How about some #tbt aka throwback travels? In this blog series, I write about travels that I forgot to write about on the blog; or simply, travels done before the blog even came into existence. There’s nothing wrong with going back in time and reminiscing, right? Today’s #tbt, ahem, throwback travel, goes back to 2014 in the beautiful state of Utah!
My mom and dad planned this trip back in the spring of 2014. Around this time, we were set on trying to visit all the different national parks that America has to offer and share with us peasants.
My dad has always enjoyed road trips due to his extreme fear of flying, so we made the 8-hr drive in one day. We left California early and arrived in Cedar City, UT around 6pm. For this trip, we tried to enjoy local shops so we grabbed dinner at Centro Woodfire Pizza – I can still recall the wonderful taste of their pizza’s dough. I’m convinced that this is where I first fell in love with the idea of hipster dining because they served their pizzas over cans and it blew mind away, okay.
The next day, we drove out about an hour to visit Zion National Park. The park was packed, but it was worth it! The rocks in Zion were a marvel to look at. We decided to hike through a bit of The Narrows but went back when the current was getting stronger and we were ill-equipped (yes, there was a time where we didn’t own hiking shoes… or actual hiking backpacks… thingymabob? I got 20!).
On our second day, we had planned on visiting Bryce Canyon National Park but we were so pooped from the previous day that my parents took us to the Frontier Homestead State Park and the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs instead. The Frontier Homestead State Park was a little museum that showed how people lived in Utah back in the day, and how people travelled with stagecoaches. In fact, they had one of the first stagecoaches that Wells Fargo used!
The Parowan Gap Petroglyphs was one of my favorite things of this trip! Not only was it free, it had a lot of history to it. The gap served as a major route for travel back in the day and American Indians would use the rocks as an astrological calendar by marking solstices and equinoxes as they passed by. In addition, they drew trails on the rocks that lead to water.
Writing about this trip has made me very nostalgic about Utah and I definitely want to visit again! There are so many beautiful places to see there, especially all the national parks Utah has to offer (they have five parks in all!!!).
Also, you may be wondering – this trip was over 4 years ago, how do you remember where you ate and what places you saw?! Besides having a decent memory, I utilize an app called Swarm where I am able to check in to places – check it out!
