Welcome to our Van Life blog. The stories highlighted on this website are journals of our favorite places and our best days while traveling. In reality, we have a lot more stories we haven’t posted yet. Our blog is always adding and updating our content. Thank you for visiting our site. We hope you will enjoy our travel journal and will return routinely for travel ideas and information.
TRAVEL SLOW – STOP OFTEN
How We Visited Dinosaur National Monument in Half a Day
After leaving Flaming Gorge, we weren’t quite ready to point Alice toward home. Since Dinosaur National Monument was along our route, we decided to make one last stop before ending our northern Utah road trip. Unlike some of our destinations where we spend several days hiking and exploring, this visit was much shorter. We rode… Read more
Flaming Gorge: Hiking, Camping and an Unexpected Utah Adventure
Flaming Gorge wasn’t part of our original travel plans. Then again, by this point in our trip, very little was. After abandoning our three-week Idaho road trip because of snow and cold weather, Gail and I had adopted a new travel strategy: go wherever the snow isn’t. That strategy had already taken us through Wyoming… Read more
Kyhv Peak Trail: A Challenging Hike with Incredible Views Above Provo Canyon
When we pulled into the Kyhv Peak Trailhead just before 8:00 on a cool May morning, we weren’t sure what kind of day we were going to get. The temperature hovered in the low 40s, and a blanket of gray clouds covered the sky. Looking up toward the summit, I wondered if we’d spend the… Read more
Donut Falls Hike in Utah: Trail Guide, Distance & What to Expect
We don’t normally begin a hike at four o’clock in the afternoon. But this wasn’t a normal day. Just twelve hours earlier, we had pulled into Big Cottonwood Canyon around 3:00 a.m. and waited for Spruces Campground to open. By seven o’clock, we were choosing a campsite, setting up Alice, and settling into what would… Read more
Desolation Lake Utah in Big Cottonwood Canyon: What to Expect
Quick Answer Desolation Lake is an 8.3-mile round-trip hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon that climbs nearly 2,000 feet to a scenic alpine lake sitting just below 9,500 feet. The trail is mostly forested with occasional mountain views along the way. In late spring, hikers may still find snow around the shoreline. Although the hike is… Read more
Will RV Pipes Freeze at 31 Degrees? What Happened to Us in the Mountains
Our 3 A.M. Freeze Scare at Spruces Campground The question came up for us at 3:00 a.m. We had driven through temperatures in the low 50s earlier that afternoon, but as we climbed Big Cottonwood Canyon toward Spruces Campground, the outside temperature began to fall quickly. By the time we reached the campground entrance, the… Read more