Travel Stories: Spring Break Part 1

For my first spring break in college, I went on a 5-night desert road trip. We drove my car over 3,000 miles and crossed 5 different state lines.

I went with my roommate, Peyton, and our friend, Gigi. We slept in the dirt for 5 nights and lived off of dining hall and dollar store food.

From the bitter cold, cars getting stuck, getting lost, and a hospital trip at the end, there were some mishaps for sure. Yet it was the trip of a lifetime that I will 100% remember for the rest of my life. We crossed countless things off our bucket lists from the places we went, things we did, the accidental beautiful moments, and the disasters too.

A lot happened, so I split this into two parts. Here is what happened, what we saw, and where we camped for days 1-3 of our road trip.

Day 1

I guess it all started before day one of the road trip. We were freshmen in college and *shockingly* broke. The week leading up to spring break consisted of scrambling to finish school, planning our road trip stops, and stocking up on dining hall food.

The night before we left we loaded up the car. We walked back and forth from our second-floor dorm, down the hallway, a flight of stairs, through the lobby, and all the way to my car parked at the end of the parking lot.

After staying up until 2 AM finishing homework and packing, we woke up with the sun and started making our way south on i25 until we hit westbound i70, heading towards Utah.

After a quick stop at Colorado National Monument, we crossed the border into Utah, but not without stopping to take a picture by the border sign of course.

We made a quick stop outside of Goblin Valley State Park (didn’t wanna pay the entrance fee) then went to find the campsite I had found on iOverlander. We followed the map’s directions down a seemingly deserted dirt road for about half an hour until the road ended, we stepped out of the car and found ourselves on the most beautiful cliffside I have ever seen.

We watched the sunset over the desert until the stars came out one by one- the kind of stars you only see way far out in the middle of nowhere and every fold of the universe is visible to the naked eye.

Campsite: In Hanksville, Utah just outside of Capitol Reef- N 38º27.133′, W 110º50.284′

Day 2:

After an absolutely brutally cold night, we rolled out of the tent in our sleeping bags. I hopped all the way to the car, grabbed all the things for coffee, and hopped right back to the cliffside where we watched the sunrise over the desert.

With frozen fingers, we ate breakfast, packed up the car again, got ready, and started back down that dirt road. We spent a little while in Capitol Reef National Park which is surprisingly very difficult to navigate- I will be going back this Fall to explore it more with less of a time restraint because truthfully we didn’t have a clue where to go in that park.

Then we were on the road again on our way to Bryce Canyon National Park. A few hours later and we were there. Once we were inside the boundaries of the park, we pulled off at the first stop because we were so excited to see the canyon.

We were starving so we threw together some lunch, then started walking toward the lookout. I remember we asked an older couple to take a picture of the three of us at the first spot with a view, and they were really stuck on the idea that I had a bagel in my hand. They go, “do you want the bagel in the picture?”

• Save

• Save

We hung out by the lookout for a little while stunned by the views. There was a large tour group that looked like a school field trip, and I had a few mishaps with my birks in the mud and slipping on the piles of snow, but otherwise, it was perfect.

The area of Utah by Zion and Bryce is much more foresty than Moab, Capitol Reef, and other more deserty parts of Utah. It’s a really cool contrast in the Bryce area because you get to see these breathtaking rock formations that are all desert tones, but it’s all surrounded by pine trees. Since it was so early in the season, the canyon was covered in snow in a lot of areas, making this contrast even more extraordinary.

Our original plan was to stay the night in the area and explore Zion National Park before heading farther west. However, it was really cold so we decided to just book it to Nevada right then and there where it would be a little warmer.

This was one of my favorite parts of the drive. We passed through St. George Utah, through the top left corner of Arizona through the mountains and along the Virgin River, then into Nevada.

This night was still a little chilly, but much more bearable than the last. We didn’t realize it yet, but we created the most perfect night routine throughout this trip and it looked like this:

1. Finish off the drive to a brand new place.
2. Find a gorgeous campsite (all of them were perfect, we didn’t miss once).
3. Set up our tent, lay out the blanket in a good spot to watch the sunset, and get all of the stuff to make dinner.
4. Make dinner on the blanket and talk about the day we had as the sun starts to set.
5. Keep on talking as the sun fades away and stars slowly fill the sky.
6. Stargaze until we get too tired and go to sleep in the tent. We never used the rain fly on our tent so we just kept stargazing and talking until we slowly fell asleep.

So that is exactly how our night in Nevada looked, and it was wonderful.

Campsite: Near Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada- N 36º28.813′, W 114º27.190′

Day 3:

We woke up on the desert floor in Nevada, following the morning routine that we also accidentally created. Our morning routine looked like this:

1. The night before, we looked up when the sun was supposed to rise and then set a few different alarms around that time. As those alarms woke us up, we looked at the sky for any sign of the sunrise.
2. Once it finally looked like the sun was about to rise, we hopped out of our tent in our sleeping bags.
3. Peyton and Gigi laid back out on the blanket while I went to the car to get the coffee things.
4. I started the Jet Boil and made the coffee. After a few minutes, we all had a hot cup of coffee in our hands as we watched the sunrise over the desert.
5. After a little while, I repeated this all to make breakfast. By then the sun would be up, the air was slowly getting warmer, we were a little more awake, and we were excitedly talking about the day ahead of us.
6. We packed everything up and got ready for the day.
7. We decided on who was driving first, turned on some good music, and hit the road again to wherever we were off to next.

We went to Valley of Fire State Park, and it was incredible. We saw some incredible views, walked through the desert sand (it was finally warm enough here to be barefoot), got to see some goats crossing the road, took some photos, and explored until lunchtime and we were back in the trunk of the car making more bagels and PB&J’s for lunch.

• Save

• Save

• Save

• Save

We could have stayed here all day and then some, but we decided to start driving again to see Red Rock Canyon National Park and make it to our next spot before the sunset.

The drive between Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon isn’t bad at all. I drove us there and as we pulled up to the ranger window, I had my National Park Pass out and ready. The guy at the window asked for our timed-reservation confirmation. We did not have one of those.

You see, some Parks are so heavily trafficked everyone has to make a reservation to get in. This makes perfect sense and is definitely a good thing in terms of traffic within the park, but we forgot to look this up beforehand so we did not have a reservation time. Unfortunately, the park was full at that time and we had places to be, so we hit the road.

The drive was a few hours and consisted almost entirely of back roads. Imagine driving down a desert road through Nevada and that is exactly how it was- tumbleweeds on the road, passing through ghost towns and tiny desert towns that probably have alien scares, cacti everywhere, sand blowing, and listening to songs like these:

• Hotel California- Eagles
• Wanted Dead Or Alive- Bon Jovi
• Ramblin’ Man- Allman Brothers Band
• Take It Easy- Eagles
• Life In The Fast Lane- Eagles
• Route 66- Chuck Berry
• Friend Of The Devil- Grateful Dead
• On The Road Again- Willie Nelson
• Truckin’- Grateful Dead
• Midnight Rider- Allman Brothers Band
• Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash
• Ring Of Fire- Johnny Cash
• Wild Horses- The Rolling Stones

That drive felt like a movie. We crossed the border into California and drove just a bit longer until we made it to Death Valley National Park.

Thanks to our Red Rock Canyon National Park mishap, we got there extra early and got to explore some spots within the park before finding our campsite. The best of the day was Dante’s View. What I love about Death Valley is how vastly different the landscapes are throughout. Pretty much every stop is entirely different from the last.

We went to find our campsite. I had done a bit of research on this before and heard you can camp for free in any designated area as long as you are at least 1 mile off the road. We saw a sign with the name of a camping spot I had heard about and started down that road.

The road was visibly well-maintained, not 100% smooth, but well-maintained and passable by any car which was great news for my little Hyundai Santa Fe. However, we might have gotten a little cocky when we saw what appeared to be a shortcut. To be fair, from far back the “shortcut” looked smoother than the actual road until we were driving along it and came across a very deep dip. It took one attempt to get past it and the sound of wheels turning but getting nowhere for everyone to panic for a moment. With everyone yelling “backwards!” Peyton reversed right back down the shortcut with everyone crossing their fingers we wouldn’t roll over a cactus or get even more stuck.

We made it back to the road and kept driving. We were confused by the 1-mile rule, so we were watching the odometer to try to figure it out. But after a few minutes of driving down what seemed like an empty road, suddenly tents, campers, and everything else were visible.

We found a great campsite beside a wall of rock and laid in the warm sun for a little while until it began to set and we got to do our nighttime routine once again.

Campsite: In Death Valley National Park- N 36º24.344′, W 116º45.739′

Day 4:

Check back next week, August 5, 2022, to hear about the rest of this trip. I would cram it all in here, but that might be a little overwhelming to read. Blog posts go live every Friday at 11 AM Mountain Standard Time. Check back here at peaceofliv.com to hear about the rest of this trip which ended in slight disaster. I will share the rest of my campsites and a few other tips too for your own road trip.

Thanks for reading!