Trip of 2004

Next year, in 2004, I had a bigger plan, I wanted to see more of this world, and more national parks. So, I planned a trip to see 5 national parks in Utah, and my companion was Timi, who's also from Hungary and was going to BYU at that time.
I started out driving from LA to Provo, and we got our stuff together and headed towards Arches. Oh, it is so beautiful.
After spending 2 nights at Arches, climbing and hiking.. and seeing the Delicate Arch, that was my favorite, we drove to Canyon Lands National Park.

On our way to go to Capitol Reef National Park we stopped by a place called, Goblin Valley.
If you ever saw or plan to see Galaxy Quest, with Tim Allen, well, there is a part they filmed in Goblin Valley. Pretty cool. It's really a place for... goblins... it's very strange but beautiful.
And we arrived at Capitol Reef. It's another special place. Did you know there are orchards there? You can go in, eat as much fruit as you can, and when you want to take some with you, you can get it for really cheap. We had some delicious peaches there and of course, we needed some in our tent too. And by the way, these orchards were organized by the Mormons? Yep. We were proud of that. Here, at Capitol Reef, when we woke up in the morning and heading out of the tent, saw baby deer just right by our tent. We were really in Nature. I loved that.

After Capitol Reef, we drove to Bryce Canyon. I never thought it could be so wonderful. Amazing and unbelievable. And our drive was kind of unbelievable there too... driving through Dixy Forrest, with almost no gas in the car, and definitely no gas station close by. Yeah, but we made it. One of my favorite place was the road on the top of the mountain and there is NOTHING beside... just the road... I couldn't look to the sides because if I do...Let's not think about that..But it was fun. OK, we arrived in Bryce Canyon!!!

It was beautiful in Bryce Canyon. The only problems were the cold nights. The first night I woke up..my buttom feeling numb from the cold ground...Next night I slept in the car... that wasn't warmer or more comfortable either...I survived. And we took off going back to Provo, hitting Zion National park on the way. We pretty much drove through Zion, taking a picture or two there. But we had one more FUN stop, which was in Monroe, UT. Have you heard about the place, where there are bathtubs built into the hillside and the hot spring is running in and through the tubs? And you can soak in the tub and relax in the hot water. Oh, after this trip, and hot desert, lots of miles behind us, it was great to wash off the dust of this trip in the hot springs. And we spent all afternoon there. Just FYI, Monroe is off the I15, not too far from the freeway, and this place is at the end of the city (very small city, and there are signs to the place).


OK, here is a picture of the tubs built into the hill side. We had a pretty view from here over a Utah valley, and even though it was very hot summer day, when we got out of the tub we were kind of chilly. This water was super hot, but very comfortable and relaxing.



And from Provo, I drove back to California, finishing this trip. I went back to work ,so I could rest after this trip.