Adventures in Utah

Sienna Busby & Michael Braithwaite ‘24

“Most college students like to spend their spring breaks on the beach, but that sort of vacation never seemed interesting to us. While Colorado certainly has its dramatic landscapes, we were more intrigued by its neighboring state to the west. Utah is certainly full of its stereotypical, license-plate-worthy features, however, the more we explored the state the more we uncovered striking landscapes that we were not expecting. 

Although we had a full itinerary set from the get-go, trips like these never go fully according to plan. Our first campsite option proved to be a bust after we found just how long late winter snow sticks around. However, we were ready and on our toes for anything that the trip threw at us, and a few more campsites later, we found our resting spot for the night.  

And throw things at us the trip did. We woke up the morning we were planning to pack into Canyonlands National Park only to find that it had snowed overnight, completely covering our tent as well as the desert landscape around us. Later in the trip, we arrived at Zion National Park too late to gain free parking within the park, and unwilling to pay for the egregious $40 parking pass in the neighboring town, we decided to audible our last stop of the trip three hours further south: Grand Canyon National Park. 

Curveballs aside, the trip was one that we would do again in a heartbeat. While backpacking in the snow may seem incredibly annoying to some, it is still far better than spending a day sitting on a beach.”

All images were taken in National Parks in Utah, Land of the Ute Peoples and Land of the Nuwuvi (Southern Piute) Peoples | March 17-27, 2022