This summer from Aug. 8th to Aug. 11th, I began my first driving trip. It took me 4 days, drove around 903 miles in the Utah State, USA, and visited 3 national parks (NPs), including Arches NP, Capitol Reef NP, and Bryce Canyon NP. This trip was enjoyable.
Day 1: Salt Lake City (SLC) - Moab - Arches NP
I rented a car from Enterprise, and it is a 2015 Chrysler 200. I just got my drive license last month, so I am very exciting to the interior of this car comparing with my 2007 car. There are several points I liked it: to start the car, key do not need to inject, because of the sense in the key; the steering wheel is flexible and easy to handle; the brake paddle is easy to step on; and it is economic, driving around 230 miles just need half tank of gasoline while my 2007 car need almost 3/4 tank, and the sizes of the two tanks are different. In the other words, the Mill Per Gallon (MPG) for this car is around 36 while my 2007 car is around 18. There is also a problem, the design for switch driving mode is by rotating rather than by pushing or pulling. I mistook this rotation bottom when I was driving that day, but actually I was just want to adjust the air condition.
The distance from SLC to Moab is around 230 miles, I began my driving at 11 am, Aug. 8th. On the way, the vision is broad and not so many vehicles. The speed limit on I-70 is 80 mile/hour, which is around 128 km/h. Sometimes I would meet truck, it moved slow and I think follow it would be dangerous, so I passed it at the most situations.
At around 3:00 pm, I successfully arrived the Lazy Lizard Hostel, which means I took 4 hours to arrive my destination. Maybe I am so exciting that I drive a little first and unstopped on the way. After checking in, I was a little tired, so I take a nap at my room. This next plan is going to watch the sunset at Arches National Park. The first thing I need to do is to have my dinner. I like meat and I chose the Moab Grill, and ordered the grill lamb chop. Except for the lambs are too small, others are all ok. I have a good dinner.
All right, I was full of energy and had a good nap. It's time to go to the Delicate Arch for sunset. To arrive there before sunset, I directly drove to the parking lot around the Delicate Arch. It was around 6:30 pm when I arrived at the parking lot, and lots of visitors are planing to go. It took 40 min. to get around there, which is faster than I expected. Well, lots of people were waiting for the sunset, but it need another 1 hour. So most of them sat in the shade of a giant rock. Also some are standing in lines to take picture before the delicate arch. During the 1 hour, I sat in the shade, took pictures of the landscape, and just wait.
Needless to say, the waiting time is worthy. Words are hard to describe its beauty. All I can do is to record it in my memory and use photo to illustrate part of the beauty.
