Utah Road Trip: The Journey
The night before our trip, there was one final item on the checklist: Fill up the car. But something was wrong with the engine and the car ran rough. All the garages were closed for the weekend. Suddenly, it looked like the trip might not happen at all. My dad suggested we rent a car, and after some scrambling, we started our trip one day late. An adventure wouldn’t be an adventure without a few bumps in the road. Or curvy mountain passes as we were about to experience for ourselves.
This was our second visit to Yakima. Almost a year earlier, we drove to the city for our first shot of the vaccine, and the drive brought up memories from those uncertain times. On both trips, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier were visible as we descended the distinctive Manastash Ridge, which was formed by the folding of Columbia River basalt flows. We even stopped at the same rest stop with a view of the Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge over the Selah Creek.
Between Pendleton, Oregon, and Twin Falls, Idaho, we followed the same route at the Oregon Trail. The historical trail spanned 2,000 miles across six states from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean. In Oregon, the trail traverses the rugged Blue Mountains. Near Kamela, the freeway crosses the the summit at 4,193 feet. It’s hard to imagine making this perilous trek by foot or wagon, but it’s estimated that some 400,000 pioneers emigrated west in the 15 years before the Civil War.
We spent the first night in Twin Falls, Idaho. Shoshone Falls were dry but there were impressive views down the Snake River canyon. Later, we passed Malad City, which has an interesting etymology. From “sickly” in French, it was named for an incident involving beavers. The beavers ate hemlock roots, which made them poisonous. The pioneers ate the beavers, which ended badly for everyone.
After navigating the chain of contiguous cities of the Wasatch Front, we turned southeast toward Moab where the La Sal mountains dominate the view of the surrounding canyonlands. After the traffic around Salt Lake City, we welcomed the empty roads and stark red landscape.
After driving 1067 miles in 17 hours we arrived in Moab. After dropping our stuff at our cabin, we made the short drive to Arches National Park for a sunset hike at Park Avenue with a stunning view of Courthouse Towers. It was a beautiful start to a week of exploring Arches and Canyonlands National Park.
