Southern Utah the most unreal place on Earth!

I completely forgot posting this. So I will do it now. It is still recent. Then I will continue with Vietnam.

PART 1-

I decided to get out of Frisco and travel to Utah with my folks to visit my sister. I have never been and we decided to take a vacation within a vacation by going to southern Utah to visit some parks. While my sister was doing surgery in Mexico, she allowed us to borrow her car, so my dad, mom, and myself hit the road south.

Day 1- We arrived in a village named Hatch. Hatch was a small place with a curvy river that snaked its way around the area. There wasn’t much there, but I did enjoy our stay here. People were nice and honestly, after living abroad for so long and seeing the US on the outside looking in, as in FB and other lame ass social media outlets, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’m mixed Mexican, and gluten free, so there were fearful feelings of going to white America and thinking I’d get punked on for looking too brown, or getting clowned for being gluten free, or both. The opposite happened, I just remained myself and was cool with everyone and everyone was cool with me. We stayed in a small wooden cabin with a bathroom and parking lot. I liked where we stayed, but I am also not a picky person.

It took several hours to reach Hatch, but we did find a little bit of time to visit Bryce Canyon National Park. Already, I was fairly awed by the landscape, but I was not ready for what would come next when we drove through Red Canyon, on scenic byway 12. Upon seeing the first red colored rocks and shapes, I was instantly transported to Ceneria, my homebrew D and D world. Then again, I could have been transported to any number of fantasy worlds due to the amazing landscape.

The color, texture, and heat made me think of a number of lower planes I could be in, like the Abyss or Carceri, but it was far too beautiful. At any moment, I thought trolls, goblins, stone giants, or dwarves might spill from some area I failed to observe, due to a low roll on spot and listen checks. My dad has been here before and we went to Mossy Cave, because he wanted to show me a waterfall.

The Mossy Cave trail did not fail to deliver in beauty. After living in Asia for 7 years, the dry heat didn’t affect me the way it used to. The trail was easy to the falls, and was beautiful. At any moment, I felt a juvenile blue or brass dragon might fly overhead as this seemed to be an ideal place for them to live. The paths were easy and accessible and the landscape consisted of colorful rock formations, green vegetation here and there, and a waterfall.

It was not too crowded, however I was irritated how a bunch of Europeans hogged the waterfall and made it impossible for me to take some lone, long exposure photos of the falls, due to time. I feel I still managed to capture some decent shots.

After leaving Mossy Cave we hit Bryce Canyon National Park itself. Though Mossy Cave is part of the park, you don’t have to pay to see it. I have traveled to many countries and have seen many amazing things from Angkor Wat, Petra, Iguazu Falls, the Grand Canyon, and much more, but while these places were amazing and beautiful in their own right, Bryce Canyon was otherworldly beautiful. It looked as if it would be from another world. A fantasy world that would host more than just mundane humans and animals. I was blown away by its beauty and unrealness. Aside from admiring the beauty, my D and D mind is always working with ideas of denizens of a place I could take ideas from and make my own. Composed entirely of sedimentary rocks, these oddly shaped tower and pillar formations, also called hoodoos, dot the landscape. The caps of these rocks are topped with dolomite and sandstone made up their bases. Words can’t describe the majesty of this place, while photos and videos can do better, it will never be better than the real thing. With the exception of scuba diving in Indonesia, Bryce Canyon is probably the most amazing place I have ever been to date for its otherworldliness.

We didn’t stay too long as we just hit a few points and did an intro of a hike before the sun started setting and we had to go back to Hatch. Concerned about dinner, we arrived back in Hatch slightly before 8pm and the restaurant across the street was still open. I entered and the cook greeted me. I was a bit worried because he looked like a tough and rugged white dude and I had to tell him I was gluten free. Instead of getting clowned, he went over the menu with me and helped me decide what to eat. There weren’t many options so I just grabbed some sweet potato fries, which were good.

I was looking forward to doing some star photography, but little did I know we chose the worst time for it. We were just entering a full moon phase which would last the entire trip. Bummer, since I’d be going to some of the darkest places on the planet.

Day 2: After getting ready, we went to the same place for breakfast. (There weren’t many options.) Some eggs, bacon, and juice comprised my meal and we were off to, not Bryce, but Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. This was a lovely hour journey, of meadows, rivers, rocks, mountains, farms, and some small towns. Upon reaching the sand dunes, I was excited because you can drone in some state parks. The ticket was 10 dollars, and 5 for droning. I got the permit immediately. While not as impressive as Bryce Canyon, the sand dunes offered more interaction. I flew my drone for about an hour, marveling in its beauty, while my dad and mom explored the landscape.

When I was done, my dad gave it another go with me, since I wanted to walk the dunes as well. The beauty of the dunes paled compared to Bryce, but I had much more fun walking the dunes. There's something about walking in sand dunes, interacting with the landscape, and slipping and sliding. Again, while not as amazing as Bryce, the background of the sand dunes did have some large rock formations in the distance.

This was not the end of the day. Zion National Park was rather close, so we decided to head there next.

There were several good reasons to go visit parks with my parents besides the obvious. The main being that my dad had a lifetime senior pass to all national parks, which made it free for all of us. Zion was different from the dunes and Bryce Canyon, in that you could drive through the park and stop at various turn outs. Zion was massive but worldly. Bryce made much more of an impact for me, because it was out of sci fi or fantasy. Zion Park was like Yosemite to me; beautiful in a worldly sense, realistic, but massive and imposing with its limestone and sandstone, among other rocks. One interesting aspect of the park, which my dad laced me about were the slot canyons, narrow corridors you wouldn’t want to get ambushed in or attacked by a beholder in. These narrow hallways could turn dangerous in the event of a flash flood, but are very cool looking to walk through.

Unfortunately, we only spent a few hours here and were able to hit a few turn outs and do some short hikes and explore. Before too long we decided to head back to Hatch to drop off our things and go down Byway 12 to a Mexican restaurant I found the day before called Arriba.

Arriba was good, the waiters were super fun and cool and the food was also tasty. It wasn’t crowded when we went, so we got to parlay with the people who worked there, which was amusing. After, probably the biggest dinner I had since living in Taiwan, we headed back to Hatch.

Day 3- We packed and had another breakfast at the same restaurant across the street from our cabin. It was time to say farewell, and continue down our path to Escalante. Traveling through Byway 12 was absolutely mind blowing, and is now the best drive I have ever done! With its constant changes of the landscape it always keeps you on your toes, there are also some very high and narrow parts that can be quite scary.

Before driving all the way, we stopped by in Bryce again to do the Navajo Trail. This trail was probably the easiest but most impressive hike I have ever done. A piece of advice, if you do this trail, you will come to an intersection. Go left. It descends down, and coming up you’re in lots of shade.

NEXT STOP- ESCALANTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!