No road trip ever goes the way we plan.
As determined as Alice and I were to drive east, driving nearly a thousand miles leaves enough room for events to go south. This wasn’t our first rodeo either. We’ve driven from California to Banff, AB on two occasions, and we’ve successfully hit every national park in Utah back in the summer of 2017…
But driving to Arizona and Utah in the dead of winter was no exception. At the end of February, we packed Alice’s rugged old Toyota RAV4 with enough food and water to last us the week that we scheduled for this trip. On our itinerary, we were supposed to drive down from our hometown in Northern California down 300-ish miles to Barstow, then curving up through Nevada and into Arizona to stop at the Grand Canyon for a day.
In Episode One, that wasn’t the case – a growing winter storm emerged and hit the Grand Canyon, closing all roads to and from the area. Luckily, we were at an In-n-Out when we caught wind of this storm, but this prompted us to completely remove the Grand Canyon from our itinerary. The alternative was to take Highway 15 and drive through Las Vegas.
As a hobbyist poker player, I loved the idea of stopping by Vegas. However, we had to abruptly revise this change when the road to Las Vegas shut down right after Primm, Nevada. Black ice covered the roads in the morning, causing multiple car accidents to pile up and forcing highway patrol to close the roads temporarily. We backtracked from Primm, heading back to California and rerouting onto 164 and heading up 95 and 11 to slightly curve back into Vegas, costing us a 2-3 hour detour. We couldn’t waste any time in Vegas and ran out of time to visit Kanab, UT, so we aimed straight for our destination for the day: Horseshoe Bend, AZ.
This little location was little no more. Littered with a dozen too many tourists, Horseshoe Bend was no longer the place once known by a few. It became a trending hotspot on Instagram and Google Maps, resulting in flocks of people crowding the edges of this viewpoint. I’ve considered omitting the name in this post, but acknowledging the circumstances of this post and what I want Travel Toasty to stand for, I want to believe that the people choosing to read this can understand that this unfortunate occurrence is not exclusive to this spot. The more that I reflect about our own visit, the more that I understand that we were already at fault for being there as well and contributing to what I saw.
Honestly, I’m conflicted. I encourage everyone to see the places they want to see at least once in their life, but I also understand that not one location on this planet can withstand the presence of every single person at once. The least that I can do is inform others that not every place is worth the shot, and if you are going to visit a place that you really want to visit, take into consideration the presence of yourself and others and respect your destination. Nobody’s perfect, but the least we can do is take care of our home and inform others to do the same.
Read more about our winter sunset experience at Horseshoe Bend.
After our short visit to Horseshoe Bend for sunset, we headed for our campsite near Monument Valley, UT. I had done research on this campground prior to the trip, but I had missed that 1) it was at the top of a snowy mountain accessible only by snow-covered dirt roads and 2) the facilities were closed because all the pipes were frozen. In other words, we slept in the car and the bathroom was closed. We pooped outside in below-freezing temperatures and picked up our poop with dog baggies. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Although we slept with the windows cracked slightly, our bodies produced enough condensation to freeze over all of the windows. This pretty much happened every morning in Utah. After scraping the windows clean, we made a short stop by Monument Valley before heading up to Moab, UT. After a quick nap at the rest stop right after Wilson’s Arch, we drove into Moab. Within minutes of driving, the battery light popped up – prompting us to stop by O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for a quick battery change before heading to Arches National Park for sunset. We took a couple of shots, and ate dinner at a Thai restaurant.
What we thought was a quick fix turned into a misdiagnosis of the reality of the problem. The next morning, we planned on driving back into Arches National Park and hiking to Delicate Arch around 5 AM to make it before sunrise. Within 10 seconds of entering Arches National Park, the worst possible thing happened. The wheel locked up. The engine slowly died. All the lights on the center console flicked on and off until fading. Simply put, the car died. Fortunately, Alice was driving and pulled us onto the side of the road. I had AAA, so I called for emergency services. Since it was 5 AM, they couldn’t send someone out until 6:30 AM, so we waited in our dead car in freezing cold temperatures for the next hour-and-a-half. I ripped open a couple of hand warmers to give us a little warmth and much needed hope for a more forgivable outcome.
After getting our car and us picked up by a tow-driver and being dropped off at an auto shop and a diner, respectively, we concluded that the car’s alternator needed to be replaced instead of the battery. Hours later, the auto shop confirmed this and ensured that they could have a new alternator installed by afternoon the next day. Despite their good effort to replace it as fast as possible, our itinerary for the next two days was utterly abandoned. In addition, our form of transportation [and place of sleep] was temporarily decommissioned for the time being. On the bright side, the auto shop gave us a rental car and we booked an airbnb for the night.
Could we have hiked Delicate arch the next morning by driving our rental car? You’re right to think that – we could have, at least until the very same snow storm that plagued the Grand Canyon had followed us all the way to Moab. Our rental car was a small Toyota Corolla with passenger tires, so we couldn’t even drive to the trailhead. Everything that we had planned to do in Moab jumped out the window with body weights on.
While we did find solace in a new alternator and visiting a local hot springs in Monroe, Utah, we never really did recover the morale during the rest of the road trip. We felt defeated, frustrated, and a little annoyed. This was truly our most unfortunate road trip. But in a sense, it was also one of the most memorable. We realized that the road trips that we meticulously plan and research turn out to never be about the destinations that we long to see. These road trips have always been about us driving, making adjustments, seeing new places, and doing pretty much everything together. As much as we want to have photos and videos of every place we visit, it’s the memories of us together that we’ll continue to cherish in the long-run.
As corny as that sounds, that’s what I believe in. Traveling doesn’t have to be about all the photos and videos that you get, but about the memories and stories that you gain. Whether you’re traveling alone or with others, you’ll always have memories to share even without a camera in hand. Unfortunate things may happen, but don’t let that turn you away. Face them head on, learn from them, and move on because that story won’t tell itself.
