TR: Southwest Road Trip, CO to UT to AZ and Back

[smmokan]

Repost from the Padded Room:

My wife's spring break was last week, and since she wanted to visit family in St. George, UT, I decided to make the trip interesting. On the way down and on the way back, we managed to hit the following places over the course of six days and 1800 miles:

Goblin Valley State Park
Capitol Reef Nat'l Park
Zion Nat'l Park- Observation Point hike
Red Cliffs Natural Area
Zion Nat'l Park again (Kolob Terrace area)
Little Black Mountain petroglyphs
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (home of the National Geographic show "Dogtown")
Waterholes Slot Canyon
Horseshoe Bend
Monument Valley
House on Fire Anasazi ruins
Canyonlands Nat'l Park- False Kiva

I'm happy to answer questions about any of these places and give recommendations- we spent full days at a couple, but only a few hours at others, so my knowledge may be limited. The best part was that we timed the visits so that we were never dealing with crowds, and we never felt rushed to see something and leave. On to the pictures:

First stop was Goblin Valley State Park. This place is one of my favorite spots in Utah... but regardless of how cool it is, it's near impossible to get a good picture there.



We got to St. George that afternoon, and the next day we woke up early to be in Zion once the shuttles started running. We were one of the first 10 cars in the parking lot that morning and took the shuttle to the Weeping Rock stop for Observation Point. View on the way up:



Angel's Landing is also a popular hike (and much more crowded), and in this shot you can see the top of that hike about 500 feet below:



8 miles r/t with about 2100 vert of climbing, it was nice to be on the top by ourselves considering we could see 20+ people on Angel's Landing:



That evening, we headed about 30 minutes south of St. George (into AZ) to check out the petroglyphs at Little Black Mountain.





I had plans to mountain bike the next day, but mechanical issues put that plan on hold. Instead, we drove a little bit north of St. George to check out Red Cliffs. A little more crowded, but the place is really cool for families and younger kids. You can climb all over the rocks and swim in the pools if you want.



From there, the Kolob Terrace section of Zion Nat'l Park is only 20-30 minutes away, so we took a quick trip to check out a couple of view points.



One of my favorite shots with the red road and the red sandstone towers:



The next morning, we got up early and left St. George to head east. First stop was Best Friends Animal Sanctuary- my wife has been a huge fan since the Nat Geo show "Dogtown", and we both volunteer with a rescue here in Colorado. I highly recommend a stop if you're ever in the Kanab, UT area. It's amazing to see.

After Best Friends, we drove about an hour east to Page, AZ, got a permit, and hiked Waterholes Canyon (thanks Leftfield for the rec). It's not as beautiful as Antelope Canyon, but there were NO crowds and we were the only ones there for a majority of the time.









Then, only a couple miles up the road is Horseshoe Bend, so we made the 15 minute "hike" to the viewpoint. Pretty spectacular to see in person:



That afternoon, we drove a couple hours east and arrived in Monument Valley. I was hoping for a $$$ sunset, but clouds moved in and we got skunked. Luckily, that was not the case the following morning. The Mittens and Merrick Butte:



The Mittens by themselves:



The view from John Ford's Point:



The Totem Poles:



The North Window:





After spending a few hours that morning in MV, we drove towards Moab and stopped at the House on Fire Anasazi ruins... this required a mile hike up a dry river bed in the middle of nowhere:





Finally, we arrived in Moab that afternoon and headed up to Canyonlands Nat'l Park to do the False Kiva hike. It's not on the map since it's a Class II historical site, but there's a ton of information online about it if you search. I got skunked with overcast skies, but this place is a must-see regardless of conditions.



If anyone wants to check out the full set of pictures, here's the link to the gallery on my website:

http://www.stevemokanphotography.com...west-Road-Trip

[leftfield]

Great shots Steve! Some of my fav places, i'm itching to get back out there this summer.

[Edgnar]

I need some red rock desert in my life. Nothing like it.

[mtcham]

Looks like a great trip! Mittens sunrise is a wall hanger!!!

[Bronic]

Cool shots Steve!

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Bad ass! Looks like a great trip, thanks for posting the pics, those are sweet!

[tillPOWdidwepart]

Fantastic shots! This TR ranks up there with the best of them for me! Thanks for posting!

[smmokan]

Thank you sir... I just may have to do a trip like this every spring break.

[PowTron]

Awesome...

[Fuzz]

Just getting back online after a week away. Steve, these are fantastic! My favorites...

I just may have to do a trip like this every spring break.

We used to make a trip out to southern Utah every year -- great change of scenery after a Colorado winter. That's when we heard the joke: "How do you know it's spring in Utah? All the license plates turn green."

[supermodel159]

Nice work.

[geomorph]

The next morning, we got up early and left St. George to head east. First stop was Best Friends Animal Sanctuary- my wife has been a huge fan since the Nat Geo show "Dogtown", and we both volunteer with a rescue here in Colorado. I highly recommend a stop if you're ever in the Kanab, UT area. It's amazing to see.

Got any dog pictures? Great landscapes in this set.

[smmokan]

Not this time... I didn't take my camera with me on the tour at Best Friends. I wouldn't call it a camera-friendly tour since you don't have a bunch of time to spend at each location they stop at. It's definitely worth doing though.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Wow - these are great shots. Looks like an awesome trip.