Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.
Escalante is a small city with less than 800 people, located in the central southern part of Utah. It can be overshadowed by its more famous neighbors, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Escalante offers a unique and awe-inspiring experience for adventurous travelers.
Panguitch is a small city with less than 1,800 people in southwestern Utah located near Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Panguitch is a Paiute word meaning “big fish” because of the local trout. Our main reason for staying here was to see Bryce Canyon.
Wire Pass is about an hour’s drive east of Kanab, Utah towards Page, Arizona. It is a spectacular area to hike with stunning slot canyons.
Springdale was settled in 1862 and has a population of less than 1,000 people. Located just outside of Zion National Park, it only has an area of 4.6 square miles. Springdale is mostly a tourist town with plenty of restaurants and shops.
Last Updated: May 4, 2026
Our last full day in Tucson always carries a particular weight — we know we’re about to leave the desert behind, and we want to make every hour count. We spent it the best way we know how: dropping into the washes of Saguaro National Park West. The washes are not always officially named trails — they are the sandy, sometimes rocky stream corridors that cut through the Sonoran Desert floor, dry most of the year but alive with plants and animals in every season. When you leave the paved loop road behind and step into a wash, you enter a different side of the park entirely: quieter, wilder, and full of surprises.
Last Updated: May 2, 2026
We’ve called the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum a desert oasis more than once over the years — and on this summer 2024 visit, that description felt more accurate than ever. No matter when you visit, the museum offers something that the surrounding Sonoran Desert doesn’t always provide in abundance in late June and July: reliable water, reliable shade, reliable green, and wildlife that stays active rather than retreating to burrows in the heat. This was our third dedicated visit in recent years — after spring 2018 and winter 2023 — and the museum continues to evolve, surprise, and reward. Some things were better than ever. Some were still recovering. All of it was worth the visit.
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