Lady of the Wild Woods

Camping in Southern Utah Day 1

Welcome to Utah Road Sign

We flew into Vegas on the Friday before Thanksgiving and got in pretty late. We stayed in Vegas at a cheap casino resort, and the room was pretty crappy, but it was fine for the night. Nevada charges a resort fee on top of your regular room fee, so even though a rate looks cheap, it could be twice that much. And there is smoking in casinos, which is just gross. We had to wait in a short line in a smoke-filled casino just to register for the room, which was unpleasant. But the next day was when the fun would begin!

We grabbed an amazing breakfast at the Black and Blue Diner in Vegas before heading out to Utah. The drive took us through a small corner of Arizona, which was a spectacular drive!

We stopped for groceries at the Natural Grocers in St. George, Utah, and then checked in at our campsite. We decided to try sleeping in the back of the Kia Sorrento we rented in Vegas. It was roomy and would be warm, especially since it was going to be in the 30’s that night, and we only had a three-season tent with us. After we claimed our camping spot at Quail Creek Campground, we heading to Snow Canyon for some hiking.

We did the Petrified Dunes Trail to start, which is a very family-friendly, easy, and short trail, just to get our feet wet, so to speak. It took us a good bit to get through the trail even though it was short because it was so unique and different from what I had hiked before, so I stopped constantly to take pictures and just to take it all in. In mid-November, the sun sets early, so we went back to set up our campsite and make dinner. I attempted to make pasta over the fire and grilled tofu. It was incredibly windy that night, and Huiyeng had a hard time getting the fire going. Even using the Jetboil to boil water was difficult in the wind, but in the end it worked out, and we ate well.

It was a blessing to sleep in the car with the wind. We used two backpacking inflatable mattresses and lined the bottom of the car interior with a shower curtain liner. With our two zero-degree bags, we slept snugly and woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the reservoir.

There was so much more to this beautiful trip, but also some sadness, and I just haven’t been able to finish writing up the experience…. I have posted the pictures on my Instagram, so you can check them out there.

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