DAY 18: BOISE TO UTAH

Another early morning, up at 5:30am to finish yesterday’s blog post before getting ready for the day. I slept like a log in the tiny house, only waking up every so often to turn down the space heater. I felt congested with sinus issues this morning, typical for me at this time of year, but in the current times there’s always that hint of fear anytime anything is a little bit off.

I finished typing the post, and Kate, the AirBnb host was messaging me about the shower. My hot water seemed to be out last night, propane heated and a very small tank. I was prepared for my “military” style shower as she had called it, but then she also made the offer of using a full shower in her other AirBnb apartment just across the parking lot. Of course, when I tested the hot water in the sink, I couldn’t resist a short shower, maybe taking it a little far, turning off the water to suds up and then back on again to rinse. It worked well and saved time.

For breakfast, there were microwavable brown sugar oatmeal packets and I heated two of those in a bowl as I made hot water and tried to fold the bed back up to make space. Portland was just as confused and hesitant to get down from the bed. There was really very little floor space with the bed down. We managed, and I packed up while having some breakfast. I couldn’t find a coffee maker so I tried the pour over method, making a cone shaped filter fit on top of my travel mug, but that crashed and burned on the first attempt, and was painfully slow on the second. I ended up with watered down coffee to save time. I loaded up the car and Portland and we drove just up the road to the Wild Phlox and Seaman’s Gulch Trailhead.

We were on the trail by 8am, and my car was only one of two in the parking lot. By the time we finished our hike, the lot was about half full. This morning it was cold, just above freezing, and we were bundled, Portland in his reindeer sweater, and me with my coffee as we hiked up the single track trail. The terrain was the same as yesterday’s, wrapping and winding up and around hills with a fine sandy and packed sand surface. Desert sage and other plants dotted and crowded the landscape. I also noticed a lot of poop on the sides of the trail -- were pet owners here really that careless and irresponsible? Or was it something more wild that had left these droppings behind? Possibly a little of both.

It was nice to move this morning and the walk helped clear my sinuses some. I knew we’d be in the car all day, so I wanted to make sure we got a good walk in. I had originally hoped to do the whole 2.1 mile loop, but we ended up doing about half that in the interest of saving time and getting on the road. It is about seven and a half hours to Goblin Valley State Park near Green River, Utah, our camping spot for the night. On the road, we retraced some of our routes from last night, and once we were on route I had a couple of phone calls to make to keep my real life responsibilities on track. Paying bills. Always a highlight of travel.

The drive through Idaho was, as my friend Brendan had warned me, pretty dull on I-84 as I crossed back toward Utah on straight roads and drab tan landscape. I felt like I was making good time though.

In Utah, I had a ways to go before getting to Salt Lake City, a place I visited in January of 2019 and don’t think I would need to spend a lot of time there. Today, I did spend some time debating whether or not to make a quick detour into the city for lunch at the Red Iguana - the best thing I’ve found in SLC. Incredible enchiladas with so many delicious homemade sauces, on my first visit, our server had brought out small samples of each sauce for us to decide, but they were all wonderful.

Today, I was racing sunset to get to Goblin Valley. With my current ETA of 5:20pm, I’d get there just in time to see the place in the light, close to sunset, and start setting up camp without needing lanterns. But, this park is so remote that it also meant I’d be in for the night, and while I was fine making a camp meal, I was hungry right now.

In the end, I routed to the Red Iguana, home of "Killer Mexican Food," and only ten minutes off the highway. It gave me a break from driving and I took Portland on a quick walk up and down the block to stretch his legs before I went into the restaurant. It was so nice out -- low to mid 70s and bright sun. I left the moonroof open for air ventilation, but still tried to be quick with lunch with Portland in the car.

I snacked on chips and salsa while looking at the menu and ordered a Sangrita de la Viuda that came with Gran Centenario reposado tequila for sipping with a side of their homemade juice, a blend of orange, tomato, lime and spices. I figured if I was truly getting sick this could help kick it. The server came to take my order and when I told her I was in between two things, she gave me my favorite answer...she could do one of each! Perfect. Everything came out really quickly, which was great, and I had enough time to add in most of the pictures to my blog post.

I had a chicken enchilada verde, their verde sauce is so creamy, and I think I remember them saying (back in 2019) it had pistachios or something blended into it. It had pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top. The other half of my meal was the chili verde (pork) burrito. I love chile verde and theirs did not disappoint. It was a lot of food, and I packed up half of the burrito and some chips to have for dinner.

Back on the road, we had to make one more stop for gas at a Maverik station, and I finally posted yesterday’s blog article while waiting at the pump. I should’ve looked for camp wood for tonight, but at the time it slipped my mind.

There was still another few hours to drive, and I remembered hating the big busy highway in and out of Salt Lake City, Highway 15 I think. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered, but I was still thankful when it was time to turn off onto less busy roads. I talked to Liz for a few minutes, and had been on the phone with Mom while debating my lunch or no lunch decision.

I would definitely be setting up camp in the dark, that much was certain. My ETA was now 6:20pm, and as I drove down through the beautiful Price Canyon area, the drive really started to drag on. More endless open road lay ahead, and when I saw the last of civilization for the day I was too goal oriented or maybe it was just too early for me to realize it. The sun was setting to my right as I drove, and as the sky got darker I turned and was headed straight for it. The tie dyed clouds streaked across the sky above as the warmer colors in stripes across the sky near the horizon looked like the ones on a Pendleton blanket.

The one slightly inconvenient thing about having a new car is that the lights are so bright everyone thinks you are high beaming them. People kept flashing at me, and when you drive a Subaru, it feels to me like you should do your best not to seem like a jerk.

Finally, I got to the turn off for Goblin Valley State Park. It was very very dark out and there were signs for open range on the road leading up to the park turn off. I’ve seen cows in Utah park roadways before, so I heeded the sign’s warning and kept an eye out. Finally arriving at the gate in the dark was such a relief, and they gave me my permit and directions to the campground. The girl at the gate mentioned that my site was one of the best because it is tucked away, hidden behind a rock -- “but, trust me, it’s there.” I had chosen the site for this reason.

We pulled up to the parking spot for site 12, and I put on my headlamp and walked to see the campsite. It is about 70 steps each way from the car to the site, so Portland and I got our steps in making trips back and forth with all of the gear. But first, I decided to loop back to the gate to ask about firewood. It seemed like such a long shot, and I imagined myself wandering through the campsite trying to barter a bottle of beer for a piece or two of wood; the nearest store just too impossible of a drive to even imagine. Luckily, what I hadn’t noticed on my initial arrival was that they had a big, almost empty bin of bundled firewood, and I was so relieved. This place is too great -- and it’s too early in the evening, not to have a fire. I bought two bundles for the night, paying $9.04 each. Convenience rate, but totally worth it. The nearest town is something like 50 miles away.

I set up the site as Portland waited, and lit the fire as one of my last tasks. On one trip to the car, I had to stop and grab my Nikon. The bright golden orange waning gibbous moon was rising up just over the hill and was so bright and beautiful. Que my continued attempts at nighttime photography. It would’ve happened regardless, Goblin Valley has one of the darkest skies anywhere, and is a certified Dark Sky Park.

In the added light from the fire and the rising moon, I could start to make out the shape of the stone features and walls around me that form a canyon around the campground. It’s very cool, and will still be a pretty great surprise to wake up to, seeing it in the full daylight for the first time.

I fed Portland and boiled some water for peppermint herbal tea while I ate a bite of dinner, and realized with a laugh that I’d never charged the new air pump that I’d made the special trip to Walmart for last night. I spent some time trying to charge it in my car, but then I later realized I don’t think it will carry a charge at all. I think it needs to be plugged in to the car’s DC outlet while charging. Seems like this one will be a return item.

One of our other tasks was to go fill our water jug and Nalgene with water. We walked towards the bathroom building and found the red handled water pump. I stopped. I was fairly certain potable water pumps were supposed to be identified with a blue pump head/handle, but upon some debate and a taste test and smelling, it seemed to be fine. I know that’s not a real scientific way to fact check for water safety. I figured that no one would leave a non potable water source unmarked in a fairly busy campground. But, this was the first park where I hadn’t seen any posted signs about COVID safety, mask use, or physical distancing practices. The park this morning in Boise had a very specific set of rules posted that are good for general hiking etiquette and Leave No Trace, along with COVID safety.

When all the work was done, it was nice just to relax by the fire at camp. I did a short yoga practice and Portland, predictably had gone to bed in the tent. Without the air mattress, I brought Portland’s pillow bed and a fleece blanket up, and I have layers of sleeping bags.

I listened to some music, Israel Nash and Blanco White, two of my campsite albums I have downloaded on Spotify. I kept the fire going, started typing my post for the day (no service here), and sipped my peppermint tea, eventually falling into silence as the other campers started to call it a night. I’m looking forward to some star gazing this evening and hope the clouds and the bright moon don’t ruin the views.

But the bright moon did...not completely. It was definitely a unique experience to see the canyon-like walls and eerie goblin shapes, staring down on me in the moonlight. There were some stars, but not as many as there could have been. I guess that means I’ll just have to return to camp here again.