Utah Trip (Lots of Photos) (Patreon)

I've never done a post like this, so hopefully it's fun for y'all. I don't use social media anymore for sharing pictures with friends & family, but maybe it's neat to sneak a peep into the life of Bob? Vacation Bob at that!

My dad lives in Panguitch, Utah, a little town in the southwest part of the state, not far from Bryce Canyon (and somewhat close to Zion National Park—though we didn't make it there this trip).

This is the view from his back porch (sunrise). Pretty easy to understand why he decided to leave California and retire where he is now.

Sad news first:

Second ride of the trip, the three of us (Me, Dad, Son) are riding a dirt road that leads into those very mountains where miles and miles of off-road trail exists. We come around a corner and I see a big cloud of dust followed by my son hopping up from the ground and a big cow running off the road. The damned thing ran right out in front of him and he laid the bike down to avoid hitting it (smart move on his part). However, in the crash, he smashed his foot pretty bad and ended up with an ankle sprain (a little swelling, nothing terrible—thank God for motocross boots). But the poor kid spent the most of the remaining trip at the house 🙄

Overall, it could have been much worse (cow could've ran right into him), but it was a bummer of a way to start the week. He did get at least one day in a long side-by-side trip. Below are some pictures he took from that day:

Below are some photos from a ride my dad and I took. We were exploring some areas he hadn't quite checked out yet. He's still filling in his own mental map of the surrounding mountains. This ride was fun, a nice mix of challenging trails (downed logs, rock, narrow lines) and open stretches of dirt road. We just went from point to point and took in the views.

Our last day was a hike to a spot called Casto Bluff. It's a place my dad has always wanted to hike to (you can see it clearly from his house), but there's no trail and he's been smart enough to not try it alone. We decided to give it a shot.

Having no trail made it tough to begin with (especially with the ground being so dry and loose, lots of brush and deadwood to contend with), but as you can see, finding a way up that wasn't vertical rock was also difficult. I tried to document our search to find our way to the top (wifey and step-mom all wanted photos, so I just went ham on taking pictures).

If you look closely above, you can see the main ridge (cliff side) but also the actual "top" of the bluff peaking out just above the treeline. We didn't realize until we got closer that Casto Bluff has two levels to it, an eastern and western point. Until now, we though it was just one big point.

We pushed onward.

Finally making it around the side of that first ridge and getting to the lower bluff, eastern side

From there, it was basically "go up." We backtracked some, hugging the cliff side of the higher bluff, trying to find a chute that we could actually navigate. We spent a lot of time sweating and catching our breath on that last section, so photos were limited (sunscreen was running into my eyes too 🙄)

I took a panoramic, but it doesn't post well here. Format's fucked. I'm probably doing it wrong.

We snacked and enjoyed the view. It was a clear day, but the air was cool. According to my jogging app, we were at about 9500ft in elevation (idk how accurate that is). My dad chucked a big rock off the cliff side and we waited to hear anything... which we eventually did. It was at least 2-3 seconds of silence before we heard a distant thud. I wanted to take a picture looking down from the edge but I got way too scared way too fast 😂

We celebrated, shared a big hug, and made our way back to the car.

I took a screen shot on Google Earth and drew out a rough idea of the route we took

Which brings us to yesterday and an 11 hour drive home 👍

Overall, it was a good trip. Very healthy for the mind and body. In the evenings, we watched movies and stupid YouTube videos, had some beers, kicked back. Good times.

Cheers, y'all 🍻