If you are planning a trip through southern Utah, this article may well have some practical use. It is a rather negative piece about a wonderful trip we took in October 2005. The negativity comes from a few of the businesses we patronized, and the increasing amount of environmental damage occurring in these last best places in America. What is not discussed is the joy of finding and exploring a small slot canyon, the vast and untrammeled beauty of Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, and the splendor of autumn in Zion Canyon. These things you must discover for yourself.

Las Vegas to Moab

(Dean’s Comments)
Our trip began with a trip to the Cleveland airport early on a Saturday morning. The same afternoon we landed in Las Vegas. Upon exiting the plane, I saw airport terminal walls decorated with a huge panoramic mural of a wonderful desert landscape complete with desert bighorn sheep and wild horses. This, I thought, is what they destroyed when they made Las Vegas, a city that is the very antithesis of what the mural portrays. Las Vegas grows without bound, wiping out vast areas of desert and sucking up precious water and other resources from hundreds of miles away. The clear mountain views that once greeted visitors were vague shapes in the pall of yellowish smog our plane descended through while landing. I did not know it at the time, but this smog from Los Angeles and Las Vegas would ruin distant views throughout our trip, all the way to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, near Moab. Viva Las Vegas, city of conspicuous consumption, the great desert parasite.

We rented a car, or more precisely a Jeep Liberty, from Dollar. The throngs of people doing the same thing made this a two-hour ordeal. Finally, though, we were on the road and headed away from the city. At long last, our trip could begin. After taking a few photos and watching the sunset in the Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park, we made our way to Cedar City, dinner, and a night’s rest. The next day we drove to Moab, Utah by way of interstate highways 15 and 70. From there we would begin making our way back to Las Vegas by less traveled routes over the next three weeks.

Our trip to Moab was uneventful, except for a rest stop we made near the intersection of the two interstate highways in Utah. There is not much around that area, but I could swear I saw a U.D.O.T. sign pointing us down a small paved road to a rest area. It was a welcome sight. Sure enough, we soon came to a small parking lot and restrooms, surrounded by a historic fort on one side and small manicured buildings and lawns on the other. This certainly did not look like something provided by the State of Utah, but I was not complaining or asking questions. I emerged from the extremely clean restroom to find my wife talking to a woman who was holding the Book of Mormon. It seems that using what I thought to be a secular toilet got us ambushed by this very polite middle-aged woman. Please understand that I have nothing against the Mormons, I just don’t want to be one. Of course, the woman was nice enough. She gently insisted on showing us around the adjacent Fort Willden, which has been nicely restored by the LDS Church. This was an unexpected and not unpleasant experience, but before it was over I'd given the woman enough information to send missionaries to our home. She was an expert.
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Moab, Utah

The Inca Inn was sold since the comments below were written. We stayed there again in October of 2008. It isn't "homey" like it once was, but it is once again a reasonable place to stay. The new owners are doing a good job.
(Dean’s Comments)
Once in Moab we checked in at the Inca Inn. In years past, this was my home away from home, and my base for desert photo shoots and adventures. It is a much different place now. The motel is not quite as clean as it used to be, and its new owners have eliminated all of the little things that made the place feel homey. Instead of being greeted by caring proprietors who want to make sure you have a great time, you get a clerk who is more interested in computer games than customers. She swipes your credit card, hands you a key, and tells you when the continental breakfast is provided. I later discovered we were charged a higher rate than was quoted by someone named Mary when I made our reservations. When I asked the clerk about this, she told me it was “a lot of work” to change the bill, and doing so “would take a really long time“. Wow. This sure isn't the place it used to be. Staying at the Inca Inn was a trip down memory lane for me, but I will not take the trip again. There are many other motels in Moab.

(Lee’s comments)
I would not complain too much about the room at the Inca inn if we had been given the promised rate, but since we paid full price I will not hesitate to point out the quality of service now accorded to guests of the Inca Inn. Most motels change your bed sheets after 2 or 3 nights, but at the Inca Inn we used the same sheets for our entire five-night stay. The motel provided the usual two small pieces of soap when we arrived, and that was all we ever got. Fortunately, we carried some soap with us in case of such a problem. It seemed like the only tasks the housekeeper did was empty the wastebasket, replace the towels, and make the bed. I know she did not sweep the floor because a piece of lint that fell from one of my socks remained where it was for days. The sidewalk outside the rooms looked like it had never been swept. I think they are waiting for the wind to sweep the sand and dust to the parking area.

Dining, or not, in Moab

(Dean’s Comments) 
There are many good places to eat in Moab. Unfortunately all of them have a huge waiting list all of the time. If you have been out in the desert hiking all day and need to get up before sunrise the next day, the last thing you want to do is wait an hour to be seated in a restaurant.

(Lee’s comments) 
If you are prepared to wait an hour every evening for a table at dinnertime, then you will find that there are some pretty good restaurants in Moab. The La Hacienda serves good food at reasonable prices but the wait can be quite long. If all you want is a good and quick meal after a long day out hiking, you can forget about the word “good”. Be prepared to dine at Wendy’s all the time, or at the Moab Diner where you have a choice of gooey tasteless white or gooey tasteless brown gravy over your entrée and potatoes. There is yet another diner in town where “grease is the word”.

Moab's Backcountry

(Dean’s Comments) 
The desert backcountry around Moab still feels like home. Once out of sight and earshot of crowds in the more popular places I really was home again. Some things have changed even there, though. Operations at Intrepid Potash plant have expanded. The operation has now laid waste to what is essentially an entire canyon. Elsewhere in Canyonlands, and everywhere in the Southwest, distant features that once appeared close enough to touch are veiled in a milky haze. This is a real verification that Dubbya’s “Clear Skies Initiative” was only a nicely named license for power plants to pollute our air. Anyway, this is as good as it gets anywhere in the lower 48 United States . Why there is no general outrage over this is far beyond my comprehension.

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Hanksville , Utah

(Dean’s Comments) 
Our trip next took us to Hanksville, Utah . My purpose here was to explore and photograph the area around a feature called Factory Butte. I had been there before, perhaps fifteen years ago, but I did not do the place justice then. Some details of what I found are the subject of another essay on this web site.

(Lee’s Comments) 
We stayed at the Whispering Sands Motel, which is the only motel in town that looks like a motel. We arrived late, at about 8 o’clock in the evening. We were tired and hungry, and the welcome greeting from the motel owner was “Just pay up and you’re all set”. We decided to grab a quick meal at Stan’s burger shack located by a gas station and found that we were the only customers at that time of the night. I chose the healthy combo, consisting of a grilled chicken salad and a bottle of water, all for $6.98, and was billed for a combo PLUS a bottle of water! The kid behind the cash register understood that the bottle of water came with the meal but could not understand how to not charge for the water on the “computer”! It was late, we were tired, and we did not want to get into a prolonged discussion with the kid, so I ended up paying twice for a bottle of flavored water that I normally would not buy. When in Hanksville, eat at the other restaurant that claims to be a steakhouse. It is just a run-of-the-mill tourist's diner, but at least they know how to work their cash register.

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Torrey, Utah

(Dean’s Comments)
Torrey, the next town on our agenda, is simply a great place to stay.

(Lee’s Comments) 
Boulder View Inn - This is one of the cleanest motels we’ve stayed in. We saw the housekeeper wiping down all the furniture in the room next to ours that had just been vacated, and when we next looked, she was wiping the windows. Nothing in a motel gives you a sense of comfort more than knowing that the room is really clean. Across the street is the Capitol Reef Inn and Café. The food there is excellent and prices are reasonable. The service can be a little slow if the place is packed, but it is worthwhile waiting.

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Boulder , Utah

(Dean’s Comments)
We stayed at the Circle Cliffs Motel in Boulder, Utah. The motel has only three rooms, and we had room number 1. Room 1 is the largest, consisting of a bathroom, bedroom, living room, and kitchen. My main memories of our stay at the Circle Cliffs Motel will be of the propane wall heater in our suite. When we checked into the motel, the proprietor told us how to work the heat in the room. He explained that one has to turn the thermostat up, remove the metal cover from the large gas heater, and bang on the gas valve. He said that he used to tell people to simply bang on the wall next to the heater, but that method no longer worked. In addition, he said, he put a small electric heater in the room, which could be left on during the day. At this point, I should probably mention that the fellow serves as a volunteer firefighter in Boulder.

Later that evening it was cold. I did not think the electric heater was big enough to heat the rather large space, so I decided to try turning on the gas heater. Using only my hand for banging, I could not get the thing to work, so I plugged the electric heater into an outlet in the bedroom. About ten minutes later when the noisy antique refrigerator came on, all of the lights went out. I used our flashlight to look for a fuse or circuit breaker box, but could find none, so I walked to the proprietor’s house. He said the fuse box was in room 2, which was occupied. He walked to room 2, knocked on the door, got in, and fixed the problem. After this incident, I used the handle of a large knife I found in the kitchen to bang on the gas valve. It worked, but when the room got up to temperature and the heater turned off, it would not turn on again without someone banging on the gas valve. 

(Lee’s Comments)
Circle Cliff Motel - If you have never stayed in a motel that has only 3 rooms, I‘d advise you never to try it. We took the only room available, the most expensive at $60 a night, and it came with an attached kitchen. Fortunately, we had not planned to do any cooking, because the appliances looked like they were not used for some time and were not very clean. The bedroom was clean enough but the tiny bathroom was not quite so. The wallpaper was peeling, the faucet dripped, each wall of the shower stall had two small holes through which water leaked out when we took a shower. The liquid hand soap dispenser did not work, and although they provided a hairdryer in the bathroom, there was no outlet for it. The owner told us when we checked in that, unless we insisted upon them coming into the room daily to change the towels and remove the trash, they would not disturb us or intrude upon our privacy. It was fine with us since they had given us enough clean towels to last through our stay. We never saw the people again and we later found that the whole family left for a vacation a day after we arrived. No wonder they were not going to disturb us during our stay!

(Dean’s Comments)
I guess it’s a good thing I blew that fuse on the first night.

Dining in Boulder

(Lee’s Comments) 
Dining in Boulder - There are just 3 places to have a meal and you can consider yourself lucky if you find all of them opened at the same time. We ended up eating most of our meals at just one place, because it was usually not busy, the food was good, and the prices were reasonable. There was just one server who, to put it mildly, ought to be taught the meaning of the word “courteous”. If you are visiting the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument , it would be better to skip Boulder and make the town of Escalante your base. There are more motels and dining places here. The Trailhead Café may look like a good place to stop for lunch, but do not be fooled by that little place. Prices are as steep as the nearby canyon walls. Two regular hamburgers and one coke cost $18.00. Go down Main Street to The Golden Loop and you will find that they serve a better hamburger of the same size for just $2.50!. Everything there is homemade, good, and more than reasonably priced. It seems all the locals eat at the Golden Loop.

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Tropic, Utah

(Lee’s Comments)
Bryce Canyon Inn - We had a very small room which was reasonably clean. There was a restaurant just by our room, The Pizza Place, and we thought “Oh boy, how convenient!”. The signboard said great pizzas and all-you-can-eat pancakes for $2.99. We stopped by on our first evening to have a taste of those “great pizzas” and it was silly of us not to wonder why the restaurant was almost empty on a Saturday night. Anyway, we ordered a pizza and a salad. The salad came in a plastic box, just like a salad you’d buy from the grocery store. We were given paper plates, plastic cutlery and plastic water cups. Then the pizza came. One bite and I thought something’s not right with the crust. I looked at it closely and found a doughy paste underneath the toppings. I was certain they had used leftover pancake batter for the crust. We saw only 2 people working at the place, a teenage girl who was the server, and a young boy of about 12 who wore an apron and disappeared into the kitchen the moment our orders were taken. Was he the chef? Unless you want to find out what a pancake pizza tastes like, stay away from this “great pizzas” place. Go on further down Main Street to Clarke’s Restaurant. The food there is good and you get to eat on real plates and use real cutlery. And ask for Oscar. He will make you feel like you’re dining in a French bistro instead of a greasy spoon behind a gas station.

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Springdale , Utah

(Dean’s Comments)
Since the last time I visited Zion National Park, the powers that be have obviously put loads of effort and resources into controlling the more than two million people that visit the park each year. Fifteen years ago the place was overcrowded and littered with cars. Vegetation everywhere was trampled. These conditions made a visit to this spectacular park less pleasant than it should be, and were ruining the park. Now things have changed. People visiting Zion Canyon must ride a free park shuttle bus that stops at nine places. Large and high fences keep most people on the popular trails, allowing vegetation to flourish. Zion Canyon is greener, less busy, and free of the cars that were previously in a nearly continuous gridlock. All of this is an obvious improvement, but I have some mixed feelings about what has happened. For me, traveling from the visitor’s center by shuttle with thirty pounds of photographic equipment, whatever clothing may be needed during the day, and water for hikes is certainly slow, laborious, and inconvenient. I can do only about 25% of what I could do before the shuttles in the same amount of time. On top of this is the aspect of visitor detachment. Viewing a park through shuttle windows and over high fences along the trails makes you feel more like you are in a museum than a park. Shuttles and fences are definitely one answer to the problem of overcrowding and overuse in some national parks, but I would greatly prefer a quota, lottery, or reservation system. Such systems limit the number of visitors to levels the park can tolerate while removing the “museum effect“. People could no longer simply show up and get into the park, but a reservation or lottery system would give an equal chance to all, and would allow a better experience once you were in the park. No system is perfect. All are simply the price we must pay for our unchecked population.

(Lee’s Comments)
Terrace Brook Lodge - It’s a reasonably clean motel with reasonably priced rooms too. We hear that it is up for sale so prices may not be the same in the future. There are many restaurants in Springdale and we were lucky to stumble upon the Chinese place Panda Garden on our second evening there. After that night, we decided we would not risk paying high prices for bad service elsewhere, so it became our dinner place for the rest of our stay. The food was good, service was excellent and courteous, and prices were reasonable. Sol Foods Deli should be avoided. We were looking for a light and inexpensive lunch, but ended up paying the price of a normal lunch for a small cup of soup and a salad. A cup for water is ten cents, and soft drink refills are a quarter. I was surprised they didn’t charge us for a seat in their dining area.

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Our Rented Jeep Liberty

(Dean’s Comments)
The Jeep Liberty we rented from Dollar was a mess when we got it, with deep scratches all over, a “check engine” light that went on intermittently, and a “passenger side air bag disabled” light that did the same. Otherwise, the vehicle performed admirably. Relative to my past experiences in Moab , we did not ask anything extreme of this vehicle, but it went places that many SUVs could not. Its relatively high clearance and two speed transfer case are the reasons why. The Liberty is powerful and capable off road, and it handles quite well on the highway. I really liked this vehicle. Its gasoline mileage was terrible, though. With every town on our trip charging between $2.89 and $3.02 per gallon for gasoline while prices back home fell to $2.30, this mattered.

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Conclusion

(Dean’s Comments)
The pilot is preparing to land our plane as I draft the conclusion of this piece. This trip has been one of the best in recent memory, though the canyons I love are changing for the worse. If I had not seen the southern Utah desert twenty years earlier, I would have nothing to complain about. This, I think, is how the human race adapts to a deteriorating world. If one has never looked through a hundred miles of transparent air, one has no standard of reference. Today, young tourists think the hazy view from Island in the Sky of monuments that are forty miles away is spectacular. It is, unless you know how it used to be.

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Happy travels!

Dean & Lee