In September of 2022, we em(Barker)ed on a journey out west with Birch to explore Utah. Birch took a road trip with us in 2020 from NC to Wyoming (Yellowstone and Tetons primarily). He was a fantastic traveler so decided to bring him along again.

Phil joined for the first leg of the trip where I picked him up in Nashville and we drove together from Nashville to Southern Utah. We stayed in Kanab for several days in a small guesthouse in a community with a killer dog park. It was over an acre in size and had a great water feature. Because it was private, there were few other dogs around. Birch loved it! Because dogs have very limited access to national parks, we took him on several hikes outside of the parks instead. We chose a few short hikes around Kanab, a slot canyon in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, and Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest. Red Canyon is right beside Bryce and has some of the same features but dogs are allowed. Phil and I still hit up some of the national parks without Birchie boy. We also rented a pontoon on lake Powell and spent the day on the water with Birch. After southern Utah, we headed north where I dropped Phil off at the Salt Lake City airport and continued on the next leg of our journey.

Birch and I then headed up to Ogden to spend the week with my brother and sister-n-law. We hit up some beautiful spots and hikes in the area. I highly recommend northern Utah. It’s much like Colorado with fewer people.

After spending an amazing week with family, Birch and I headed out for the last leg of our trip. We headed up Mirror Lake Hwy past some beautiful yellow aspen groves and mountain lakes. We found an incredible campsite to ourselves! The next day we drove down to Capitol Reef National Park and stayed in the Fruita Campground inside the park for a few days. Dogs are allowed in the campground but not on the trails. I hit up a few trails early in the morning without Birch while the temps were cool. My original plan was to drive through Capitol Reef and down towards Lake Powell but many of the gravel roads had experienced significant wash outs in the weeks prior and there was no way my little Honda Element was going to make it lol! It was a big adventure in my head though! : )

After Capitol Reef, we headed down to Escalante and found a hotel for the night. We took Hole-in-the-Rock Rd (Holy washboard, Batman!). We survived, I mean hiked, out to the Cosmic Ashtray and that hike was for the books. I ran out of water and the hike ended up being several miles more than expected due to not being able to drive all the way out to the parking area for the trail. Talk about being alone in the middle of a VAST wilderness. I have never felt that alone in my life (and Birch was by my side). Happy to say I completed that hike though!

Originally I planned to stay in the Grand Staircase area longer but decided instead to head down to Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods. We camped in Garden of the Gods for several days just to relax for a while after all the hiking and driving. It was a beautiful area and I hope to make it back one day.

It was time to head back east! We packed up, drove through some beautiful and not so beautiful areas of Colorado. Ouray and Durango were beautiful! We stopped in Great Sand Dunes National Park and then into the rest of Eastern Colorado. There were saw the Great Tarantula Migration before us and wowee was that a sight to behold. Basically spiders the size of small turtles crossing the road in front us as we drove.

On to Kansas we drove and there we found wind. Lots and lots of wind. We stayed at a campground on Perry Lake for a night, which was beautiful (but insanely windy!) From there we headed on to NC. Not without some hiccups along the way but what an incredible trip!