Utah 2020

Nothing like going on a ten day road trip through southern Utah in a pandemic.

Sounds pretty crazy, but that is exactly what we did. I booked the trip in December of 2019 months before any of us had even heard of Covid 19 and after months of being locked down we decided to go forward with our trip. Since most of our trip was going to be outdoors we were not too worried. It was the airports and flights that worried us the most. So we took extra protections while in those areas. No.. we did not walk around in hazmat suits but we did have protective goggles with an attached face shield.

Covid 19 did ruin a few of our plans including our rental car which was confirmed and pre-paid through Expedia. It seems Expedia was not informed that our car rental company had been bought out and the new company had conveniently lost our extremely cheap and fully paid for reservation. We were able to get a car but for a higher price of course. Lesson learned....Just because they tell you not to confirm your car rental reservation confirm it anyways!!

Luckily we had booked through Expedia and were able to get a full refund for the prepayment immediately. The other Covid disappointment was that Navajo Nation was under a strict lockdown and closed to visitors. A big bummer for us since we had booked tours of Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon. Both tour companies promptly refunded our money and responded to all inquiries quickly. So those destinations are still on the bucket list!

Other than those two hiccups the trip was perfect.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

We arrived at Cedar Breaks NM as the sun was rising as you can see from the photos it is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! We only spent an hour here on our way to Bryce Canyon NP. This amazing national monument deserves a much longer visit.

Cedar Breaks Photos

Bryce Canyon National Park

Cedar Breaks National Monument

We spent one afternoon at Bryce Canyon NP which was not nearly enough time. We did hike the Queens Garden Loop Trail which is where most of the photos came from. It is a stunning and very popular hike (busy) It is not a difficult trail, but what goes down must come up, so plan to rest if you get winded and bring plenty of water the altitude can affect even the best athletes.

Bryce Canyon Photos

Capital Reef National Park

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Capital Reef National Park

After Bryce Canyon we traveled to Capital Reef National Park. We spent two days here and were blown away. I did hike the Hickman's Bridge Trail. It was easy to follow with great scenery as you can see from the photos.

Capital Reef Photos

Arches National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Capital Reef National Park

After Capital Reef we spent one Day at Arches NP Definitely needed more than one day. There are so many things things to see and multiple hikes to take. I did hike to Landscape Arch via the Devil's Garden Trail many of the pictures are from that trail the rest are from pullouts since we were limited for time.

Arches Photos

Canyonlands National Park

After Arches we made our Way to Canyonlands NP Island in the Sky District. I did a short hike via the White Rim Trail, It did not disappoint.

Canyonlands Photos

Zion National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Our final day of touring was Zion and it was forecasted to be 105 degrees that day so we set out at sunrise to park our car and catch the shuttle to the visitor's center. Thankfully a shuttle bus driver stopped and told us we were on the wrong side of the road to catch the shuttle into the park. Things were a bit different due to Covid but we researched things ahead of time and had our prepaid tickets ready. We did not do any major hiking but did get off and on at all the shuttle stops that were open.

Zion Photos

Natural Bridges National Monument

Unfortunately we only spent a few hours at Natural Bridges. This was the part of our trip that got rearranged due to the closure of Navajo Nation. It also didn't help that I drove north instead of south for about an hour which delayed us. So while we visited all three bridges we did not hike down through any of them. Normally we don't drive more than a few hours in a day. But on this day we drove from Natural Bridges to St George about 6 hours thank goodness for audiobooks.

Natural Bridges NM Photos