A travel nurse, is supposed to travel, right? Well, while we lived in Colorado, I feel that we did much of just that. Even though the “travel nurse” is supposed to travel to work, my own definition of “travel nurse” is a nurse (me) who travelled. Doesn’t mean I have to work in many different places, just means I have to work in order to travel to different places…maybe?

September is the usual time we like to travel. The kids are settled back into school, people are getting into the routines of the season, and the weather is cooling down just a touch. We knew that we might soon be moving back to Canada and figured we had better get our butts into gear to see the surrounding states. We had already headed south the summer before and visited much of southern Colorado and heading east towards Kansas really didn’t get us that excited, so we headed west to Utah and the Arches.

Learning and growing should be part of every adventure. Going to the desert in the “off” times, is one of those learning moments as EVERYONE is thinking the same thing! Utah is HOT and going when the weather is cooling down is what people do, it was certainly busy in Moab and perhaps waiting a few more weeks for even cooler weather might have been a better choice. None the less, we joined the tourists and set out to see the amazing structures in the sand!

With 5 national parks and 8 national monuments, Utah has a healthy tourism income. There are lots of camping, hiking, and outdoor activities to partake in. We decided to camp while we were in town and probably should have made reservations; however, despite my planning nature, I was convinced that all would be ok and “no problem” finding a camp spot. After several hours driving and searching, we finally found (what I think was the last and only spot) somewhere to pitch our tent. Although we were next to a road and the morning sun heated up the tent quickly, we did camp across from a Canadian couple in an RV who were lovely to chat with!

We spent our 1^st day slowly driving through Arches national park, stopping at all the pull outs and hiking around the trails and arches. It truly is amazing how these rocks and structures sit exposed to the elements. I was in awe at the marvel of the formations way out here in what felt like nowhere. We found petroglyphs to ponder and wondered the riverbank in the afternoon.

On our second morning we had planned to travel to Canyonlands. During the night we had noticed a lot of traffic headed along the road next to our camp; however, we were not aware that that traffic was going to impede our ability to get to the national park. Apparently, some ambitious biking enthusiast have a race along this stretch of this road each year. Well, getting past the finish line to go to the park wasn’t going to happen. Guess we should have planned better…

So, when faced with choices, we decided to head home. After a nice breakfast and coffee, we loaded up the vehicle and decided to leisurely head home, stopping along the way at the Colorado monument. Although the trip was cut shorter than we had originally planned it was not a waste. The landscape of Utah was spectacular and a sight to behold! I’d certainly recommend going to Utah, spending time touring the area and seeing the amazing arches, perhaps just plan the camping better!

Where have you travelled to that pleasantly surprised you the most? I’d love to read your story in the comments!

 Trudi