Southern Utah

Where are the most popular places to go during Spring Break?  Well, Mexico for one, but southern Utah is pretty high on that list as well.  Snowbirds and retirees converge on the Utah parks to escape the warming southern climates.  Moderate temperatures bring people out for Easter Jeep safari, Easter/Spring break, and a myriad of other reasons.  As such, Zion National Park, Arches and Bryce Canyon get slammed with visitors during this time of the year.  In fact, we had plans for my parents to join us, however they couldn’t find a single campground in the area that would accommodate their Class A motorhome.  We knew that dealing with this sort of madness was not what we wanted.  

Joining my 4 year daughter Kara and I on this trip would be our good, long-time friend Stuart.  He recently purchased, and has been building-out, a Sprinter van.  Like me, he specifically wanted a Sprinter with the 2.1 liter 4 cylinder diesel engine, however Mercedes-Benz stopped making it when he was in the position to get one.  As luck would have it, he found a new 2016 4 cylinder Sprinter that had been parked for 18 months waiting for its owner to build it out.  That opportunity did not present itself, so my buddy was able to pick it up with only 220 miles on the odometer.   Stuart’s wife was unable to make this trip but it was a perfect opportunity to do a shake-down run for his newly-built van.  We set our sites on the less crowded areas between Escalante-Grand Staircase and Capitol Reef, Utah.  

Sunday April 14, 2019

We hit the road from the Sacramento area, taking Interstate 80 over the Sierra-Nevadas and topping with diesel in Verdi, NV.   There were many miles to cover making our way east via Highway 50, affectionately known as the “Loneliest Road in America.”   Miles were eaten-up by a desert with a surprising amount of greenery, great tunes and our excitement of exploring a new area.  

Stuart and I are both licensed amateur radio operators, which allowed us to use our inexpensive radios to communicate between vans.  The main topic of discussion toward the latter part of our 7-hour drive was “what is our ETA to a glass of wine?”  Our first night was spent at Sacramento Pass, a BLM campground located in eastern Nevada.  It was clean, had a small fishing pond and only one other camper in the area.  Each site had a concrete slab, a nice picnic table and BBQ pit as well as a really nice steel and wooden covered structure.  

Monday April 15, 2019

Following a good night of sleep we continued east on Hwy 50 to Utah-21, north for a bit on I-15 to Interstate 70.  We spent some time exploring some potential boondocking options within the Fishlake National Forest, however the road kept getting muddier and slicker until we finally stopped at a bog that I wouldn’t have driven my 4Runner through.  We continued east to our ‘Plan B,’ Castle Rock Campground.  This would be the only paid-campground ($15/night) we would use on this trip, and it was well worth it.  The campground was surrounded by red sandstone towers and there were hiking trails accessible straight from camp.  

During our stay here we met a couple and their 4 year old daughter that were on a 10-week RV vacation from Holland.  Kara and their daughter Jasmine hit it off immediately.  While the parents spoke excellent English, Jasmine only spoke Dutch.  We had a blast listening to these two kids speaking to each other in completely different languages and yet it didn’t seem to reduce their ability to work together in building a structure with magnet-tiles.  Absolutely amazing.  

Tuesday April 16, 2019

This morning was just just like all the others–wake up and get the coffee started.  Half-way through coffee I heard a click and everything electric in the van shut down.  Uh oh.  I got out the voltmeter and started doing some tests.  Our van has a 200 amp-hour lithium battery, which is controlled by a BMS (battery management system) that monitors each of the four cells to ensure the battery cannot be over-charged or over-discharged.   I discovered that the BMS had opened the under-voltage contactor because it thought the battery was at a critically low state of charge.  However, the battery was 90% full. The BMS was reporting that Cell #4 did not exist.  

I then checked the battery voltage of each cell, and each came in at 3.35 volts.  Multiply that by four and we have 13.4 volts, a very typical number for this battery.  I temporarily bypassed the BMS/contactor and everything worked like normal.  Upon closer inspection I realized that Cell #3 of the battery had a problem–there was some kind of viscous substance on the cell terminal that seemed like possibly an internal cell leakage.  Whatever this substance was, it corroded the circuit board for Cell #4 beneath it, hence the reason Cell #4 wasn’t reporting.  The BMS shut down the system in response.  I continued to run the van off the battery for the day (with the BMS bypassed), periodically checking on it to ensure the battery did not have a full-on leak.

A light rain was falling this morning and we decided to use that time to press-on to our next location.  We continued east on Hwy 70, south on Hwy 89, then turned east on Hwy 12.  Within about a 2 mile stretch you enter Red Canyon and almost instantly the landscape appears very Bryce Canyon-like.  Red Canyon is an excellent place to look around at the Visitor’s Center, ride the paved bike trail or hike some of the developed hiking trails.  

There were some forest roads here that presented boondocking opportunities, but they presented a challenge.  It had been raining all morning and these roads are infamous for turning to snot when wet.  Second challenge were large snow drifts that were deep enough to touch the bottom of the suspension arms.  I would never attempt this alone, but Stuart is my 4-wheeling buddy from days-past and we had two vans stocked with recovery gear, so we went for it.  We made it through the snow drifts and worked our way up the mountain.  At one point I felt the steering loose all resistance, which tells me I just hit some real soft clay/mud.  Only 15-feet ahead was a bog that I wouldn’t try in any vehicle, much less a Sprinter.  We decided to turn around here and not push our luck any further.  

Highway 12 is bar-none the prettiest highway I have ever driven.  The stretch we saw between Red Canyon and Capitol Reef was simply stunning.  We continued east until we hit the Escalante-Grand Staircase area.  We camped off Rock Springs Road, which was identified on the excellent phone app iOverlander for locating boondocking locations.  There are spur trails off the main road that will get you out and away from people.

Wednesday April 17, 2019

Today we hiked the Zebra Slot Canyon Trail.  The hike is 5.2 miles roundtrip, with the actual slot canyon beginning about 2.5 miles in.  You need not hike far before it becomes very narrow, and at this time of year, filled with water.  You get a feel for the slot canyon in the first 500 feet, after which it narrows significantly.  Having a young child with us that was already doing her longest hike ever, we decided not to push our luck.  Even if you choose not do the slot canyon, the entire hike is beautiful and well worth it. 

Returning to the same spot we had the previous night, we enjoyed a peaceful evening complete with dinner and wine.  Kara played with her animals and did artwork.  She is really good at keeping herself entertained.

Thursday April 18, 2019

Continuing east on Hwy 12, we found ourselves stopping often to look at the vistas and take photographs.  We arrived at Capitol Reef National Park and stopped for a break at Panorama Point.  It was lost on us at the time that the Goosenecks Overlook was just a short distance away up a dirt road.  Put it on your must-see list when in Capitol Reef.

The Visitor’s Center in Fruita is worth a stop, and after a look around we headed for the Grand Wash Trailhead.  We had read in guide books that this trail was very kid-friendly and scenic the entire walk.  We started at Highway 12, but it can be accessed from Scenic Drive/Cassidy Arch at the other end.  The great thing about this trial is you are in the wash the entire time looking up at the sandstone walls.  There are caves along the way and it does narrow-down the further you go toward Cassidy Arch, but never reaches the kind of narrows we experienced at Zebra Slot.  

In tooling around National Parks and the like, the van gets absolutely amazing fuel economy.    2 hours and 2 minutes of driving, and 68 miles we were averaging just shy of 29 miles per gallon.  The fuel economy of this van really keeps the cost of these multiple-thousand mile trips low.

After driving the short “Scenic Drive,” (yes, that is the name of the road), we continued-on to find a place to camp.  We continued out the eastern end of Capitol Reef and turned south on Notom-Bullfrog Road.  It’s paved for a while, then turns to dirt.  Quite frankly even the dirt sections are in better shape than most of the paved roads in California.  This road takes you along the eastern border of the park, offering some boondocking opportunities along the way.  

34 miles later we turned west onto Burr Trail Road.  Still dirt, the road leads up the Burr Trail Switchbacks.  For anyone looking for an adventure, I would recommend coming out to the Switchbacks from the west.  You would look for Burr Trail Road off of Highway 12.  Much of it is paved and portions of the western end look like a mini-Zion National Park.  We thoroughly enjoyed our drive through here.

We ended up camping for two nights out in this area.  Dispersed camping (“boondocking”) is not allowed on National Park lands, but much (but not all) of this area is on National Forest land where dispersed camping is allowed.  We took a spur of a dirt road and ended up with an epic site looking over the valley.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.