We did not know what we were getting ourselves into before coming into Utah. We thought Sedona was beautiful, and it is…..but we had no clue that Utah would top that by so much! The drive from Arizona to Utah was so beautiful! it gave us a quick glimpse of the beauty that lies ahead! After one night and a beautiful morning at a BLM land to break up the drive, we ended up at Southern Utah RV park in Washington, Utah; home for the month! Our main attraction we thought when we planned to come here was to go see Zion. But oh my, the State Parks in Utah are breathtaking! We were super close to Quail Creek State Park, Sand Hallow State Park, the Red Cliffs and so much more. On the way to visit West Family in Dammeron Valley, about 30 minutes away, we pass Sand Canyon State Park which is just so gorgeous. So many more parks we haven’t even discovered yet. Mike totally fell in love with all the ATV/Dirt Bike trails that can be just in your backyard if you choose to live away from the city. It has definitely made us think twice about Utah. The beauty is something we were not prepared for! So much happened, now let’s see if I can capture it all down.

The drive from Arizona to Utah was amazing! You go through so much beautiful red rock that you’re just blown away from the beauty. We made a quick stop to stretch our legs at Horseshoe Bend before getting to our BLM rest stop for the night after our first travel day. Horseshoe bend is such a beauty. So happy we could make a quick stop before settling down for a night. Mike found a beautiful BLM campground, Twin Hallows Canyon BLM in Mount Carmel, Utah. We found a cozy spot right next to a horse corral and set up for the night. We didn’t think any one would come use the corral, but it was such a beautiful sight the following morning when I peaked out our window to find two beautiful horses! It was like waking up in the dream! I love horses!! I cut up an apple and went outside to feed the two cuties a little treat. That definitely made my morning! Boon-docking in these random places have been my favorite part of the trips! After that eventful morning, we packed back up, hooked up and made our way to our new Home Sweet Home for the month at Southern Utah Rv Park.

After settling in, we quickly made time to see the West Family, our Cousin’s from Mike’s side of the family! We got to see their beautiful new home in Dammeron Valley. They have a lot of land and a huge dream garage with lots of toys that we got to have some fun with! Thanks for the fun rides Will! First place they took us to was Snow Canyon State Park! WOW! Snow Canyon is GORGEOUS! We went to see Jenny’s Trail, a little trail that leads to such a beautiful hidden sight! We drove around a bit from there to Gunlock and then drove down into St. George to have dinner. We learned about all the beautiful State Parks that we eventually went to visit almost daily. Perfect way to start our trip off!

The first weekend, we jumped in Will’s truck and he took us on a fun 4×4 mini road trip that lead us all the way into the Grand Canyon. What a beautiful and fun adventure! We made a stop at Mount Trumbull School, an old school that was rebuilt out there. It was a perfect lunch stop out there before continuing along on our adventure. Oh my goodness, I knew I had a fear for heights, but oh boy…..it’s really really high at the Grand Canyon! haha I definitely was freaking out while we were there just a little bit…but it was so worth it. What a sight to see! Definitely something I am happy I get to check that off our bucket list. We almost made a trip out there when were were in Arizona, but never made it. Super happy we got to go while we were still so close!

Sand Hollow State Park was definitely one of our favorite spots! They have such a beautiful lake. There’s a rocky area that you can go enjoy the water in as well as a beach side to the lake where people can drive their trucks out and hang out for the day. We did this a few times, and took a few of our guest there because we love it so much! This is also where Mike and I also had a spontaneous mini adventure going 4x-ing and ended up in a soft spot! We were just hundreds of feet from the street and we got stuck in the sand! It was late, around 8 but the sun sets around 9 in Utah, so we still had a bit of light out. Thankfully, Mike knew of a Tow Truck company near by that he called. Matt’s Off-road Recovery! Matt showed up in about half an hour, just as the sun was setting and pulled us out easily! Awesome thing was we also got a ‘free’ t-shirt out of it! Update: we are YouTube famous! Check us out on Matt’s page!

Guess who flew in to Las Vegas the following week to celebrate Mother’s Day and her 70th Birthday with us?! Mama Mary!! Lisa and I got to have our ‘girls time’ together as we drove out to Vegas (2hrs) to pick up Mom. It’s a beautiful drive there and back from Utah to Vegas! What a fun girls time we had! Played a little slots, got our feet chewed on by little fish (gross! haha) and walked around Downtown Las Vegas, (Fremont Street) to get the birthday celebrations started for Mom! She got to spend her first night with her favorite kiddos and pup at Lisa’s place before spending the rest of the week with us. Family kept Mom entertained and took her around Snow Canyon to explore that next day. We also had a sleep over with the twins that night! Got up early the next morning, had some breakfast and played some pickle-ball before Lisa and the gang came over and half of us went to Zion for the day. We enjoyed a meal out there and did a little walking around the shops. It was so awesome to get to spend some quality time with family and really get to know everyone on a more intimate level. Spending more time with family especially while on this journey makes it so much greater! On Sunday, After enjoying a Mother’s Day breakfast, we threw Mom a surprised birthday party over at Lisa’s! Kaeli did a great job decorating and everyone did a great job surprising her when we walked through the door! Thank you Lisa for making this happen! We all went out to explore Pine Valley, just a little ways down from Lisa’s place. So different than what most of Utah looks like with all the tall trees! Being able to travel around and also have Mom come to visit and see all the things we’re seeing is so great, especially when this time it comes with the bonus of seeing her faves! Overall, I’d say Mom’s birthday/Mother’s Day trip was a success! Just a few days of seeing her and we had to take her back to Sin City to catch her flight back home. It ended up being perfect timing that we were there the same day that Jade was flying in, so Lisa’s and I stayed back in Vegas for the day while we waited for her to land that night! Perfect excuse 🙂 I’m so happy we got to see Jade on this trip, and how perfect that she was here to celebrate Cole’s 19th birthday too! Happy Birthday to Mom and Cole! We love you guys!

The sun doesn’t go down until around 9pm in Utah. So it was easy for us to go explore after work almost daily! We spent some more time at Snow Canyon and Sand Hollow on multiple occasions. Pioneer Park was a fun area to boulder climb. Quail Creek State Park was another beautiful area to see, we also drove through and hiked at Red Cliffs. There’s probably so much more that I’m not remembering that we saw and explored. We feel like we barely just saw a tiny bit of what Utah has to offer, so we definitely plan to come back again and stay for a longer period of time to get a bit more intimate with all beautiful outdoors!

Pamela came to visit for a weekend! So happy to finally see her after so long! We took Pam to hike at Snow Canyon so she can see the beauty of Utah for her first adventure! Of course we drove her to Zion and walked around the shops there too. And for her last day with us, we took her to Sand Hollow to enjoy some relaxing time by the water since I know how much she loves the beach. This was the closest thing we had to a beach out here and I knew she’d enjoy that. Our time felt short but it was definitely sweet. Always a good time with Pam! So happy she was able to come visit!

We got to see Eric, Thi & the kiddos just barely for about half a day as they stopped by for one night to visit with us. They had plans to meet up with some friends in Zion and they were going to continue along and explore. We knew Sam & Finley would love Sand Hollow since they love the water so much, so of course we took them there while they visited! We found out from Thi that Snow Canyon was where she took us for our surprise gift, back in 2018 when she took us out here for an engagement photo shoot! I was never really sure where those photos were taken, so I’m definitely happy to know now it was at Snow Canyon! Just that tiny bit of time was still perfect with the kiddos. I miss them so much everyday, so any time I can get with them I will cherish, always.

Top row: photos of the kiddos at Sand Hallow
Bottom row: photos of us back in October 2018 | engagement photo shoot at Snow Canyon

Our time in Utah flew by so quickly with all the amazing adventures we had. We really enjoyed exploring and cannot wait to go back again to see more of what Utah has to offer. For now we say, see ya later! Off to Colorado we go! I cannot wait to see what adventures we will get ourselves into next…