When my friends Jamie and Miranda said they wanted do a girls hiking trip, I immediately suggested Utah since there were so many places that I wanted to visit that I didn’t get to on previous trips.

We decided on visiting the Bonneville Salt Flats, Capital Reef, Arches, and a pink lake at Stansbury Island. We had some initial setbacks right away, such as a delayed flight and flooding in the area that closed some roads. We were all disappointed, but decided we would make the most of it and try our best to do as much as we could given the circumstances.

Our first evening there we visited the Bonneville Salt Flats, which progressively got more beautiful as the sun set. After sunset at the flats, we drove late into the night to Capital Reef National Park. 

All the places we wanted to visit in the park required off roading and were affected by the flood. The roads were marked as impassable as of the night before. We decided that we would go take a look at them anyways to see if there was a chance. The next morning one of the roads was reported as passable, so we headed out to see the Temple of the Sun and Moon and were so happy we were able to make it out there! The other area we wanted to see was Bentonite Hills and there hadn’t been any update on that road yet. We went to assess it, but immediately came up on a river crossing which we assumed was too high to cross due to the flooding so we didn’t attempt it. We were very bummed and later that evening in town I was trying to find a way to get there and one of the guides told me our vehicle would be able to cross the river bed. 

So the next day when we were leaving town to head to Arches, we attempted to cross the river and we made it! It truly looked like another planet and was so beautiful to see the colorful hills covered in oranges, reds, and purples.

Next we headed to Arches National Park. All the arches were so unique and I liked it more than I thought I would, as I previously thought the park might be overrated. That night we glamped in a boujee tent in the park. 

Our last day we headed back to Salt Lake City and stopped at the pink lake at Stansbury Island before flying out. Despite the setbacks, I had the best time because of the girls. We constantly roasted each other which is my love language and I was laughing majority of the time with them. They made it so fun and special and we are already plotting our next trip!