Alyssa and I (Zach’s writing this post) got married at the end of August in 2014. At the time, I was in graduate school at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Part of my schooling was a fellowship at the Hyrum City Museum.
The Hyurm Museum staff attended that year’s Utah Museum Association conference in Cedar City. After the conference, Alyssa and I, just over a month after we got married, spent a few extra days exploring southern Utah. Of course a journey this noble requires a majestic steed:
I know it looks sleek, fast, comfortable, and aerodynamic, but the old 1984 Toyota Pickup didn’t really like freeway driving. We left Logan after work and got into Cedar City pretty late. After a few days of conference, we began our slow, meandering path back to Logan — a task for which the ‘Yota is particularly well suited. And here’s where we went:
First stop was Cedar Breaks, just outside Cedar City. Don’t have much to say but it’s a cool place
We stayed the night in Tropic. One of those cheesy little motels that has tiny cabins instead of rooms in a single building. I don’t recall exactly which ones. Probably the cheapest ones we could find in a google search. There are several, but it was pretty fun!
Our next stop was Escalante. If you ever took Spanish, you may think that Escalante is pronounced “Es-ca-lan-tay,” but you’d be wrong. You might also pronounce it “Es-ca-lanee,” but that’s also wrong. My dad, a southern Utah native, pronounces it the correct Southern Utah way: “Es-ca-lant.”
Anyway, in Escalante, we stopped at this great little burger shack called Nemo’s. I guess it’s named after some artist that went missing — I didn’t know that at the time. But the food was absolutely excellent! We still talk about how good it was, and it’s a must-stop place if you happen to be within 300 miles of it.
Southern Utah is full of Spanish place names inspired by the local geology. The most obvious example of a Spanish language place name that I can think of is the town of Mexican Hat. The second most is Escalante. You know how to pronounce it; now learn the meaning. In Spanish, Escalante means Stair tread, I think. Or something to do with stairs. Near the town of Escalante is Grand Staircase / Escalante National Monument. Its name comes from the stair-like appearance of the geography. We drove the old Toyota through a bunch of paved, dirt and gravel roads all over Grand Staircase, and ended up going over something called Hell’s Backbone, also called El Backbono del Invierno, Hell’s Backbone is a high pass with a neat bridge. Worth doing.
Next up was a pilgrimage to my native land of the Bicknell/Loa/Fremont area. I wasn’t actually born there, but lots of my dad’s side of the family is. We were able to visit family and see my grandparent’s gravesite. These are beautiful, tiny towns that stand out all on their own, but the SunGlow Cafe in Bicknell has the finest Chile Verde (Spanish for something that is cold and green) on the planet.
Next run was north through Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park. It’s hard to narrow down where in southern Utah has the most impressive landscape, but Cathedral Valley is definitely in the running.
Finally, we headed to Price, where I met with one of my thesis advisors who teaches at USU’s Price campus. After that meeting, we headed back to Logan, with one more overnight stop at Alyssa’s folks’ house in Utah County.
It wasn’t the most traditional honeymoon, but it set us up nicely to keep exploring rural, and we’ll keep doing just that forever.
