Southern Utah Road Trip Vlog: Zebra Slot Canyon & Capitol Reef Utah

Hey you guys, I'm Steven. I'm Giselle. And we are The Lover's Passport. And today we're going to be showing you around Zebra Canyon in Grand Staircase Escalante and Capitol Reef National Park. We're really excited. These two places have been on our bucket list for so long. Here we go. Breakfast time. We have a cooler over here filled with all of our stuff for the week. Save some money by bringing your own food meal prep. Doing it on a budget. Definitely a way to do it is bring some food. Yeah, we're doing this whole trip on a big budget of staying at free campsites on BLM land, which we can link the BLM map that we used below. Our first stop this morning, we shot sunrise at Bryce Canyon. We are now off to Zebra Canyon. Should be fun. We are headed to Zebra Canyon. Should be a super fun spot. It's right next to Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch. So we heard those are also pretty cool, but we think that Zebra Canyon is awesome because it goes down to like literally 10 inches. So really excited. According to the trail data, it's 5.3 miles round trip. Elevation gain, not much. So it's mainly flat. It looks like it's pretty much exposed the entire way, but should be pretty cool. Right, the trailhead is across from the parking lot. Off we go. Found this weird brit or like dam looking thing out here about a mile in. Don't know what it's for. Mile and a half. Off we go. A few miles in, there's a little split off. So this way goes to the canyon and this way just goes to a bunch of washy area. So make sure you stay to the left. Stay to the left. We're gonna be headed right over there. Here it is. In she goes. The water feels so refreshing. This is like the 10 inch narrow part of here. There she goes. The super tight part. I don't know if you're gonna make it through here, buddy. I'll tuck it in. It's crazy. All right, you guys. We just got back from hiking Zebra Canyon. It was so cool. It was, it's hot. It's definitely hot. It's definitely hot. Make sure you check the weather. Bring lots of water. We brought two liters between the both of us and we completely finished it as we got back to the car. We did bring a snack. The hike ends what, two and a half miles? Two and a half miles in, two and a half miles out. The rangers and the like signs recommend you bring four liters per person, but it's really up to your comfortability with how often you're gonna take breaks and stuff. We are more of a mobbing type of group. Make sure you wear kings or some type of water shoe. It helped so much. There were a lot of people who got there and were like, oh we don't have shoes or we brought boots or something. Highly recommend water shoes. Water right now went up to about our waist. You're standing on it now. Water went up to about your waist and we definitely, yeah, the water shoes were a big lifesaver. Some people tried doing it barefoot and it just did not work out for them very well and then some people did it in their socks and it just, it's a struggle. So definitely recommend something with traction. We just hiked our whole thing in our Merrells, so yeah, or not in our Merrells, in our Kings. That end spot was really, really cool. Highly recommend checking it out if you're in the area of Escalante. There's also over here, Peekaboo Canyon and Spooky Canyon. Yes, so both other slot canyons. Spooky Canyon's a little more narrow as well. I think this one's the most narrow. It literally was like this big. You have to squeeze sideways. You'll see footage of it. It was crazy. Yeah, you probably already did. It's crazy. So yeah, if you want a fun little day hike, start early, bring lots of water, bring sun protection, bring hats, sunglasses, sunscreen. We tried out the Elta MD one. It leaves us really zinky, so we're gonna clear sunscreen. Yeah, C-L-E-U-R-E. They're awesome. Anyway, we are going to be cruising out. We are on our way to Capitol Reef. So we got about an hour and a half drive. We're going to be shooting sunset and just poking around. Never been there. See you there. Here we go. We are on our way to Capitol Reef right now, taking the drive. It is insane. The speed changes like every five seconds. We'll go from like 55 to 35 to 35, 15 to 55 like instantaneously, but it's beautiful. Nice little winding curves in the road. Super relaxing. Enjoy it. We are driving into Capitol Reef National Park. Almost there. It's gorgeous. Apparently this is like one of the least visited national parks in Utah. So it looks beautiful so far. We're not going to spend too much time in the main spots. We are going to be heading out to Cathedral Valley, and it's a lot more out of off the beaten path. So definitely call on our name. Should be fun. That right there is Chimney Rock. One of your first attractions as you go through the park. Can't say anymore, but looks pretty epic. You may not know what this is. This is a map. The National Park, because you have zero cell service here. So yes, we tried to check to get direction. We were like, uh, so we grabbed a map. Super helpful. We just stopped by the visitor center. We passed by the Hickman Bridge, passed by all the cool spots. We're going to the spots off the beaten path. So we're going to be heading to Cathedral Valley. We're super excited. We have our off-road vehicle. Hopefully we don't get stuck. We're only going to go to the Temple of the Sun and Moon. So not going to go too deep. We don't have enough time to do the whole loop, but we're still super excited. There's a full loop, which is about 58 miles that takes you down to Cathedral Valley now. And you start on a heart net road and you loop around on Cathedral Road. We're skipping the heart net road part and then just going straight to Cathedral Road and like an out and back to see sunset. Um, and then we're going to go to our campsite, which is in between Caneville and Hanksville afterwards. Um, yeah, should be dope. Hopefully we'll make it there in time for sunset because apparently the whole loop, which is the 58 mile part, takes about three and a half to four hours to drive all the way around. Whereas we're doing like 17 miles of it. So shouldn't take too long. We'll keep you posted. We are out here in Capital Reef backcountry. Over here is the Temple of the Moon and over there is the Temple of the Sun. Some more you know. Pretty cool spot. Anyways, we're gonna start cruising back. Here we go. All right, you guys, we finished up at Capital Reef. It was pretty awesome. Yeah, the trail out there was epic. We like had to go through all these different sand pieces. Almost got stuck a few times. Um, but it was a really, really cool trail. We saw no one the entire time. Yeah, it's definitely deserted. If you go out there, you'll probably be one of the only people out there because it does require a 4x4 high clearance vehicle, uh, because there's quite a bit of sand where you can get stuck. We almost got stuck. We got some air on a few bumps. So just make sure you know that before you go out there. Yes, make sure you have extra gas if you guys can bring it out there. Make sure that if you guys do go out that you have driven off-roading before. It's definitely not a super, it's easy most of the way. Um, and finding it. Make sure you map it. Uh, we had drove by it like five times before we actually found the road to drive out there. So if you guys are there, make sure you research it, map it, print out a map of the area. Have all the essentials. That's what the rangers at the visitor center said because there's chance, like literally nobody goes back there for the popular majority of people that visit the park. So you want to have extra water, extra gas, literally like anything you would need if you were going to be boondocked out there for a night or two just in case. Like have a extra tire or, um, like supplies or GPS receiver in order to make sure that you're gonna be prepped just in case anything bad happens. Not saying it will, but we like to play it on the safe side. There is BLM land out there so you can stay out there. You can't stay right next to, um, the Temple of the Sun and Moon, but you can stay out there in Cathedral Valley. There are different boundaries. Yeah, we thought about it, but we wanted to go to our next campsite. So anyway, this was our first long day on our Utah road trip. Can't wait for tomorrow. Yeah, today we did a lot. We hit Bryce Canyon National Park in the morning and then you just saw us do Zebra Canyon and Cathedral Valley. So if you want to follow along with the rest of our Utah road trip or our hidden gems along the way, along with our national parks, make sure to like and subscribe. Yes, and make sure to check out our Bryce Canyon National Park and more, uh, national parks to come. We'll see you guys in the next adventure.