Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3N92qxyGFsyMXWoLA
I liked my Southwest trip so much that I decided that I wanted to go back to Utah to see both Arches and Canyonlands (which are both a bit north of where I was before), and figured if I was in the area that I might as well drive a bit east and see the Rockies as well.
After coming back home from California, I got COVID tested so I could bypass the mandatory 2 week quarantine (not even sure how “mandatory” it is but whatever). The test itself sucks…they stick like an 8 inch qtip up your nose, and I was blinded by tears for with a rising acidic taste in the back of my throat while they swished the qtip around my right nostril for 10 seconds. Got the test back negative, and that cleared me for a weekend trip with my high school friend Martin to Acadia National Park. He was leaving for London for business school soon after this, and we also picked up his college friend Morgan from Connecticut on the way up. Stopped in Hartford (which allegedly has the most beautiful skyline in the world according to some sham study, but I’ll agree to disagree) for lunch and to see Mark Twain’s house, and then in Portland for an hour or so as well. Portland was a nice quaint-ish town that actually reminded me a ton of Boston. Then stopped in Bangor (I hardly know her) Maine for dinner and saw Stephen King’s house before making it out to the Acadia area that night.
We were hosted by a couple of locals, who were Morgan’s high school friends. Acadia itself was a pretty nice park, definitely not on par with some of the west coast places I saw (I think I prefer either total desolation and starkness, or massive canyon cliff/mountainside valleys), but still an enjoyable experience. The hikes we did were all fairly easy, and we got some pretty cool viewpoints overlooking lakes, ponds, and the rocky coast lines. The town right by the park, Bar Harbor, was a nice little retreat/resort town that reminded me a ton of other similar towns like Montauk and The Hamptons on Long Island and Carmel and San Luis Obispo in California – just cool enclaves that are pretty popping during the summer time (though it was definitely empty by summer standards because of COVID). The highlight of this trip was this storefront sign in Bar Harbor we saw that said “Baa Haa Ba” – Martin, Morgan and I spent most of the trip speaking in shitty Boston accents, much to the chagrin of our local hosts Josh and Jordan, and it was hilarious to see an actual storefront sign with the Boston accent pronunciation. Probably the hardest I laughed since Steve and I made a wrong turn in Vegas and tried to fix that by make a U-turn in the incoming left turn traffic lane. Josh and Jordan had a quaint log cabin on the edge of the park that we spent some time in, and we got to kayak and tube there which was cool. Also had lobster for the first time there which was delicious, and capped that evening off with some lobster ice cream which was shockingly good. I found myself increasingly relating any outdoor activity I do (whether it was in the southwest, Cali, or here) with Lord of the Rings, just in terms of comparing walking through the woods to Sam and Frodo or the general topography to various areas of Middle Earth. Kind of sad but not surprising that LOTR is basically my only point of reference for outdoor activities.
On the drive back we stopped by Portland again for some donuts and then Providence for lunch and to see Brown, where Martin and Morgan went to college. One could argue that the musical highlight of our roadtrip was blasting some good old-fashioned ABBA…I still have Super Trouper stuck in my head. After Providence, we then dropped Morgan off at his Amtrak before shipping up to Boston for the night, where we stayed with another high school friend of ours, Darb. Although he wasn’t wearing a cape, he is a #hero as he’s currently rotating in Med School. The next morning we down to a beach town in southern Rhode Island to see Martin’s girlfriend Julia before driving through tropical storm Isiaiaias to get back home. I actually found that I really enjoyed driving through the storm… that excitement kind of kept me on my toes. Overall this was a nice little getaway. Because of my OCD in how I arrange my photos for my own viewing pleasure, I put the handful of Acadia pics in my Quarantine album.
Spent about 2 more weeks at home after Acadia, and got the new God of War PS4 game to keep me busy at that time – awesome game. Drove over to Ann Arbor with my family to drop my sister off for her senior year, before then taking the Amtrak to Chicago to spend a week there to catch up with everyone. It was really nice to be back there and reminisce about the past. Obviously was great to see everyone again, but I still don’t really like the city as a whole (though my credit card gives me free Lyft bike rides in Chicago, so that was a cool way to get around while seeing people). Given COVID restrictions on seeing people and places being closed, it was as good as a trip I could have hoped for…main regrets were not being able to eat at most of my favorite places – Au Cheval and Birreria Zaragoza due to COVID, Calumet Fisheries due to distance and no friends having cars/willing to drive me due to paranoia, and of course Mad River (the Eagles Bar) due to it only being indoors.
After Chicago, flew with my friend Nick to Salt Lake City. He’s probably my most “up for it” friend, seeing as we tented together at Burning Man and he visited me and Arjun in Bali. This week that we spent in Utah and Colorado perfectly coincided with what was supposed to be Burning Man, so we spent most of our driving blasting some spotify BMan playlists which were wonderful.
We spent like half a day in Salt Lake City, which was a decent but thoroughly forgettable city, before heading out to Moab. Moab itself was a cool little down, and reminded me a ton of Springdale, Utah (the base for Zion and Bryce Canyon). We spent a day in Arches, which was super cool. Didn’t do any crazy tough hikes, but drove around the park and did a bunch of smaller hikes to see some key landmarks, including the Delicate Arch, which is certainly worthy enough to be on Utah’s license plate. What drew me to come back to Utah was the desolation Steve and I saw in AZ and southern Utah, and this was no different. I just loved the entire Wild Wild West feel of Arches, with the towering cliffs and rock formations in the southern part of the park combined with all the arches as you headed north. Another cool arch was the Double Arch, which was a set of two arches right next to each other and was once a giant caved in recess.
The day after Arches, I dropped Nick off in the Needles section of Canyonlands since he wanted to camp overnight solo. I then did the Chesler Loop/Joint Trail loop. It was a 11 mile trail with almost 2k feet in elevation gain (and subsequent descent), so this was the first time I have ever done a legit trail on my own. I wanted to push myself to get an idea of my hiking skill and wound up completing it in 5 hours, and this included ~30 minutes of me getting lost and tracking back to the trail, so I was quite pleased with myself there. This was an awesome trail that for parts of it were straight out of Westworld/the Wild West. It was also completely empty – I saw cars in the parking lot for the trailhead but did not see a single other human being in this 5 hour hike which was awesome. The solitude really helps with appreciating the grandeur of the setting.
The next day, I picked up Nick and then we drove up to the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands. This was another super cool area. Parts of this almost reminded me of the safari zones in Kenya and South Africa, with the desert bush surrounded by hulking boulders. The first hike we did here was a cool little hike called Aztec Butte, where you could see a native american pueblo granary carved in under the rock shade. Technically there was no entrance allowed but we crawled around that area and it was pretty sick. Did one or two other smaller hikes in this area as well which were overall really enjoyable. As a whole, both Canyonlands and Arches were amazing, and I think I’d slot them alongside the Gran Canyon and right behind Yosemite and Zion in terms of how I have viewed the parks I have seen so far.
We got up early the next morning to drive towards Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a park in western-ish Colorado. Spent a few hours there and saw probably one of the coolest viewpoints I have seen in any park (at the very least it was up there with Yosemite) at the Dragon Point on the South Rim. Did a few smaller hikes and this was overall a good park but the lack of hikes (beyond hikes into the canyon, which looked amazing but required a wilderness permit) means it wasn’t a standout for me, but still definitely glad that we made it over to this park.
One thing I will say is that driving in Utah and Colorado has made me almost fall in love with the west. I definitely want to live somewhere out here in like 5+ years once I eventually settle down. The nature is stunning, and driving (at 100+ half the time!) is tolerable because of the amazing scenery.
Pulled into our Denver AirBnB Wednesday night and went to Nick’s favorite brewery (he lived in Denver for a month between jobs a few years back). The next day, I caught up with a friend I met in Cambodia for lunch, before seeing a bunch of people from my Burning Man camp in the evening at one of their houses. Was awesome to see them, especially given that this was supposed to be the week of Burning Man 2020.
For Labor Day weekend, we camped in the Rockies. We were joined by our college buddy Brian (who got us into the Burning Man camp last year and lives in Denver) along with our BMan friend Greg (who I camped with at Pinnacles) and his girlfriend, who both flew from SF. Seeing as this was a little BMan reunion and was taking place on what should have been the final weekend of BMan 2020, Brian had the brilliant idea of creating our own little janky man out of glowsticks and coat hangers. After this was set up in the campsite, we got this really cool lighting setup outdoors (no fires allowed because of the wildfires), and he played M83’s Intro from Hurry Up We’re Dreaming, which is one of my all-time favorite songs and for us at least really captures the vibe of Burning Man. That entire experience with this makeshift man was probably the highlight of this entire trip, as it was our attempt to do our own Burn. And to cap it off, we drank Modelos during this whole endeavor.
The campsite itself was in the middle of nowhere and required like 10 minutes of offroad driving – was really a gem of a spot that Brian had. The next two days, we hiked and drove around in the Rockies. We got lucky with the wildfires as we had crystal clear skies and didn’t see any smoke until we were done hiking, after which we actually saw the massive plumes of smoke in the air. The Rockies were overall fantastic. The best part of this for me was the Loch viewpoint, which was up there with the Black Canyon Dragon Point view as the best view of this trip. Was just a tranquil and serene lake that was surrounded by trees and then the rising barren mountains (as this was at like 10k feet and above the treeline) and remnants of the glacier snow. One of the best things about hiking in the Rockies is that every turn you make, you see a brand new and fantastic view.
Overall, this was a fantastic trip. These were all great parks, and there’s still a good amount of additional stuff I want to see in the US – namely, Hawaii, Alaska, the Pacific North West, and Wyoming/Montana. Of all the US roadtrip stuff I’ve seen the past few months, the definite highlights were Yosemite, Zion, Moab (both Arches and Canyonlands), the Grand Canyon, and the Rockies. The plan right now is to bum around at home for 3 weeks – shipping up to Boston for a weekend to see my friend Brad for the weekend of the Leeds-Fulham game, but otherwise just hanging back at home and seeing some high school and college friends. Shooting to go to Turkey with my dad from October 2-18…my dad would then fly back home, while I will hopefully be able to bounce around from there, but there’s no point planning long term at this point. My dad and sister have antibodies and I’ll be getting my results within a week while my mom will get them later this month so hopefully we’re all in the clear there, but that does help ease my conscience a bit with regards to travelling (especially that my dad and most likely my mom have it as they are older).