I’m so excited that I got to hang out in Hawaii again! My brothers and I were invited to a family friend’s wedding on Oahu so we figured we’d make a trip out of it. My partner and I wanted to get scuba certified so we decided to come to Big Island first. Since Volcanos National Park is at elevation, we needed to come here first. So this was the trek we made on our very first full day.

Woooo geez, sorry that this blog post is so late! Life got pretty busy right after this trip. So my friend and I had planned to go to South Dakota pre-COVID but during the pandemic we had to postpone a few times. I think when you think of South Dakota you don’t think of much being there but I actually found enough to do that we could’ve even spent another day or two.

Our final day in the Everglades we planned to go all the way out to Flamingo Visitor Center. This is all the way at the southern tip of Florida and the Everglades. The road out there is out and back so you can stop at a few things on the way out, a few things on the way back in. We started with the Anhinga Trail, a 0.8 mile boardwalk through a swamp with plenty of birds and alligators to look at.

We had breakfast at a cafe in Homestead called Island Cafe. For both convenience and comfort of easy diner food, I’d recommend this spot. First stop after breakfast was the Big Cypress Oasis. This is also the southern terminus of the Florida Trail. More importantly there are a TON of gators here. Along the road is a long river with a boardwalk and the gators and other wildlife are plentiful. The visitor center here was also really informative.

When my mom suggested a trip to the Everglades, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I started researching and came up pretty barren on things to do. A big emphasis is on airboat tours, bicycle tours and kayaking. For our first day, we had to drive from near Tampa where we were for Christmas festivities, down to Everglades City. This is for the Gulf Coast side of the Everglades, and for us the first of four possible entrances to the park.

We left for Zion Friday morning, which is about a 5 hour drive from Salt Lake City. This time though, we were planning to camp. Arches was much colder at night time, while Zion had lows of mid-40’s. We ended up picking out a spot at Hurricane Cliffs Recreation Area BLM. We did dry camping, meaning no water and no bathrooms. And you can’t poop in the desert! While these campsites are out on dirt roads, it’s actually pretty quick to get back into town for gas, coffee and toilets.

Since today was our last day and we hiked 10 miles yesterday, we wanted to keep today light. We had plenty of sleep, so we packed up, had breakfast and checked out of the cabin around 9:30 AM. We went back into the park and aimed to hit all the pullouts and overlooks we had skipped the previous days. By the way, if you don’t have the National Parks Pass it is a must!

Today was our full day at Arches and we intended to do it ALL. Thankfully there are only three primary areas at Arches. Fiery Furnace however, is closed both for winter and for COVID. The main event of Arches National Park is the Delicate Arch which appears on Utah license plates among many other things in the state. The hike to see it is about 3 miles round trip with some elevation.

After Canyonlands we headed over to Moab. We stayed at Moab Valley Resort & Campground which was absolutely for the best because it is QUITE cold in Moab in February. The cabin is pretty utilitarian but it comes with a space heater and at 40 bucks a night it is well worth it! It also comes with a grill out front and walking distance to Lions Park We crossed the road (be careful here – it’s a busy road with four lanes) and crossed the bridge over the Colorado River.

I’ve been in Salt Lake City since the previous Saturday night and have been loving working remotely from my friend’s basement while her dogs watch. We left around 10 AM for Moab and only stopped for groceries and gas before hitting the road. We did stop in Green River at the Chow Hound for lunch. I got the half pound burger which was pretty good but the ham sandwich Courtney got looked pretty meh.