Lessons and Tips from Southern Utah, Day 1

On Monday, Kevin and I headed on a vacation to southern Utah for a few days to see the red rocks and slot canyons. Although I felt like I had done lots of planning and list-making, by the time we walked into our hotel Monday evening, I felt like I had failed at everything. Looking back, it's good that we were as prepared as we were, because this first day turned out to be a bit more adventurous than we were anticipating.

So, for all of you planning a trip to southern Utah anytime soon, here are some pointers.

1. If you spend two hours working on making new mixes to listen to in the car the night before your vacation, your packing will be seriously delayed.

2. When in doubt, call actual people. There were some hikes we considered going on but decided against because we thought they were closed. When we found out they were open, we didn't made room for them in the schedule, so we missed out. (I'm looking at you, Navajo Loop.)

3. Pay attention to road signs. You feel a lot smarter if you follow a sign that says "Highway 89" than if you run into a sign that says, "This is not Highway 89" (yes, it actually said that). Luckily, that detour only took 10 minutes.

4. If you stop at Escalante Outfitters, don't assume that just because you and your husband almost finished an 18'' thin-crusted Slab pizza one time that you can also finish a 16'' pizza composed mostly of meat and a much thicker crust. They really aren't comparable.

5. If your sweet mother goes to all the trouble to provide links to maps for you, and you happen to have your laptop with you, keep the links to the maps open. And not just Google Maps (it's kind of clueless, but I'll discuss that more on that in another post). Otherwise, you will fret as you look at Google Maps in the middle of nowhere, Panguitch County (or Kane County) wondering if Harris Wash is where you're supposed to turn off. (Luckily I had saved one of the pages my mom linked which said to turn off Dry Fork, so we didn't actually get lost until we were hiking down the wash, and we managed to correct that quickly.)

6. If you're going hiking at any point in the day, wear a T-shirt, not a new cute shirt and nice shorts. Yes, you may get tired of wearing T-shirts every time you go hiking (and in 90% of pictures taken of you), but at least you don't mind them getting dirty.
 What may look cute on a gentle stroll in Bryce Canyon

may look kind of ridiculous in a mud pit in Peekaboo slot canyon:

Luckily, all of the dirt washed out. Took an hour in the shower and perhaps a time or two in the washing machine, but my clothes are clean again.

However, all of this could have been avoided had I followed this next piece of advice:

7. When you are headed up Peekaboo and a little boy shouts out, "Hey, that's really muddy," don't disregard his message because he's little. And don't take it as a challenge, either.

8. When you are encountering a mud pit with a tiny ledge on one side, sometimes intelligence is more important than willpower. I said, "I can do this" seconds before I fell in the 2-foot-deep mud pit. Instead, I should have said, "right beneath this ledge is dried mud that I can walk on and I can hold onto the ledge rather than walk on it." Alas.

9. If you have spent the last 5 years of your life feeling somewhat cheated that you didn't get to go to the Peekaboo slot canyon but instead went to some obscure (albeit awesome) slot canyon somewhere in the vicinity of Peekaboo, stop feeling cheated. When there are mud pits in Peekaboo, boring slot canyons look awfully appealing.

10. If  a slot canyon dubbed "Spooky" seems a lot tamer and a lot less, um, spooky than Peekaboo, then it's probably not a good time of year to go explore Peekaboo. (Not that we finished Spooky either because Peekaboo had worn us out, but we did get a lot further in.)

Okay, so really the only major mishap the first day was in Peekaboo. Other than that, the day was pretty good and full of spectacular views:

Have I ever mentioned that I really love Bryce Canyon? :)