Oh give me a Motorhome, where the Buffalo Roam

Utah turned out to have so many adventures to offer. In our inital plan for this trip, we only had a couple of quick stops in Utah planned to check out Bryce and Zion Canyon. We ended up exploring every corner of this state, and I have to say I am very surprised at how many different landscapes and adventures we found in Utah.

Our next stop in Utah was Millsite State Park. The camping wasn’t the best but it was a nice day and we had fun celebrating Mother’s Day with homemade gifts and a special breakfast made by the girls.

The next day we scored a waterfront campsite in Palisade State Park, this park was along a reservoir and the waterfront site gave us a great place to sit with a book or to fish. The park had a trail around the reservoir that was great for a walk or bike ride. One day we rented a four person dune buggy from nearby Skyline ATV rental and spent the afternoon cruising up Six Mile Canyon and racing through the many OHV (off highway vehicle) trails that are literally everywhere in the state. We had a blast! We toured through windy, muddy, rocky trails with spectacular views and we even got up to the snow on top of a nearby mountain. Everyone had so much fun, it was an afternoon none of us will forget.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our next stop was Yuba State Park. The park had nice grassy campsites and we had lots of space to get out the hammocks, slack line and to kayak around the lake. We spent a couple of relaxing days hanging out around the campsite at Yuba.

Antelope Island State Park was next on our list, and it exceeded our expectations. The park is located near Salt Lake City, across a 7 mile causeway that stretches across the Great Salt Lake and is known for having the largest herd of Bison in the US. In fact we had a visitor at our site the first evening…

We were blown away by the size of these enormous animals! A park ranger told us that they can run up to 35 mph and jump 8 feet in the air. I don’t want to meet an angry Bison. This one was not very interested in us and headed over to the empty campsite beside us to scratch his head on the picnic table. We also saw lots of pronghorn antelope on the island. We hiked a five mile trail that looped around the peak of one of the mountains on the island. The view from the top was amazing. You could see the snow peaked mountains across the salt lake. The hike was an accomplishment for all of us and the girls hiked the 1000 foot elevation change with out complaint.

Our next two stops were at Rockport State Park and Starvation State Park. Both parks has nice campsites on large reservoirs but it was so windy we weren’t able to get out in the kayaks. At Rockport State Park, they had a 3D archery range along one of the hiking trails. Since we had a bow and about 5 arrows, we hiked along the trails and had an archery competition. Harper turned out to be the best Archer among all of us with lots of pretty accurate shots into the styrofoam animals.

• 

• 

We wrapped up our camping in Utah in the north eastern corner of the state. We stayed for two nights at Red Fleet state park, where the park was beautiful but the camping was alot like a parking lot. The park had a fantastic reservoir for kayaking and fishing and also had 200 million year old dinosaur footprints preserved in the rock along a hiking trail. The fishing in the park was also excellent. Piper caught a nice rainbow trout and Trevor caught a Colorado Cut-throat Trout and a few Wipers (a cross between a stripped bass and a white bass) we had a fantastic fish feast for dinner.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our last day we visited Dinosaur National Monument and hiked a fossil trail and saw dinosaur bones preserved in the rock along the trail. Unfortunately, the exhibit hall was closed so we were not able to see that part of the park, but we did a nice hike through the canyon and had lunch in the park along the Green River.