Super Ambitious Backup Plan

I went on a bunch of awesome trips in 2019. I went to Mount Rushmore (big trip and I don’t to spoil it in case I write about it), Carlsbad with my family, I also finally made it to Arizona, and even the most eastern point of the USA in Maine. Those are just a few of the cool things I did last summer.

I really wanted to go somewhere around October last year. I hadn’t done anything for awhile (September was a long time ago trip wise). I decided on Colorado because it’s one of the closest places left to see national parks near Philmont. Unfortunately the road in Rocky National Park was closed because of snow. A blizzard was forecasted for most of northwestern Colorado at the time. My off days were lined up so I essentially had 3 days off. 68 hours to be exact. I really wanted to visit Arizona. There is a lot of cool parks there. The problem is it’s really far away (10 hour drive) and it’s expensive. I just wasn’t sure if it was possible with the time I had off. I don’t want to go into a ton of detail just in case I actually end up going somewhere down the line.

So I decided on the ‘Super Ambitious Backup Plan’ That’s what I referred to the new back up plan. It’s the same trip time, but it would theoretically cost less and I could see more exciting things. I was going to Utah! My parents had been a billion times to go skiing and watch movies at Sundance, but I had more intense plans.

I left Philmont at 9:25pm Tuesday night. According to the internet you are 3x more likely to crash if you drive at night. So if you want to do something potentially life threatening don’t tell your mom first. It was 11.5 hours (647miles) to Bryce Canyon National park and since I only had 2 days off plus a night and a morning there wasn’t any time to waste. I needed to drive all night in order to have time to actually walk around in Utah. Tuesday morning I woke up at 5am and went to work at 6am. I got off work at 3pm and took a 4 hour nap. So I got 10 hours of sleep total if you lump the time I spent asleep the night before. That fit my driving safety requirements. I was good to go!

The first couple hours weren’t bad. I navigated the canyons to Taos. I had to stop at around 1am for gas. There are a lot of animals at night in New Mexico. Every time I saw an animal I’d yell it out to help me stay awake. I saw 21 elk, 25 rabbits, 1 house cat, 1 raccoon, 2 antelope, 15 deer, 2 mice, 1 dog, 2 coyotes, 1 big bird (vulture probably), and 1 skunk. A few times I stopped by the side of the highway to change songs. I listened to Benedict Cumberbatch’s narration of Sherlock Holmes for a few hours, trance edm music for several more, and some rock and roll to keep me awake. At 4:55am I finally made it to Shiprock, NM. I was brutally tired when I got to Shiprock So I quickly drank a Bang energy drink to stay awake. If you don’t know, a bang is similar to a monster, but it has 300mg of caffeine. I think drinking tons of sugar makes me super tired so I tried out bang instead of Monster because of ten zero sugar/carbs. That’s when things got interesting. Previously I had been staying awake with music and by counting animals. When I crossed the border into Arizona at 5am there wasn’t much to see. It was pitch black outside and there weren’t many cars. People in Arizona don’t know how to use headlights by the way. There were several cars coming the opposite way that didn’t turn off their high beams!

Halfway through Arizona I listened to another set of Sherlock Holmes stories that I had downloaded. I had planned to see the sunrise at the border of Utah, but since I had taken a quick 20 min napping break at the side of the road I was running a little late.

After 7 hours of driving I stopped in Page, AZ for 5 minutes to snap a picture of the sunrise. I sent it to my boss because he always takes pictures of the sunrise at Philmont. On my way north towards Utah I went down a couple of massive hills. Once the sun had risen I was quite happy I was still awake and hadn’t died on the morning portion of the drive.

I drove through the northern part of Antelope Canyon and I got to see a big dam on my way into Utah. I loved the view here and so I took a 15 minute rest break. I’d say that I drove another 30 minutes or so before I actually reached Utah. Boom! I made it! My brother Philip is now the only one left in the family that hasn’t seen Utah. Haha I still had about 250 miles of driving before I reached Bryce Canyon.

Once I reached Bryce I gave a Ranger my National Park annual pass and headed in. I first went to the gift shop to stamp my passport. I also picked up a patch and a bunch of post cards. I even met a Patriots fan from New Hampshire and we talked for a bit in the checkout line. The way I’d describe Bryce is it’s a mini version of the Grand Canyon. The driving is set up like Canyon De Chelly though. You drive from point to point and look out off the cliff face. The only difference is you don’t need a guide to go hiking. From what I can recall I went to Bryce point first. It was the farthest one away from the visitors center and I had lots to do.

It was 40°F when I got out of the car and of course I had my red shorts on. I put on my green wind breaker for that extra protection against the cold wind. The view was well worth the long drive. I sadly didn’t have time to do a hiking trail so I skipped those. In the picture up there you might see some big spires of rock. Those are known as hoodoos. The next stop was Paria View so I hopped back into the warm car and headed that way.

After Paria I visited Inspiration point where I got to do a short walk to the overlook. It’s much like the view at Bryce point, but more crowded. I then drove a fair bit to see Rainbow Point. I’m pretty sure this is Inspiration Point, however I didn’t label half of my pictures when I took them so I’m not 100% convinced that each picture posted is correct.

The temperature was starting to warm up around this time: 50°F! Rainbow Point is essentially a view of a huge mesa thing in Bryce Canyon. One of the best views in the park I’d say. It was about 13 miles away from Inspiration Point so I had a nice jolly old time cruising out there soaking in the beautiful canyon views. One thing that I would’ve very much liked to have seen was one of the Night Sky programs led by a park ranger. In those you get to have the ultimate stargazing experience. You can see the Milky Way and supposedly Jupiter / Venus.

On my way out I saw the Natural Bridge. It was nearing the scheduled leave time that I had planned out in my journal. I always plan of my trips in the composition notebook before I go. It comes with me on every trip. Before I left Bryce Canyon NP I stopped by Swamp Canyon, Sunset Point, and the Bryce Canyon Sign. My mom likes it when I get a picture with the sign.

Now I was off to Cedar Breaks National Monument. It really wasn’t that far away from Bryce when looking at the map so off I went back south down route 143 for about 60 miles. Short trip compared to the 650 miles I had done in the night/morning. You might think of Utah driving as the 3rd picture I put. Straight roads with lots of red rocks, mesas, and desert landscapes. Well, on 143 I went through many grassy hills and a huge amount of trees.

After about an hour I finally made it to Cedar Breaks NM and it was CLOSED for the season. Grrrr! I could still look over the cliff at the views (which were awesome), but no stamp or souvenir patch!!

According to the national park website they were open for 2 more days, but upon arrival I discovered the ranger office boarded up for winter. A few days early. There were several other groups of people there all confused like me. I hiked the short trail and took pictures of the views. After a few more pictures and many minutes of getting as close the the edge as possible, I decided to go to lunch.

The plan was to drive to Cedar City for lunch at one of the local restaurants. While leaving the Cedar Breaks park I saw a ton of orange polls sticking out of the ground. Around 15ft high I think. Later I found out that they were for marking the roads in the winter. Apparently the snow drifts get so high it’s impossible to see the road and thus impossible to plow. So the polls are spaced out enough to outline the toad. Pretty neat. I discovered that the highway to Cedar City was a super steep cliff road. Remembering the road near Durango, CO I decided to just head straight to the hotel. No way I was going down a 12% grade for 10 miles in my car! Luckily for me it was a pretty straight shot to route 89 (one of the main highways north).

It was around another 140 ish miles to the hotel. I went north for a fairly long time. Across vast farmlands and such for awhile. At one point I stopped for gas and met a lady who now lives in Utah, but was originally born in Boston. Pretty neat!

Right off of I-89 I started to go through some awesome rock formations near Kingston, UT. You really have 2 options when going to Capitol Reef from Bryce Canyon: travel the mountainous windy road with a ton of deer or travel the longer, but safer mountain road with no deer. I chose the 2nd option. Last thing I needed was to total my car on a deer in Utah…700 miles away from work. I was now heading on I-62 north towards Burrville and it took ages to get there. I forget where it was exactly, but somewhere between Otter Creek reservoir and Burrville I got to drive up to the top of a massive Mesa. First I drove all the way to the end of the road, which took like 45 minutes because it was basically a very rural farming road. Then I turned onto the road up the Mesa. Sort of like the road at Mesa Verde except shorter. Once up the mesa I continued on my way towards the Noor hotel at Capitol Reef, NP.

Eventually I made it to my hotel in Torrey, UT around 7pm. I went to Slackers for dinner. It is a local burger restaurant in the small village of Torrey (240 population). One thing I noticed about my drive so far was the lack for fast food restaurants. I literally saw no McDonalds or any other fast food the whole trip. A first for me, but ultimately better fort the trip atmosphere. I ended up going to bed at around 8pm. Drove a record of 953 miles on October 22/23 2019. A 25 hour day which shattered the previous longest drive on a Philmont off day. (753miles)

After a magnificent 10 hours of sleep I got up at 7:10am to start the day’s adventure and drive back to basecamp. By 8:50 am I had checked out of the hotel and made it to the start of the trail to Chimney Rocks in Capitol Reef. What you have to understand is that it looks like it’s a great day weather wise outside in the picture, but it’s actually 19°F and a little windy. Once again I wore my red shorts, Grand Canyon sweatshirt, and polar bear hat. The plan was to tough out the cold until it got warm. I walked about a half mile before I realized my hands were going numb so I decided to move on. After a quick stop at Panorama point I headed towards the visitors center.

The park headquarters is located in the small village of Fruita. The landscape was stunning! I wish every drive was as great as driving through Capitol Reef. I first went to the ranger building to get a map of the park. When it was my turn in line I said “Ok, what roads are accessible with a low to the ground, but hard working Toyota Camry?” Park ranger looked at me like I was crazy, but explained that there was a paved 8 mile scenic drive, another 14 mile paved drive towards the off-road trails, and a plethora of maintained/unmaintained dirt roads. We decided a good destination for my car would be the Capitol Gorge.

I got my stamp and patch on my way out of the visitors center. I also got a really cool set of post cards for my penpals and a neat poster of Capitol Reef. Typically I go to the gift shop first so I don’t have to deal with getting the patch on my way out. I’ve found it saves time. The scenic drive road was surprisingly busy with lots of huge RV’s and campers along with the typical peasant cars (average joe’s). It took me a second to get to the dirt road for Capitol Gorge. Many pit stops on the way for pictures.

The dirt road was 2.4 miles long and very bumpy so I had to go super slow, which was ok by me because that meant more time to gaze at the beautiful rocks. (You can slow the time-lapse down to .25 speed if you are on a browser.) I decided on the Golden Throne hike first. It’s a hike to a rock that looks like a throne. The trail was 2 miles long with an elevation gain of 733ft. It was considered a strenuous hike, but it was the easiest one that I thought I had time to accomplish. It was tough to find the start of the trail, but after asking a hiking group from a university in Utah I figured out where it was.

The trail was fun! I got to navigate the edge of a cliff for most of it. At one point I was able to overlook the road and it was great. I never saw anyone else on the trail so I felt pretty alone. Around halfway I thought I was being stalked by a mountain lion so I voted to head back. This was right after some woman scared away a mountain lion in Colorado by blasting Metallica while hiking alone so one paw print and I freaked out. Maybe it was a dog or something…who knows? Some day I will go back and try again though. Next thing on the list was the gorge itself. There was a trail through it and not many people so I headed on in.

I fooled around with the big Canon camera for about 10 minutes to get a shot of me at a distance. I thought it would be cool to get me standing proudly with the tall cliffs walls next to me on either side. I took a few with my polar bear hat on as well. Essentially I just set the camera on some rocks, hit the button, and ran as fast as possible to the spot I had marked out then struck the pose and hoped for the best. It took like 20 tries, but I finally got a decent picture. Aiming the camera and making sure no one would see my silliness was a struggle. After picture time I went to find the Pioneer Register.

The Pioneer Register is cliff face that has the carvings of the old Mormon settlers on it. The inscribing from 1883? That’s real! It was really neat to see it in person. Sadly I had to head back to the car since time was of the essence on this trip. on the way back I snapped some more pictures in my polar bear hat. It was quite windy and that meant it got much colder, but it was still sunny with a clear sky so I didn’t complain.

Before heading to the other long scenic road I went to a little store in Fruita and ended up buying some authentic Utah honey. I gave it to my mom for her tea. There wasn’t a whole lot to go see on the 14 mile road in terms of viewpoints or trails since I was not in a quad or a pickup with a lift. The views from the road were amazing though. I was in super rural Utah. Only farms around me and I only saw one camper the entire time.

Don’t worry I seemed to be the only car on the road so stopping for a picture in the middle of it is ok in my opinion. Also there wasn’t a breakdown lane so I didn’t have a choice. At 2pm I decided it was time to start back towards Philmont. Every hour that I spent at Capitol Reef was an hour later that I would arrive back at Philmont. So if I stayed until 3pm I’d get back to Philmont at 3am. I couldn’t stay the night somewhere because I had work at 10am the next morning. (Sorry if that’s a bit confusing.) Not gonna lie, it’s a bit surreal knowing you have work in less than 24 hours and you are 700 miles away. On the way out I snapped a picture with the Capitol Reef sign.

A friend mentioned that Goblin Valley state park was a cool place to visit so I went there next. It took me an hour to get there from Capitol Reef and it was on the way to I-70, which was the route back to basecamp.

Alright so I’m going off of what google maps has for driving distances is so don’t butcher me if the numbers are wrong. Rather than actually hiking through goblin valley I opted to just snap some pictures from the highway. Sure it’s not the same and I can’t really say I was actually there, but good enough for this trip. I got an early dinner at a Subway restaurant at a gas station on I-70 at around 4:05pm. Finally time for the long return trip.

Since the portion of I-70 in Utah has an 80mph speed limit, I ended up getting to Grand junction, CO rather fast. The Colorado portion of the drive was rather sketchy because I went through a bunch of mountain passes at night right after a snowstorm. Rather than take I-70 to Denver and just go south to Philmont I decided to just take a shortcut straight through the mountains. I had just missed the snowstorm by about 5 hours so luckily for me the roads were already plowed and I didn’t need snow chains. If the snow chain sign lights were flashing at the top of the mountain and you drove through without chains it’s a $1000 fine so I was really crossing my fingers. I had no snow chains. It was 2°F outside and pitch black.

This is a picture of the road through a valley after coming out of the mountains. I eventually made it to Trinidad, CO, which is right on the border of New Mexico. It was about 12:18 am. I was making good time. Since it was snowing rather hard in Trinidad I decided to take a short break just to wake up a bit before going through the Raton Pass. I’d sort of gambled that the pass would still be open if it snowed. If it wasn’t it meant I would have a huge detour in order to make it to work on time. Long story short the rest of the drive was pretty uneventful and I pulled into basecamp at a wonderful 3:00am. Work was at 10am so I’m happy to say I didn’t miss work! Whelp, that about wraps up this trip. Hope you enjoyed it and see you next time!