We woke up to the sun bouncing off the nearby peaks. We decided against using our $30 in hotel credits for the breakfast at the Tapestry as the menu items were not very appealing. We ended up raiding the snack section of the mini market once again and putting chips and candy in every crevice of our suitcases. We hit the road and picked up some fresh muffins and scones in La Verkin, Utah. They were well- baked and well-priced. The surrounding odors emanating from the town made it smell like an old rank fart. We had initially planned to eat our baked goods outside, but the smell was too much. After eating our breakfast in the car, we got gas in Hurricane, Utah and eventually made our way to the St. George Regional Airport.
We received our seat assignments by the time we had dropped off the rental car. We were once again 1 and 2 on the standby list, so that was nice. After dealing with the small town airport TSA “precheck” (same line as regular TSA), we gate checked our bag, and boarded the United Express-branded CRJ-200 to Los Angeles. The quick one hour flight went by smoothly and we were back in our house around noon.
As our first trip of 2025, it was nice to have things go smoothly. Despite the ambitious hikes, it was also a fairly relaxed trip. Short flights, cheap hotels, no traffic, etc. One issue we kept running into was a distinct lack of food options. While I understand that it is the offseason and not everything should be expected to be open, people do also live in these places, and I’m not really sure how they subsist off the limited options.
Everything sat like a boulder in our stomachs making us feel ill. While peak travel in the southwest might yield greater options, it also likely just packs people in to similarly mediocre establishments. Every menu was like, “Who wants a meatloaf the size of a Volkswagen?” Or “Who wants this big sexy burger with a butter sauce?” While the ongoing joke is that Nicole just eats pizza everywhere we travel, there were no pizza options! Unbelievable. This may all sound very dramatic, but I’ve never felt so consistently ill after meals like I did on this trip. If you can disregard the food (and gosh is that hard when you’re unleashing farts that could be classified as weapons of war), the southwest is a fine destination in the winter. Was that why La Verkin smelled? Did someone just have a real heavy breakfast?
Anyway, while it is true that snow and ice can occasionally wreak havoc on trails (a hiker recently fell to their death in Zion), such winter events are becoming rarer. I had hoped to see Bryce with white snow contrasting nicely with the orange hoodoos, but not needing to invest in a pair of crampons was also nice. Having somewhat more mild temperatures in the 40s and 50s was also preferred to frostbite. Furthermore, snow on the unpaved roads or even moistened soil would have complicated our adventures greatly.
Since only about six people read this blog, it is safe to say I don’t have a dangerous amount of influence on travel trends. Therefore, I can recommend that winter in the southwest is the best time of the year to go. You avoid the oppressive heat. Hotels are a fraction of price. You have relative solitude in otherwise crowded locales. Winning the last-minute lottery for the wave appears to be easier (at least based on our personal experience). And you won’t need reservations for dinner, but I would advise just making your own food or going somewhere like Subway, where you will at least know what to expect.
I hadn’t really thought of traveling to the southwest in winter until recently, which is odd considering how easy and close it is to us. The flights to this part of the country are limited from almost everywhere else, but we could take an easy direct flight to St. George, just an hour from Zion, and two hours from Kanab. We are lucky in that sense. I think Nicole had a nice time too. While she may have won the lottery when she bagged me, she won it again with permits to hike the “wave.” Not many people win the lottery twice. Happy early Valentine’s Day, everyone.
passports & pepto bismol 