The Southwest Road Trip - Day 6 & 7

Day 6 was mainly spent on the road.

We woke in Capitol Reef, next to Cathedral Valley, visited Dark Sky Coffee once more, drove around the park a little bit around noon, and then started making our way towards Moab.

Little did we know that a random winter storm was in store for us. The closer we got to Moab, the darker the sky was becoming. I just knew those clouds I was seeing ahead weren’t rain clouds.

It started snowing on us. In the desert. I never for a second thought we would be seeing snow on our trip but here we were, driving down the highway in a gradually increasing snowstorm. We found a BLM spot to camp for the night, wishing we had invested in that portable heater for this of all nights...

Normally at camp spots, Austin would take some items out and put on the roof of the car so that we would have more room to stretch out and sleep in the back of the Jeep. Not tonight. So we slept in the front seats, leaning them back as far as we could and wrapping ourselves in every blanket we had brought along. It was still freezing. We did manage to make some cup noodles for dinner and watched The Big Bang Theory before drifting off to sleep.

The snow stopped at some point during the night, but it was still very cold outside the whole day; 20’s-30’s all day but still sunny and clear skies. It was beautiful to see the desert covered in snow - and my Jeep as well. It was also Louis’ first time in the snow!

We were going to visit Arches National Park first, to see Delicate Arch, but they were currently closed due to the storm and some roadways needing to be plowed. We headed for Canyonlands National Park instead, which is in the same general area, and did some off-roading in the process.

First big stop in Canyonlands - Mesa Arch.

We drove around the park, pulling over to see all the beautiful desert views, but we honestly weren’t trying to do much hiking, it was so cold and we weren’t prepared.

Dead Horse Point is a state park next door to Canyonlands, so we drove there next before heading back to Arches, which luckily opened back up around mid-day. Although I would love to explore more of Arches National Park, Delicate Arch was my number one must-see. We strapped Louis into his K9 Sportsack, wrapped him in a blanket around Austin and set off on the Delicate Arch hike, about a total of 3 miles there-and-back.

It was getting close to sunset by the time we decided to hike back from Delicate Arch, but we luckily made it to the car just in time.

We did everything on our itinerary and decided we would hit the road homeward the next day, as we had a good 20 or so hours ahead of us to drive home.

It was a phenomenal trip, one that we will never forget. We will certainly be back to these beautiful areas to spend more time and see more, but the week we spent on the road out there...was absolutely incredible. Thanks for following along!

P.S. Fast-forward to present day, fairly recently, I actually parted ways with my Jeep. As you can imagine, it was quite a bittersweet event after the memories that we had made in it on this roadtrip. And not only that, but this month to be precise, a picture of mine that I took (on an iPhone 11!) on the morning of waking up in Capitol Reef (see first photo of this post), was published in Travel + Leisure magazine in their “Your Best Shot” section. I still can’t believe it. They had contacted me sometime in March asking about publishing it in their July issue and here we are!

Here’s to the start of more great things.

So…

Where to (next), Meg?