and with the capacity to read and write. I can jump to the chase and assure you everyone else has, as well, despite on several occasions thinking this may not be possible. It was an epic adventure - far, far more adventurous than I had ever imagined when I started booking strange and unique places to stay in Nevada, Utah and Arizona last winter with a vague thought of visiting national parks while staying in said unique housing. And it turned out to be quite life changing, as well.

Our trip started last Friday with one night in Sandy Valley, NV, as a stopover on our way to Utah. We stayed at a cool glamping ranch in this tiny house. We got there far later than I had hoped, so we didn’t get to stroll the grounds, pet the horses or go find somewhere for dinner. I pretty much had to just make some pasta in the tiny kitchen and then we went to bed. 

The next day we rolled on to Utah, in which we stayed in a resort with all kinds of accommodations, including this Conestoga wagon (our room for two nights). 

That day it was my birthday, which unfortunately was spent driving. The BF tried to set up a birthday surprise at the crappy resort restaurant but it all went to hell - the service was absolutely horrendous (think resort run by 15-year-olds waiting for their shift to end so they can go get high with their co workers in the staff housing), the dinner I ordered was probably the worst thing I’ve had in a restaurant ever (rubber vegetables on a bed of rice so soaked in teriyaki sauce that it was completely inedible), and they brought out the already melted and soupy ice cream on a hot cookie desert at the same time as the food so we just helplessly watched it melt further. Oh, and despite saying they had candles, they did not. I thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious, but the BF was mortified. Because of the vigors of this trip and general work-related stress in our lives, our sixth dating anniversary and my 49th birthday went pretty much ignored. Eh, what can you do? 

Despite our inauspicious beginning at this resort, the next day we geared up for Zion National Park and had a swell time. We hiked all of the Emerald Pool trails and ended with The Narrows despite flash flood warnings which had me seriously on edge (flash flooding would continue to foil us all week). Despite my fears going in to this trip, we never had to deal with extreme temperatures. Our day in Zion was perfect at about 80 degrees, and no rain that day. 

The resort was great for free (crappy) breakfast and a pool with a slide that we took full advantage of. The next day we packed up and headed to Navajoland.