Be Spontaneous

Ever wake up on a Saturday and decide you have had enough. Enough of the cold. Enough of work. Enough of boredom. Well we faced these slight whines last Saturday. The weather had been playing this back and forth of spring time. Warm up just enough to get your hopes up and then turn cold the next day. As we sat blankly staring into the living room, coffee cup in hand Sam said “we should have went to St George”. I said “why not”? Lets go. Our blank stares met and after a few silent seconds the conversation turned to “Yes lets.”

Sam had just found out that he didn’t work on Saturday. I was able to clear Mondays schedule and away we went. It took less than 15 minutes to pack nothing more than a change of clothes, swim suits, and toothbrush. Cameras of course. Filled up the car and pointed South. We had no plan but to drive until the temperature gauge rose to an acceptable level. One more block and we decided we should eat before getting on the road. Stopped at our local diner, and talked about the adventures we could have. We also laughed at the lack of direction and plans.

Here we are, now 45 minutes after deciding to leave, we are on the road. Direction, south. Do we go to Torrey and Capital Reef? Do we go to St George and Snow Canyon? Zions? Bryce? Escalante? This might have been the hardest decision. So many choices! We decided to drive down I-15 which gave us several hours until we need to decide which way to go. 3 hours into the drive we took Hwy 20 ending up just out side Panguich, taking 89 all the way down to Kanab, Utah. Winding through desert sage brush and small southern Utah towns we enjoyed the company of each other. Talking about stories of High School. Trying to remember if we came down here or not. Have we ever been here? Surely we had at some time, at least drove through. Consensus was that we had actually never stayed in this area any longer than fueling a tank.

 Arriving in Kanab we realized that this was the town for us. Although small it’s central location to all the State Parks makes it the perfect place to make base camp. You can camp, rent cabins, or even just pick a hotel and have the comforts of swimming pool, hot tub, bed, and shower. We usually would pick camping and I’ve always wanted to rent a cabin but, the hot tub sounded awesome so we picked a hotel and checked in. Then we began gathering information on what we could do. There isn’t a lot advertised in Kanab. You need to look a little deeper than park advertisements. But looking deeper you can find amazing little areas to visit and explore. We found a few hikes we were interested in. We made a list, decided to get some dinner, hit the hot tub, and have a relaxing evening with nothing to do. 

The next morning we visited the Moqui Caverns which is located right above the Moqui Museum, which is closed on Sundays, but the caves are accessible just off the highway. Short hike up the slick rock and you end up in caves that have deep soft sand. If you close your eyes for a second the feel of the sand and the sunshine on your face you are transported right to the beach. Across the highway there is a small waterfall that had frozen during the night but as the sun shined it melted fast. We watched as the water underneath and the warmth from the sun melted sheets of ice off which slid down the water fall revealing the water fall below. 

 

 You can’t visit Southern Utah with out hiking though a slot canyon. Our next adventure took us to Wire Pass Slot canyon. A very easy hike through the drainage and into Wire Pass Slot. Wire Pass connects to the much larger and longer Buck Skin Gulch. Here at the intersection you can either turn around and go back through Wire Pass or you can go left up Buck Skin or Right down Buck Skin. We went right for about 15 minutes, turned around and followed our foot prints back out Wire Pass. When I say easy I mean easy. The drainage is flat. At the entrance to Wire Pass there is a ladder taking you down in. Wire Pass is not the narrowest or tallest slot canyon but its pretty. There are Pictographs at the intersection of Wire Pass and Buck Skin Gulch. Lots of graffiti but if you take a few minutes to examine the wall you will see them. We also had the pleasure of watching Mountain Goats basking in the sun. Or maybe they were just watching us. 

After making it back to the car we drove to the trailhead of Buck Skin Gulch. We had noticed there was a large map there and we wanted to see if there were some hikes marked. While we were there some locals came out of the gulch. They told us to quickly drive up the road and take a look at the Toad Stools. The sun was about to begin setting and so we rushed up there. Again, just of the highway you hike through a drainage that pops you out on top of  scenery that makes you feel like you’re on some other planet. What great timing. The sun set sends off the best red orange glow through the different rock formations casting fantastic shadows along the ground. We enjoyed taking pictures, talking with other happy humans, 4 to be exact. Sharing must do activities and wishes for happy travels.

We returned to our hotel, happy and ready to hit the hot tub, which we had all to our selves thanks to Sunday nights. We had enjoyed our trip so far and realized that there is much more to explore and decided we would come back during spring break and bring the kids. That night we asked each other what we should do for our last day knowing we had  to head home. While talking with our happy humans earlier that day they had recommended  driving through Johnsons Canyon. So our trip home took us through Johnson’s Canyon, found ghost towns near Bryce Canyon, and continued winding through small towns of Southern and Central Utah until we made it all the way home.

Instead of sitting around all weekend wishing we had gone some where or had been productive in some way. We went on a tiny adventure that gave us time to relax, appreciate the world around us, and appreciate each other. That spontaneity also lead to the beginning of new adventures.

 

 

Be Spontaneous!

 
 
   

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