My First Solo Road Trip

(Dead Horse Point State Park)

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I absolutely love to travel, but in my (almost) 24 years I have never

once gone on a trip by myself, let alone even entertained the thought! However,

this was the year that that was going to change. After coming out of a long term

relationship, where a lot of what I did depended on another person, I was setting out

to focus on myself and create a more independent way of life. When one of my

best friends, Kristin, moved out to Moab for the summer to pursue an internship

as a park ranger at Arches National Park, I found myself spending a lot of time missing

her and wishing I could visit her. Then I realized, what was stopping me? I could

afford to go, I had enough vacation time for work, and I had a perfectly good car

so why spend my time wishing I could visit her when instead I could spend my

time actually doing just that! So not too long after my realization I loaded up

my Chevy Cruze and began my first solo road trip out to the amazing town of Moab, Utah.

Day 1:

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It is day 1 of my first official solo road trip! I left home a little later than

expected (around 9 in the morning!), but I still planned on arriving at my

first stop in Colorado at a good time thanks to the loveliness of a time change!

I drove for almost 8 hours before I arrived at Bishop Castle near Pueblo, CO. T

his castle was built by one man and his imagination has taken it to some pretty high

reaching places...literally. Between tall spires, spiral staircases, and a fire-breathing

dragon, this place will transport you back in time to your days as a kid as you

explore every unique inch of this place, which the creator said he is still building

on to! However, this place is not for the faint hearted and caution should not be thrown

to the wind as there are some stairs missing and spires that enjoy swaying along with

the breeze when you are perched on them! However, I had a lot of fun exploring this

castle which is guaranteed to provide a great time for visitors of all ages!

After Bishop Castle, I continued to drive on through Colorado for about 2 more hours

until I arrived at Great Sand Dunes National Park outside of Alamosa, Colorado.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at the park, there was a lovely thunderstorm building

and I strongly considered turning around and returning back to the park the next

morning. However, since I was already there I decided to try and wait out the

storm and boy am I glad I did! I sat in my car and watched it sprinkle and lightning

for about half an hour or so before the skies cleared up and I was finally able to

make my way out to the dunes! I crossed a small stream and then I was officially

out walking and climbing on the sand dunes! It was a huge leg workout climbing

up the dunes, but the views and the experience was amazing! Definitely a

very underrated park!

I stayed at the dunes for sunset and then drove into Alamosa, CO where I stayed at

the Sunset Inn for the night.

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Day 2:

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My end goal for this day was to arrive in Moab, Utah. However, before I could

make it there, I wanted to make a pit stop at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

I arrived at the park around 11:30 in the morning and drove the paved road that wound

through the park hiking to each of the multiple overlooks along the way. Every

overlook I stopped at offered absolutely stunning views, however, my favorite overlook was

Dragon Point.

My final hike in the park was a 2.4 mile round trip hike to Warner Point which

not only offered a spectacular view of the canyon and the Colorado River, but

also some great views of the surrounding lands.

Once I made it back to my car I left the park and drove a little

over 3 hours to Moab, Utah. I arrived at about 6:30 that evening, checked into

my room at Adventure Inn, and finally met up with Kristin! We ate dinner at the

Atomic Grill, a restaurant neither one of us had been to before, and then

sat at the La Sal mountain viewpoint in Arches to watch the beautiful sunset.

Day 3:

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Our first stop on this day was the Red Rock Bakery to grab some breakfast that we

could eat on the way to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. We

planned to spend the majority of the morning exploring this district of Canyonlands,

however, before we made it to the Needles we decided to make a quick detour

at Wilson Arch.

Since the temperature was already quickly making its way into the hundred

degree vicinity, we decided to start off our visit with the longest hike we wanted

to do (~2.4 miles round trip) called Slickrock trail. We spent quite a while on

this trail (at least 3 hours!) taking the time to sit on a rock and enjoy the stunning

views, leaving the trail to look in potholes for various types of wildlife that can

sometimes be found living inside them, and we even decided to cheat death and

climb out onto a thin ledge for a better view of the needles and of a nearby canyon.

Our next hike in the park was the 0.6 mile Cave Spring trail where we got to see

an old deserted cowboy camp, petroglyphs, and the natural spring that gives

the trail its name.

After we finished the second hike we were both quite hungry and tired

from the heat so we drove into Monticello to eat at the Shake Shack. We drove back

to Moab after we finished eating lunch and followed the La Sal Scenic Loop Road

up to Warner Lake to do a little fishing. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up catching any fish,

but it was hard to be disappointed with the spectacular views that we had

while we were there. (Fun fact! This was the first time I was able to go fishing this

year and I definitely couldn’t have asked for a better place to be even though I didn’t catch

a single fish!)

Our final stop for the night was Zak’s restaurant where we both finally got to

try the pizza buffet that they are most well known for.

Day 4:

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Our morning began bright and early this day with a trip into Arches National

Park so we could obtain a hiking permit for the Fiery Furnace area within the park. Once we

got our permit we headed back into Moab to eat breakfast at the Jailhouse Cafe, which

actually used to be a courthouse/jail at one point in the building’s history, hence the name!

After breakfast, we returned to Arches to enter into the depths of the Fiery Furnace.

Using Kristin’s “secret map” we explored the beautiful scenery jumping across

deep crevices, squeezing through narrow cracks between rocks, and carefully

navigating the rough terrain while also taking the time to admire the impressive arches

within this area. My favorite arch on the trail was easily Surprise Arch which was tucked

away down a little dead end path.

(Surprise Arch)

We worked up quite an appetite after all the hiking we did that

morning so our first stop after the Fiery Furnace was lunch! We chose to eat

at Milt’s Stop and Eat which is a place neither one of us had been to before,

but it was absolutely delicious!

(BBQ Brisket Cheeseburger)

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After lunch we made our way to Raven’s Rim Adventure Tours

for our ziplining tour! To get to the start of the ziplines we went on a short UTV

ride with our guides, which was very reminiscent of my last trip to Moab

where I went on the Hell’s Revenge trail. On our zipline tour we completed

six ziplines that made a loop through the sand flats and offered incredible

views of the flats, Moab, Arches National Park, the Colorado River port

of entry, and the La Sal mountains. Each zipline we went on got a little longer than

the last and our final zipline was around 1380 feet long. In addition to the ziplines

there was also a really awesome suspension bridge that we had to cross

in order to continue on our loop.

We finished zip lining around 5 that evening and then travelled

a couple of blocks down the street to have frozen yogurt at Frozen

Yogurt Moab. We didn’t have anything specific planned for this evening so we

decided to do a little driving around the area to see Potash and then

Dead Horse Point State Park where we stayed to watch the sunset.

(Area around Potash)

(Dead Horse Point State Park)

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After the sun went down we began to hear some rumblings

and complaints from our stomachs so we headed back into Moab to eat

at one of the only places still open at this time, the Moab Brewery.

Day 5:

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I started my day late (at least compared to the other days of the trip) with 9am

church service at St. Pius X catholic church. After mass I walked back to my

hotel and got ready for another day of hiking in Arches National Park with my

favorite park ranger who had to work on this day. Kristin decided to take me to

explore Devil’s Garden, which I didn’t get to do much of the last time I was in Moab.

We visited 3 arches on our hike including the infamous Landscape Arch, Navajo Arch,

and Partition Arch.

(Navajo Arch)

(Partition Arch)

(Landscape Arch)

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Once we finished the Devil’s Garden hike, I headed back to my hotel

to relax a little in the AC while Kristin finished her shift in the park. We

met up again at my hotel a little after 4pm and headed to Red Cliffs Lodge

for dinner at the Cowboy Grill. We got to the grill a little before our reservation

time so we decided to check out the movie museum on the property that

featured information and artifacts on the various movies and videos that

were shot in the Moab area including titles such as “Thelma and Louise,”

“Mission Impossible,” and, to no one’s surprise, a wide variety of westerns.

We ended the night watching some YouTube and eating ice cream from

Burger King in my hotel room before I headed back to Kansas and we had

to say goodbye for the last time on my trip.

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Day 6:

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I left Moab at 5:30am taking the road less travelled to I-70 which allowed

me to stop and enjoy the sunrise before continuing on the 800 mile drive back home.

A lot of people asked me before I left if I was nervous about traveling by myself

and to be honest I was just a little. However, once I made it to my first stop and spent a

little time exploring the attraction all of that nervousness I felt when I started the trip quickly

dissipated and I found myself completely enjoying road tripping alone! I definitely think it

is something I wouldn’t be opposed to doing again if I am given the opportunity. Also, a

special shoutout to Kristin for making my second trip out to Moab one of my favorite

vacations to date! I can’t wait to see where the travel bug takes me next, solo

or with friends!