One night in early February, James was driving along the highway when he texted Molly that he knew exactly what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday. “I want to go to Southern Utah. Let’s knock off another five or six national parks in one weekend.” And with that kind of confidence (bordering on audacity), we set aside a four day weekend and crushed it all. Even the weather forecast of low thirties and twenties throughout the entirety of Utah and northern Arizona couldn’t stop us from making it happen.

To kick off our epic four-ish day road trip through the Southern Utah high desert, we spent our first day and change with a pit stop in Zion, first half of the day in Bryce Canyon, and blizzard to sunset adventure in Capitol Reef. The goal of the trip was to knock off five of our shared list of yet unseen national parks. The sixth of the trip would be our very first stop along the way - Zion - which we’d already spent time in. Numbers 12-16 of the U.S. National Parks coming at you, starting here with Part One!

A quick stop in Hurricane for some brisket and ribs at Lonny Boy’s BBQ and a pull-off in Zion’s bordering town of Springdale for a pint of ice cream from Sol Foods (to eat inside the park’s main canyon) headlined our first night’s activities. We gobbled some coconut milk ice cream and blueberries under the starlight at one of Zion’s scenic canyon points to say a quick “land ho!”, then darted off toward our Airbnb in Orderville at Cliffside Cabins. We were glad to have this tiny house available, as Molly’s birthday gift to the both of us, to keep us warm on a first night that dipped into the twenties and left a little snow on the ground. Our first stop in the morning was back into town to see the infamous rock-shaped Rock Stop, a core pleasant memory of our road trip. The owner, Don, greeted us with warmth and all of the recommendations he could muster for our day ahead, as well a couple of incredible lattes and their local favorite mini donuts. We were all fueled up for a big day ahead.

One of us was a bit colder than the other.

When we arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park, the snow was just beginning to come down and the temperature was steadily dropping. Luckily, Molly had spent a little more time in the park and experiencing a few hikes than James, who had previously only gotten out of the car for a bathroom break and to snap some pictures in front of the canyon, then took off. With Molly leading the charge, we headed for our main hike of the day at the Navajo Loop Trail, which takes venturers deep inside the canyon and into the floor via various routes. In the winter, this is no small task without snowshoes or clamps, as the trail declines 10-15% and lends to plenty of wipeouts (ask James’ tailbone).

We made our way down “Wall Street” (seen above) as it was fortunately open despite the icy conditions -apparently it wasn’t icy enough - and plopped ourselves down on some flat rock in isolation at the bottom of the incline to take it all in. We especially like to take in these spots for 15-20 minutes in a fully meditative way. Sitting in silence with each other, side by side, in some of the world’s most picturesque and serene places is one of our favorite pastimes together. These are easily the most memorable meditation sessions we have.

When we made it back up the trail, with glutes and calves burning enough to heat up our entire bodies and help us forget the chill of the morning, the snow cleared up just enough for us to get a few photos together with the tripod (a revelatory concept for us, despite all our travels together and pictures…of each other). Then it started to dump on us, but we were too high on the thrill of the challenging hike and the moments of the trip yet to come to let it faze us. Or to be remotely concerned about where we’d be sleeping that night.

Some of our favorite moments on road trips happen in between the ‘destinations’, in the small town pit stops and dive restaurants we come across. Our drive from Bryce to Capitol Reef took us through small-town Mormon, USA. We drew this conclusion because for every small encampment of run-down 1960’s style house, there was a conversely pristine LDS church along the main drag. The town most representative of this was Torrey, Utah. We narrowly missed the open hours for a coffee shop and natural foods-style eatery and had to head next door to Slacker’s Burger Joint, but we ended up enjoying it substantially more for who we met inside. Another core memory: two elder LDS women who were having their weekly (or daily) ice cream cone and town gossip session became acutely interested in our travels and in our professional volleyball player statuses. One even asked James, “Are okay with her wearing that skimpy bathing suit out there all the time?” The trip was made.

A steel grey look from M at Gooseneck Overlook.

Neither of us having ever been to Capitol Reef National Park, we had no idea what to expect from the underrated gem of southern Utah. Upon arrival, another full scale blizzard was upon us. So that was the bad news. The good news? No other humans around, and with plenty of warm jackets and and our beanies, we parked at darn nearly every stop we could to get our shoes covered in the red dirt and ice blend.

The skies begin to clear at the Goosenecks.

A few of our favorite stops from the afternoon, chronologically:

Panorama Point: still dumping snow from the second we pulled up to the CRNP sign, we decided to hop out and run to the viewpoint to warm ourselves up in the snow. No one else in sight, but we felt like the good kind of crazy people in this instance. We couldn’t see much, but didn’t need to. The solitude was blissful.

Goosenecks Overlook: Again, we were the only folks around. This time the snow decided to clear as we nestled up to the gorge cliffs and watched the Sulphur River pass by hundreds of feet below. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can yell anything you want and it’ll echo down the canyon for more than a mile. Once the snow cleared, it became one of the most picturesque scenes we’ve come across in all of our 13 national park stops thus far.
Capitol Gorge Scenic Drive: The Gifford Farm/Stables, Grand Wash, and Golden Throne (at the end) are two of the must stops along the 20 mile drive
The Capitol Dome (the park’s namesake, alluding to the U.S. Capitol building in D.C.) and Fremont Petroglyphs along the eastbound highway from the visitor center are excellent stops along the way, especially when the sun hits the rock at sunset.

On the stretch of winding road toward the Capitol Gorge Scenic Drive, we drove through the old orchards of the Fruita settlement, an old Mormon homestead replete with multiple barns and livestock pens. The old barn, above, is still standing in great condition, owned and operated now by the National Park Service. This might be the most unique and historic discovery we made all weekend long.

If you make the time to get yourself to Capitol Reef, do not skimp and miss out on the tail end of the Capitol Gorge drive. This might be the most unforgettable drive through towering rock walls enveloping your car that you’ll ever take. And if you like playing with echos and/or unique lighting compositions for your photos, this is a highly recommended stretch of drive.

That’s it for part one of our southern Utah journey! Stay tuned for Part Two, where we dive deep into our adventures from Moab to Arches, Canyonlands to the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff to homeward bound. As a thank you for reading this far, here’s some lighter and easier viewing in the form of our TikToks from this part of the trip:

Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Zion in One Wintery Day

m+j away