A brief stop in civilization

A quick update from Midvale, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City. The trip is going fantastically so far. From Yosemite we stopped briefly in Benton Hot Springs (lovely!), then crossed Nevada in a day to arrive in Zion, and on to Bryce from there. Both of these southern Utah parks are outstanding, but Bryce is definitely my favorite so far (I have yet to visit Capitol Reef or Arches, not to mention the many smaller parks in this whole amazing region).

So we’ve been camping and without much in the way of Internet access (or power) since Monday of last week. I had hoped to be able to put up some photos and do a bit of posting here more frequently, but so far that has proved difficult. I’ve been keeping mental notes though and I still intend to go back and write a post about each day. So far there has been more than enough of interest in almost every day that passes.

Look for those blog posts to begin in a week or less, depending on whether we find Internet access in any of our upcoming stops – The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, The Badlands, Devil’s Tower. If nothing else, I’ll get it all up here once we reach Chicago around the 8th or 9th of September. I’ll begin on “Day 5”, our trip in to Yosemite, since that’s when things really kicked-off.

Here in Midvale we’re staying in an Extended Stay hotel that we booked for $25/night ($35 with taxes and fees) through Priceline (awesome!), and I have to say I’m impressed. Unlike a regular hotel, this is setup as an “efficiency”, so it actually has a small kitchen with 2 electric burners, a fridge, microwave, even a toaster oven. It also has 2 small desks, along with the usual recliner, bed, etc. Not to mention tons of electrical outlets – heaven for someone like me. The bed is a bit smaller than other hotels, but it’s fine for 2 people (we were nearly lost in the bed of the room we stayed at in Fresno). In every other way it is comparable to or better than other cheap hotels I’ve stayed at recently, and at $35/night all told, it’s hard to argue. There’s even on-site laundry! Now I’m not about to start schilling for a hotel chain, but I’ll definitely be looking for these the next time I want an inexpensive place to stay, and maybe other budget travelers might find the recommendation useful.

Author: Oshyan

Food lover and cocktail maker, technology enthusiast, problem solver, entrepreneur, optimizer, photographer and wilderness wanderer. View all posts by Oshyan