Last week, Phuong and I went camping for a few days in Moab, UT. She had never been camping, and I’d never been in what I’d consider a real desert. Despite a few hiccups, it went relatively well.

Moab lives about 350 miles away from home or about 6.5 hours through mountain resorts and podunk towns. We got a late start and didn’t show up at our campsite until the early hours of the morning. Setting up the tent in the dark was not our problem - ours was one of being exhausted after the drive. Despite it all, the next day saw an enthusiastic start.

Our first hike was the longest at the park, weighing in at about 7 miles. The rangers said we should plan on between 3 and 5 hours to hike it. With only about 1,000 feet in elevation change on the trail, we thought they must be crazy to think it would take that long. Four hours and two camelbacks later, we realize they were right.

In the desert, they recommend that each person drink 16 ounces of water per hour of exposure. It is truly an odd sensation to drink a gallon of water per day and not urinate at all - this massive amount of water is completely sweated out. With more than half of the days of July over 100F (it hit 101 while we were on this hike), Moab is a great and terrible place.

In the middle of our second night there, we awoke to find ourselves being dragged away by the wind… while still in our tent. Though we tried desperately to weigh down what we figured were key areas, we had no chance to stay, so we scrambled out as quickly as we could and collapsed the tent. We were a little late in doing so as the wind had ripped a hole in the fabric, and bent one of the poles in half. Our camping was coming to a premature close. We slept in the car that night and decided that the next day we’d hike some of the easier trails and then head home.

I’ve got dozens of photos from the trip that are worth looking at (especially if you’ve never been). Later this summer I’d like to visit Dinosaur National Monument in western Colorado and/or Glacier National Park. Time permitting, of course.