Welcome back to the fourth and final chapter of our Christmas 2022 trip to Utah and the southern US. After a restful night's sleep in front of Catacomb Rocks, we woke to another stunning dawn, I stumbled down from the tent just as the sun was gently breaking over the ridge leading to Anticline Overlook. It made for an amazing sight, to watch the rising sun’s rays slowly force the darkness of the night back into hiding and radiate the mesas on the opposite valley into a warm golden glow.

After coffee and breakfast, Layka and I explored the labyrinth of tunnels a little more before packing up and heading back into Moab for a much-needed shower at the community gym. Now, feeling like a brand-new person, I was ready to get on with accomplishing today’s goal, to head south to the Valley of the Gods, a beautiful area located near Mexican Hat in southeastern Utah.

Of course, as a creature of habit and liking what I like, before leaving Moab, I swung by Moab Coffee Roasters for another delicious coffee and Cinnamon Roll! I also stopped by the Gearheads Outdoor shop to pick up a few outdoorsy things. Sitting in the tent every night to write in my journal was making my back sore so I decided to try to track down a Crazy Creek camp chair to use so I can sit back and pontificate in a more relaxed way. I had one before while backpacking in Japan and loved it! Luckily Gearheads had one and it was the type with the longer back so was perfect for its intended use!

Due to the wonderful advice at the Moab Visitors Centre, our route to Valley of the Gods would lead us west just after the Blanding Airport.  This route would allow us to take in the full splendour of the valley from the top of the ridge before descending the Moki Dugway. It is a slightly longer way to get there, a little over two hours from Moab, but well worth it! The Moki Dugway is a series of switchbacks that allow you to quickly descend the thousand or so feet to the valley floor. As you make your way down, you have a spectacular view of the entire valley, dotted with massive buttes and mesas throughout large expanses of flat open grazing areas. There were many times I had to stop and stare in wonder at the amazing view. Once you make it to the Valley of the Gods, there is approximately a seventeen-mile-long dirt road that winds you through the valley between the amazing geological features. By the time we made it to the start of the road, the sky was overcast but the rain was holding off, for now.

Our destination for today was to make it about halfway through the valley before finding a decent campsite and to find one of those here was not hard at all! As I came around Castle Butte, a towering stone monolith, I found a short offshoot from the main road which led to an epic campsite! The small flat area provided us with a view of the valley with Castle Butte staring down at us in the foreground.

With rain being in the forecast, I quickly set up camp and prepped supper. Afterward, a light rain started to fall so after a quick clean-up, Layka and I headed for the safety of our tent and I could try out my new chair while journaling before heading to sleep.

The next morning was overcast with low clouds and the kind of rain that isn’t quite rain but isn’t quite mist. Vancouverites will know what I’m talking about! Under the cover of the awning, and with Castle Butte still staring down at us, I enjoyed breakfast and coffee before packing up and heading out. By the time we left camp, the rain had increased, making the road very sloppy, the fine sand instantaneously turned to muck. After about half an hour we made it back to the main road in a Jeep that wasn’t as white as when we started.

Now we were off to another bucket list spot that was only a short trip away, Goosenecks State Park. I first saw this place on an episode of Epic Family Road Trip a few years ago and knew I would be here someday. This place cannot be understood in pictures alone, it needs to be seen to fully comprehend its actual scale! The park is located atop a deep canyon created by the San Juan River that meanders through it. Slowly over the millennia, the winding San Juan River has carved away its banks so now the river is about a thousand feet down and created a feature resembling a gooseneck, hence the park's name.

“The Plan”, was to stay here for the night, but here’s where Mother Nature always gets a say! I had set up camp and was just sitting down to lunch and a book under the shade of the awning when off in the distance I saw ominous dark clouds approaching from the west. I thought it would just be a passing squall but as it approached it grew more and more menacing. I proactively decided to start packing a few items back in the jeep and attach the guy lines to the awning, but I grossly underestimated the strength of the storm to come.

Snow had started to fall, and I had just sat into the jeep when a huge gust of wind came roaring up from the valley below with the momentum of a freight train, shaking the Jeep and flipping my awning up onto my Roof Top Tent like a twig in a hurricane! The awning poles for the tent also went flying and clanged to the ground. I sincerely thought the whole roof was going to get ripped off the Jeep, tent awning and all.

Wanting to save as much as I could, I hopped out and pulled the awning down so that the wind would push it against the Jeep and not rip it off. With the billowing wind pelting me with snow I then very haphazardly secured the Roof Top Tent and collected the poles that were blown meters away. Satisfied things at least wouldn’t get worse, I got back in the Jeep to wait for a lull in the weather to secure everything properly. I looked at the updated weather on my inReach and saw that this weather was going to last for the next few days over the entire area. The brief lull came, and I quickly repacked everything. After pontificating over what the next few days here were going to be like, I decided to head west, like California west! Another time Goosenecks State Park, another time!!

It was about 2 pm when all this happened and less than an hour later, we were on the road to Death Valley. It was going to be a long nine-hour drive but as the weather was what it was, I figured that would be the best course of action. After some hard driving through unpredictable weather, and places I want to stop and visit next time, we made it to the outskirts of Death Valley.  The turn-off in Amargosa, Nevada, was interesting, to say the least! If it wasn’t so late, I absolutely would have gone into the “Area 51 Alien Center” to see what’s in there! Anyway, we carried on, and found a nice camp spot across from Pyramid Peak to hold up for the night.

Morning came fast, and luckily it was dry, so I opened everything up to try to dry as much as I could from the nightmare from the day before. Found some damage to the awning that looked as though it wouldn’t be too hard to repair but all in all better shape than expected. After coffee and breakfast, we headed into Death Valley National Park. At 282 below sea level, it is the lowest, hottest and driest place in North America and holds the record for the hottest recorded air temperature on the planet at 56.7oC (134.1oF). I was glad to visit this place in winter! We made our way to the aptly named Furnace Creek Visitor Centre

After resupplying with water and picking up a few souvenirs from the Visitor Centre, we headed off toward the Saline Valley Road, just outside the western boundary of the park. We were trying to meet up with my friend Morgan from To New Adventures, who was on his own adventure in California. The plan was to meet up at the Saline Valley Campground, but due to the lack of cell service, I couldn’t confirm if he had made it there or not but decided to head there either way.

The Saline Valley Road turned out to be one of the most beautiful roads I’ve driven on, while also being one of the roughest with deep washboards every. The scenery is spectacular, and you feel like you’re driving on a desolate moonscape. You then turn a corner and you’re in a forest of Joshua Trees! As we continued into a section of the road called Jackass Canyon it got considerably narrower and rougher which slowed progress considerably. Once out of the canyon, the road widened along with the view but stayed just as rough with areas that even being aired down, I thought might shake the Jeep apart. An older couple in a done-up 4WD sprinter van came from the opposite direction and I asked them how long till the Campground and they said, “2 hours.” Not knowing for sure if Morgan was at camp and knowing that heavy rains were coming into Northern California the next day, I decided to call it and head back.

We made it back out in one piece and after airing the tires back up I found a very cool campsite on iOverlander, not too far down the road! After setting up camp behind a large rock next to a Joshua Tree, Layka and I settled in for a nice campfire under a beautiful dark Death Valley sky.

The next morning, we started back toward home. I wanted to stop by Yosemite, but the atmospheric river forecast for California was going to bring snow to that area, so I decided to take the inside road between the Inyo Mountains and Mt. Whitney to give us some shelter from the rain and wind as we head north. Even with mountains on either side of us, there were a couple of times when I thought the wind was going to push us off the road but as we got closer to Oregon the wind eased.

We found a little spot to camp near Crater Lake. It was still raining so set up was quick and we hunkered in for the night. Morgan caught up to us around zero dark thirty. Turns out he did make it to the campsite in Saline Valley, so in hindsight, I guess I should have carried on!

The rain had stopped but the temperature dropped overnight turning everything wet, into everything frozen so packing up was a little more difficult as the sides of the tent and its awning were frozen into stiff sheets of canvas, but we managed to get packed up and underway. The road was very slick with black ice, so we took it slow. As we reached the village of Chemult, we stopped for a delicious breakfast and coffee at KJ’s Café. It was a much-needed resupply before making our way carefully down the snow-covered mountain highway to Eugene, OR and the I-5 home.

Overall, this was an incredible 10-day adventure to have that had so many amazing things to see and experiences to have and learn from. Mark Twain stated that “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” I’m very happy with the good decisions I made on this trip and equally grateful to have learned from the experiences as well!

Thank you all so much for following me along on this adventure. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it! Please feel free to leave a comment below and follow me on Facebook and Instagram as well for more current updates. Stay tuned for the next big adventure as this time we head north, way north!