Exterous' trip to Utah and Aruba

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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Right after Christmas we decided to brave the masses of domestic travelers and head to the Zion area of Utah and then head to Aruba. We flew into Vegas, landing in the evening and then quickly left the area to stay the night in St. George so we could spend the following day at Snow Canyon State Park:
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Me:
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brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,412
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utah and aruba sound similar but they are not very close to each other geographically

also snow canyon looks pretty cool - i've been to the big parks in utah but never that one

was it very busy?
 
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ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
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Subscribed. Zion is one of the places I'm thinking about going this year. Because of the coronavirus, I'm probably going to stay in the US this year and do lot of sightseeing. Thinking about doing cross country road trip.
 

brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,412
5,848
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Subscribed. Zion is one of the places I'm thinking about going this year. Because of the coronavirus, I'm probably going to stay in the US this year and do lot of sightseeing. Thinking about doing cross country road trip.

i'm kind of worried to travel at all this year, i was just thinking of using some of my vacation time to work on side projects and cashing the rest of it in
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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After St George we headed to Springdale and Zion. One of the supposed benefits of going in the winter is being able to drive down the normally park bus only route deeper into the park. Unfortunately they are now prohibiting this from Christmas through New Years as well due to the crowds. While a bit frustrating I understand the need to deal with the increasing crowds (and greatly increasing number of morons on the road). The number of idiots doing moronic things on Route 9 was impressive as it was - I can only imagine how bad it is during peak season.

It was colder than usual so we got to see a fair number of frozen waterfalls and then listen to the loud sounds of the ice breaking echo through the mountains as the sun came out and warmed the water above freezing

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purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
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Aruba is one of my favorite places I've been. There and Grand Cayman are tied. Been to Aruba 5x and probably headed there in May. Headed to St. Thomas next month for the first time.

I'll be curious to see what you did in Aruba.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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utah and aruba sound similar but they are not very close to each other geographically

also snow canyon looks pretty cool - i've been to the big parks in utah but never that one

was it very busy?

We wanted somewhere a bit less crowded in the US but then somewhere warm that was new. The flight time from Utah to Aruba wasn't terrible although traveling during the holidays in the US is just generally more annoying than the rest of the year.

Snow Canyon was definitely worth a day to explore and wasn't very busy. Zion was more so although we were there when it opened each morning so that cut down on the crowds. It was noticeably busier mid-day to afternoon which was annoying at times.

Subscribed. Zion is one of the places I'm thinking about going this year. Because of the coronavirus, I'm probably going to stay in the US this year and do lot of sightseeing. Thinking about doing cross country road trip.

It's a great area and well worth the time but I'd try to go in their shoulder season if you can

i'm kind of worried to travel at all this year, i was just thinking of using some of my vacation time to work on side projects and cashing the rest of it in

I'm not too worried yet about travel outside of Asia. We do, however, have a trip booked to Thailand, Singapore and Bali this summer that we may cancel depending on what happens
 

Exterous

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Jun 20, 2006
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Aruba is one of my favorite places I've been. There and Grand Cayman are tied. Been to Aruba 5x and probably headed there in May. Headed to St. Thomas next month for the first time.

I can see why. It's my second favorite island now behind the Seychelles.
 
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purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
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I can see why. It's my second favorite island now behind the Seychelles.
Haven't been over to that part of the world yet, but some day.

Glad to hear you enjoyed Aruba. There is a reason their tag line is "one happy island" lol.
 

Exterous

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Jun 20, 2006
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With generally clear night skies we finally got a good opportunity to work on our night photography. Until now its either been dense overcast skies or we're in places where it doesn't truly get dark until 2am. But winter in Zion means it's typically clear and gets dark early. The downside? It was cold. Like really unseasonably cold. I'm from Michigan so, while thats not something like Alaska, I like to think we have a decent tolerance but man it was cold. And we had to take our gloves off to operate the camera.

We drove up to the Kolb Canyon lookout first:
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But clouds from the mountains moved in
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So we headed back to Springdale and drove into the main entrance for a bit:
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ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
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Those are some gorgeous night pics! I can look at it and daydream for days about the stars and other galaxies.
 

ThatsABigOne

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
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Great pics and a good trip. I just came back from St George. Explored Snow Canyon, Kolob Canyon. Would have wanted to visit a few other places, but weekend was short.

Here is one of my favorites of Snow Canyon. Unedited pic.
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DigDog

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Jun 3, 2011
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the amount of i cannot see images because of firewall is disturbing me.

bump for me to find later.
 
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nisryus

Senior member
Sep 11, 2007
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Wonderful pictures! You are giving me ideas now.

I think my next family vacation I will be planning a trip out to Utah.. Snow Canyon park, Zion national Park, then toward AZ for Antelop Canyon.. afterward Grand Canyon and then loop back to Hoover Dam before hitting Vegas.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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So our last day was the coldest and windiest yet but we were still out early to beat the crowds
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The freeze\thaw made things a bit slippery and muddy at times
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Later in the day there was some pelting of hail:
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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Those are some gorgeous night pics! I can look at it and daydream for days about the stars and other galaxies.

Thanks! I always enjoy looking up and thinking about all the stuff we don't know about that must be going on out there

Breathtaking landscapes! Never been there, but I will visit these incredible places undoubtedly. Thanks for your sharing.

You're welcome and I hope you get the chance to visit

Wonderful pictures! You are giving me ideas now.

I think my next family vacation I will be planning a trip out to Utah.. Snow Canyon park, Zion national Park, then toward AZ for Antelop Canyon.. afterward Grand Canyon and then loop back to Hoover Dam before hitting Vegas.

That sounds like an awesome trip
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,003
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That 2nd pic Arashi? If so, looks like they put up more palapas since I was there 2 years ago. Generally speaking, that beach has gotten more commercial (as has Baby Beach) since my 2nd trip back in 2012. They used to not have any places to get food at either of them, nor have any kind of chair rentals.
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,003
5,892
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Where the hell are the rest of your Aruba pictures? I am headed to the Caribbean next Monday and wanted to get a little hype from more of your pics.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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Man - what a difference a few weeks makes. Anyway I realized I never finished this so for some nostalgia

We rented a UTV for the entire day while we were there so we could see the northern side of the island

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Most things were pretty well deserted except for the natural pools near Conchi. In fact the woman in pink looked up at me as she crossed in front of me, saw I was walking towards the pools and then sat down right in my path. She then slipped and fell back into me knocking me over so I hit the rocks. It was kinda cool to see and swim in but I wouldn't do again if it was as crowded. Oh and the ride up there was interesting - long and very rocky. The UTV was fine. Jeeps could make it but only if they took it slow. 2 person ATVs looked painful with the bouncing and jostling. Don't take a rental car.

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As we were driving we cam upon what I thought were some deserted surf shacks. So I walked around one, took some pictures and was thinking about going inside to walk through. That's when I saw two people (I'm assuming homeless given the appearance) sleeping in one.

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And after that it was time to head home from what was, apparently, our last trip for a while.
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
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That 2nd pic Arashi? If so, looks like they put up more palapas since I was there 2 years ago. Generally speaking, that beach has gotten more commercial (as has Baby Beach) since my 2nd trip back in 2012. They used to not have any places to get food at either of them, nor have any kind of chair rentals.

Indeed it is

Where the hell are the rest of your Aruba pictures? I am headed to the Caribbean next Monday and wanted to get a little hype from more of your pics.

Sorry - things started getting busy and then everything went crazy. Did you manage to take your trip?
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,003
5,892
126
Indeed it is



Sorry - things started getting busy and then everything went crazy. Did you manage to take your trip?

Nice Pics!

Exploring the rugged side of the island is probably my favorite thing I've done in Aruba. I have done it 3x now. I've done it once on an ATV with my wife on the back and 2x on an ATV by myself. It's so much better with one person on the ATV, the weight distribution is just so different and better. I feel like I'm pretty experienced going to the natural pool on that path and I can fly my way there on that rugged terrain. And you are right about the jeeps - that looks like such an awful experience, going all slow bouncing around looking like you will get whiplash. My wife rented a UTV one time I was on the ATV and she liked that a lot more than an ATV because it was more "car" like and she felt safer. Me though, I'd always do an ATV.

I've never seen the Natural Pool that crowded in all the 4 times I've been there. I have been there before when a tour comes, it gets crowded for like 15 minutes, but then they all roll out and it's back to normal. A couple of times I've been there we were the only ones there. Based on your comment I'm guessing you rented the UTV on your own versus going with a tour?

I ended up going to St. Thomas and got back this past Monday. I went to work Tuesday then Tuesday night got an email that if you were out of the CONUS in the past 14 days you can't go on site for 14 days. So now I'm at home...

St. Thomas was cool. Way different than anywhere I've been just due to the terrain. It is super hilly. At first I did not really like it, but once I got used to it and started using the lower gear settings in the automatic car to climb hills, it got better. It still has stuff not recovered from Irma and I'm guessing some buildings will just never be repaired. It's also a shame how run down parts of it are because it could look so much nicer One of the best beaches there, Sapphire beach, when you drive down to get to it, there are these 2 run down tennis courts that just look so crappy. But I mean that is kind of how many of these Caribbean islands are in parts, just not usually right near some of the nicer parts.

The one thing that I really disliked about St. Thomas are the cruisers. They make places so much more crowded than I like places. The only good thing is that it lasts for like 5 hours so before and after it's the way I like it. But when we went to Magen's Bay, it felt like I was in a crowded beach in the states. I'm more used to going to non-resort beaches on islands and seeing just a couple people close by.

We took a day trip to St. John and that was a really awesome experience. You can take your car there on a barge so we got to the barge at like 8:27am, then the barge left at 8:30am and we were driving around St. Thomas by 9am. The beaches there are noticeably nicer than St. Thomas and they are way less crowded. If I went back I'd probably split my time between both islands 50/50.