We have been terrible at posting to our blog and promise to get better at it. Maybe. We might not ever get better at it, but we will at least post photos! Theres a lot in this post, but we will sum it up as short as we can...
After hanging out in the Salt Lake City/Provo area for a couple weeks, visiting family, climbing, highlining, etc. we decided it was time to move on to other places. We got together some last minute things in the van before heading out (propane tank installation, water tanks strapped and secured, wheels painted, jewelry supplies etc) and then hit the road.
Our friends Cees and Maddison from @ourvieadventures (www.ourvie.com) were heading down to Zion for a few days and we decided to caravan with them. They have a sweet rig all decked out and are currently on a massive road trip to visit all 59 national parks. You should check them out. Heading down to Zion was a good test trip for their rig to get everything in place and all finalized before really hitting the road full-time. Their home is quite a bit bigger and heavier than we are, and as a result, drives a little slower. They set out ahead of us and we agreed to catch up. There was a strong headwind and we caught up to them pretty quickly and then caravanned to Meadow Hot Spring in the middle-of-nowhere Utah.
This place is bomb! It is a small pool (I think there are actually three different pools but we only visited one) out on private farm land. The owner is chill enough to let people come enjoy the spot and keeps it open for visitors. It is near Meadow, Utah and is only about 6 miles off the I-15, so it is super accessible and a nice quick stop on a long drive. For anyone thats ever visited a hot spring, you know that most are kind of murky, gross-looking shallow water and often times smell like sulfur, or rotten eggs. Meadow hot spring is totally different. It is deep! (maybe 20 feet??) and crystal clear. There is no nasty smell and its a perfect temperature. Not too hot and not that annoying lukewarm type of "hot" spring. Put it down as number one on your hot spring bucket list. Its that good. Just bring some goggles to really enjoy swimming (yes swimming) around and exploring its depth.
After hanging out for a bit, the weather turned nasty and we hit the road right as the rains came. We made it down to Zion area and followed Cees to a sweet campspot he had been to a couple years previous. We ended up having to bust out our slackline gear to pull them up one of the steep hills, and all had some good laughs about it. The next morning, after hanging out for a bit, we headed into the park and hiked the classic Angels Landing. Super beautiful views! We had done the hike before, but its a must-do when visiting the park. The temps were perfect and there was NOBODY up there. We had the whole place to ourselves!
That night while looking for a camp spot (off of Kolob Terrace rd) Cees and Maddison unexpectedly broke down. They had been having some issues with their alternator and it finally just quit. We ended up parking next to them, just pulled off on the side of the road. We headed into Hurricane the next morning, bought a tow strap, found a mechanic that was open (saturday), drove back to the breakdown spot and then towed the RV back to shop. New alternator and battery and they were good as new! We spent the rest of the day paddling/kayaking at Sand Hollow State Park in some gnarly windy conditions.
Our last day in the area with them, we drove east of Zion and did an awesome canyon (Birch Hollow I think is what is was called) with 10 or 11 rappels. This was Giddis first time canyoneering and she LOVED it! She was hesitant to say that she loved it so much because she didn't want me to get excited. I tend to get stoked on a lot of things and always want her to come along. Sometimes she does and like it, sometimes she would rather not join in on the fun. Turns out she likes canyoneering, so we will have to throw her into some more canyons in the future. It was a fun time with them and when we finished hiking out (well after dark) we said our goodbyes and split ways. They headed back home and we picked out a nice spot by the Virgin River. Yes, living in a van down by the river...
The next day was a full one - cleaning, organizing, and completing orders for Carteo Handmade and getting them all shipped out before driving towards Las Vegas. We made an overnight pit stop in St George to do some climbing and hiking. We loved it there! St George has everything and is a pretty rad place to be. It was unfortunately a little hot (we have not fixed our AC yet) so we hit the road after a day and a half. We had planned on climbing at Red Rocks, west of Vegas, but it was unbelievably hot, so we kept on driving to west into California. The nice thing about living mobile is you can decide what temperature you want to be in. Vegas was in the 90s and made California look pretty nice, so that was where we set off to. This post has gone on way too long and we will fill you in on California in the next post!
We are going to try to post once a week, as we feel its easier to cover everything and then the posts don't go on forever and ever! Thanks for following! Feel free to SUBSCRIBE to stay updated. Or just check out our photos on Instagram.
Jace and Giddi