June 9, 2019 • 2

Farewell to Utah

I’ve alluded to it, but I suppose I should make it official in this blog world: we are moving to Boise, Idaho at the end of the summer! Zach accepted a position at Boise State University, and we are going to uproot ourselves for what I hope is the last time in a long while. We are both excited about the move and our future in Boise. You may have already noticed through our trip posts that we really love Idaho. We are thrilled to have a new base from which to explore the state and another new region, the Pacific Northwest.

With our impending move in mind and a couple of Utah bucket list items left unchecked, I planned a “farewell to Utah” camping trip for the Memorial Day weekend. While there are still so many more hikes and nooks of the state left to explore, there were a few places I wanted to visit before we relinquished our status as Utah residents.

I planned our trip with three base camps in the heart of southern Utah: Capitol Reef National Park, Escalante, and Kodachrome Basin State Park. My two main objectives were Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef NP and some hikes in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Since this spring has been one of the wettest on record in Utah, I knew I would need to keep my eye on the forecast and potentially adjust some plans. While rain did impact our trip, we were able to hit almost every stop I envisioned. It was a nice way to wrap up our time in Utah, and of course, left me with plenty of ideas for future trips.