All of our planning and a dose of good luck paid off in a trip that exceeded our expectations. The Wave was the highlight. We still can’t get over our good fortune of winning the lottery for both Coyote Buttes North (The Wave) and Coyote Buttes South on the same day. We chose The Wave because it has the longest odds. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

As you saw from all the posts, none of our stops were duds. If there was any problem it was us beginning to experience sensory overload. Every stop had memorable moments. Even both of us losing our crowns at Millsite State Park is something we can now look back on and laugh about.

Because of bad weather at the beginning of the trip we boondocked way less than we planned. We were living an extravagant lifestyle with full hook-ups 18 out of the first 19 days. The one non full hook-up was a partial hook-up at Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

The generator came in handy when we experienced a cold snap at our boondock spot outside of Capitol Reef National Park. We used it four days to run the furnace.

It was pretty cool to go over a month without getting on a freeway. It gave us a taste of small town America. It’s definitely a different lifestyle. Big cities offer so many conveniences we take for granted, for instance grocery shopping and dining options. Shopping for groceries was challenging, and that’s being polite.

A big thank you to the Noltes and Denise and Rob. It was wonderful they came out to spend a few days with us. It helped break-up the two of us staring at each other 7/24 😂.

My mom hung in there and didn’t have any medical issues while we were gone. The last couple of weeks she really started missing us. We were talking with Amelia’s dad one day about my mom. He had a moment of insightfulness when he said this is probably the longest her and I have been apart. That gave me pause. He was correct, prior to this the longest time was The Summer of ’78 Trip.

Writing a blog is a lot of work, thankfully I’m passionate about it. It’s so easy to forget things as we age. With the blog we have a record of our travels. Sometimes when I’m feeling down, like during the dark days of winter, it’s nice to reread some of the old posts. We also hope it will motivate folks to get out and experience it all. These last thirteen posts provide a great template for a Southern Utah trip. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.

The Stats

• 3,824 miles
• 48 nights: 24 full hook-ups, 1 partial hook-up, 15 boondock, 7 BLM Campground, 1 parking lot. Average cost per night $31. 
• 23 bike rides: 260 miles
• 17 hikes: 98 miles. It sure seemed like we hiked more than biked, but apparently not.
• Five National Parks
• Good times…unquantifiable 

Lower Calf Creek Falls video

You might of noticed there were no photos of Spooky slot. 😱