Sometimes a Group Trip is Just What You Need...

My Wilderness Weekend in Utah

By Sarla Donovan

You wouldn’t think we’d have much in common: a sales manager, a dermatologist, an IT specialist, a former marine, an international aid worker, a teacher and a rest home manager. It sounds like the start of a joke but it was actually a bunch of people hanging together in Bryce Canyon National Park, hiking, eating yummy food and trying to get a teensy bit of sleep while a howling gale almost blew the tents down. It's what I was doing a year ago this month but boy, that feels like a lifetime ago! 
 
Frankly the idea of joining a guided trip on my own was anxiety-inducing. I might have to share a tent with a total stranger! What if they snored! What if it was all couples, yuck! What if the group was tiny and there was someone really boring! But to be honest this was my only alternative because I have to say trying to plan a weekend in an American national park is tricky if you’re travelling solo. Trying to sort permits, accommodation and transport from NZ will do your head in.

The good news is it turned out to be a great option because once you've found a trip with dates that work, everything else (except the weather..) gets sorted, like magic. (I guess that's what you pay for.) You just show up at the appointed time with hiking clothes, toiletries and a backpack and cross fingers your request for your own tent is favoured by the wish-granting fairies..

Can I have this all to myself pretty pleeese.....

There were ten of us and two guides which turned out to be a perfect size; an easygoing group of singles and two couples....and I got to have my own tent. Phew. I was surprised to be the only international, thinking there’d be others wanting to get away from Vegas for a couple of days but they were all 'locals', flying in from New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Arizona, even Seattle. 
 
A five hour drive took us through the Nevada desert and deep into Utah, stopping before the border to stock up on ‘adult beverages.’ (Utah is a Mormon state with strict alcohol laws.)
 
Arriving at the park around 2pm it was starting to cloud over as we tumbled out of the van, sorted gear and started out on the Rim Trail from Fairyland Point. We were about 2,500m above sea level, nearly 2,000 m higher than Vegas so mercifully it was a little cooler. The incredible views of the ampitheatre spread out before us, a beautiful and otherworldly landscape. Dropping down into the shadowed canyons there were  day trippers aplenty in the famous Wall Street section where hoodoos tower above like, well, like natural skyscrapers.

The hoodoos in all their glory

As we walked the hoodoos gave way to trees and our guide Grace asked us to close our eyes and spend a minute listening to the sounds of nature. We each found a spot and sat or lay on the ground and listened – to bark cracking, wind soughing, insects singing. Among the many things national parks strive to protect is the natural soundscape, she tells us. It’s a sweet reminder of how nature isn’t just something to be looked at.

Five minutes drive away our campsite awaited. There were eight two-person tents with fixed floors and verandahs looking up towards the hoodoos: a nearby shower block: a dining tent and a camp kitchen from which our guides and camp chef Kelly produced amazing food, like the corn chips, guacamole, salsa and fresh pineapple chunks waiting for us when we arrived. Mmmm.

Amazing food came out of this camp kitchen

That night a fierce wind blew up and raged on and on, right until dawn. Earplugs were no match for the fierce slapping and flapping of the tent: even if I'd had to share my tent with a snorer I wouldn't have heard a thing above that din. A steaming pot of coffee was delivered to our tents around 6.30am but I still felt horribly sleep deprived when we set off to walk up to Calf Creek Falls, an hours’ drive from camp in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
 
It was boiling hot as we hiked the 5km up a sandy red track but at the top was our reward: an idyllic super-cold waterfall and pool. Paradise. I put on my swimming shorts and jumped right in even though it was icy, following Grace’s gleeful advice: “Don’t think, just do!” Okay Grace. That icy water was just what I needed to pull me out of my fug. When the van pulled up back at camp the chairs had been set in a semi-circle with bowls of hot water for soaking our feet. Gosh, had I done enough walking to deserve this? I didn’t care, it felt soooo good. Iced tea with lemon? Cheese and crackers? Be rude not to.

Mercifully we all slept much better the second night. It was a full moon evening with no wind thank God, so still you could hear cicadas burbling in the bushes. Dinner was positively gourmet: barbecued steak or chicken, asparagus and mushrooms with quinoa salad and berry pie or vegan cheesecake for desert and later on s’mores around the campfire. We discussed whether legalizing marijuana was a good idea and if the accusations against Kevin Spacey were true (our marine had worked as an extra on one of his films…can’t say anymore!) The horizon stayed light well after nine o’clock, glowing as the sun went down over Bryce’s red pillars in the west and the full moon rose in the east. I felt very content and vowed to take a group trip like this again, into the epic Grand Canyon next time - when things go back to normal. 

Note: Remember to take cash for tipping the guides! I got caught out and couldn’t quite make the recommended 10-15% of the total cost but it was fine; a group member came around with an envelope and I popped in what I had. Guides can really make a trip: they set the tone, tell great stories and share such a lot of themselves but it never crossed my mind that it would be expected. That tipping thing is weird in the states, when you do when you don't, how much. But, when in Rome…