Spring Break in Utah

April 2026
For spring break this year we took a trip to Utah to visit one of Rebecca’s home-town friends who now lives in Ogden, and then some hiking in both Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. It’s always enjoyable catching up with old friends, and together we did a little hiking, and went to visit Spiral Jetty and the Northrup Grumman Rocket Garden. I’d learned about Spiral Jetty in art history ages ago and it was wild to see in person. The salt lake had receded so far that the jetty was very exposed. On the way back to Ogden, we stopped to check out the Rocket Garden at Northrup Grumman.

After a few days in Ogden, we drove down to Moab to see the National Parks. We didn’t know it, but it turned out to be Jeep Week while we were there, so 75% of all the cars on the road were custom built Jeeps. There was even a Jeep show, which was a hit with the boys. We started in Canyonlands on day one, then did Arches the next two days, then back to Canyonlands on our final day for our last hikes. At both National Parks we got the Junior Ranger books, and both boys earned their Junior Ranger badge from each of the parks. This turned out to be a great motivator. Lots of beautiful scenery and lots great hikes, and the boys did great with very little complaining.

We broke up the hiking by renting our own off-roading Jeep, and went for a wildly fun half-day guided off-road tour of Moab. The Jeep infotainment system has a feature that shows you your forward/back and left/right tilt angle, so the boys loved seeing how steep we could go! It was 43 degrees downhill. Which sounds small, but is shockingly steep from the driver’s seat.

It was a great Spring Break, and we returned home to discover the Easter Bunny hadn’t forgotten us while we were away, and there were baskets out, and eggs hidden around the house for the boys to discover!