After a thoroughly enjoyable few days in Bryce it was time to break camp and move on to the next destination. We had originally planned on driving from Bryce to the Eastern Utah parks (Canyonlands, Arches, etc.) but a couple of factors made us change course.
For one, there was the heat to consider. At elevations between 6-9k feet temperatures in Zion and Bryce were mild at night, and bearable during the day. the Eastern parks are at a much lower elevation and thus more closely resemble the temperatures at Joshua Tree NP than Zion or Bryce. The second big reason we decided it might not be feasible to do those parks on this trip are that Utah is freaking huge. We would have to drive 6-hours to get to Arches from Bryce, and those hours would inevitably be tacked back onto our trip just a few days later when Lauren and I made our way to Salt Lake City days later.
Since we still had a couple of days until we needed to get to SLC we decided to break from the National Parks and give State Parks a try. That decision made, we were off to Kodachrome State Park!
There are a variety of differences that become evident when you go from a famous national park to a small state park but perhaps the most striking one was the difference in the people. Kodachrome was by all accounts beautiful but compared to Zion and Bryce that were choked with people, Kodachrome appeared to be ignored by the masses. Further, the people that did occupy the odd campsite were quite, respectful, and polite. This all came as a refreshing change of pace to the hustle and bustle of hoards of tourists jockeying for the most photogenic vantage point, ignoring clearly stated park rules, and generally treating the parks like a consumer product.
When we entered the park the ranger told us which sites were available and let us do a loop to pick which site best suited us. We concluded that site #17, tucked away from the road across a dry riverbed would provide exactly the quite and privacy that we were looking for.
For one, there was the heat to consider. At elevations between 6-9k feet temperatures in Zion and Bryce were mild at night, and bearable during the day. the Eastern parks are at a much lower elevation and thus more closely resemble the temperatures at Joshua Tree NP than Zion or Bryce. The second big reason we decided it might not be feasible to do those parks on this trip are that Utah is freaking huge. We would have to drive 6-hours to get to Arches from Bryce, and those hours would inevitably be tacked back onto our trip just a few days later when Lauren and I made our way to Salt Lake City days later.
Since we still had a couple of days until we needed to get to SLC we decided to break from the National Parks and give State Parks a try. That decision made, we were off to Kodachrome State Park!
There are a variety of differences that become evident when you go from a famous national park to a small state park but perhaps the most striking one was the difference in the people. Kodachrome was by all accounts beautiful but compared to Zion and Bryce that were choked with people, Kodachrome appeared to be ignored by the masses. Further, the people that did occupy the odd campsite were quite, respectful, and polite. This all came as a refreshing change of pace to the hustle and bustle of hoards of tourists jockeying for the most photogenic vantage point, ignoring clearly stated park rules, and generally treating the parks like a consumer product.
When we entered the park the ranger told us which sites were available and let us do a loop to pick which site best suited us. We concluded that site #17, tucked away from the road across a dry riverbed would provide exactly the quite and privacy that we were looking for.
In the middle of the night I woke to Lauren shaking me violently. As I groggily came to life she informed me that it had started raining. Without the fly there was only a thin layer of mesh between us and the sky and as my senses started working I realized that yes, indeed there was a light raining coming down. Begrudgingly I got out of my sleeping bag and we clumsily put on the rain fly.
As soon as we were horizontal again the light rain that had started pattered out completely. "Great" I though, "so glad we got up to put the fly on." Almost as soon as that though finished, a raincloud ripped cracked open and a furious downpour decended.
-Dan
-Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment