By the time we finally made it to Utah we were all pretty exhausted. I desperately needed a shower and my plants were showing stress from the frequent elevation change. No one told me that nose bleeds were common with high elevation. I started freaking out the first time one of the kids nose bled. It had been very dry the first night we camped in Utah, but it decided to rain that night. I didn’t get much sleep and migrated to my vehicle early in the morning.
I’ve never seen so much rock in my life! All kinds of rock. All different colors of rock. All shapes and sizes of rock everywhere you turn. It was like a different scenery everywhere you looked! Believe me when I tell you it was the hardest drive of my life. It was hard because I couldn’t take my eyes off all the natural beauty that was around me. I felt like a kid in the candy store for the first time.
We started to think about where we were going to setup camp. This time it would be longer than a night and we had a few specific things that we were looking for. We had to find somewhere that was close to a water source. We had to have cell service and my portable WiFi device had to work too. We also wanted a place that was secluded but close to Ryan’s work and close to town for our shopping needs.
We drove up a steep mountain but my 2WD SUV couldn’t make it any further so we had to turn around and come back down. As we searched the map, we noticed a stream close by where we wanted to stay. As we followed the stream we found a nice little covered area that would be perfect! But oh, wait. No cell service. So we continued following the stream up the mountain. As we were driving, we noticed that the small stream had dried out but I had cell service now! It was getting dark and I started to become discouraged. We started to approach a steep hill as we winded around the curvy, rocky terrain. We got out to walk around and I was shocked at what we found! It was perfect! I checked my cell phone and WiFi device and I couldn’t believe it! I had better service here than I did in the city! It was within walking distance to water, there was gorgeous evergreen trees and a perfect spot for our tent! Thank you lord! We have arrived!
We put on our headlamps and started working together quickly to setup the tent. It took us about an hour to get everything up. It took the next 2 weeks to get completely settled in.
At this point there was a statewide fire restriction set in place because of how dry it’s been along with the California forest fires so we had to rely on the buddy heater and propane stove. Things were a total mess for a while.
My daughter wanted to bathe but the water in the creek was too cold. I also hadn’t dug out the solar shower so we had to improvise with a cooler that we had on hand. She thought it was fun.
After we unpacked everything and organized the tent I was relieved. I could finally relax. Or so I thought.
Haven’t seen any beehives 😝
Tent Living/Lifestyle 