W A N D E R V A N S
Arches National Park has been on my bucket-list for YEARS! I have been dying to go and have been around the area a ton but never actually visited!
Chance and I have also been dying to try VanLife // VanLiving for awhile now so when the opportunity came up to work with WanderVans we jumped on it!
We drove from Montana down to Salt Lake City to pick up the van and take it on our national park adventure. It was super easy... the company just emailed us a code and we typed it into the drivers side door and grabbed the keys! It was super simple and we were impressed with the ease of entry.
The van we chose was the Medium #6 van.
It was very simple and had a lot of room to move around.
It seemed very new and was outfitted with a bed, a pump sink, a small heater, and a refrigerator box. Really no frills or anything but enough to get you where you needed to go comfortably.
I really wish they had told us to bring sleeping bags or more materials like cooking supplies ect. Nothing was provided which made things on the road a little difficult.
Luckily I had brought a prop blanket and a pillow/blanket for the car that we could take.... we also found one sleeping bag in the "supply chest" they provided at the pickup area. There were two camp chairs too which came in handy... Chance did end up sleeping on a travel neck pillow soooo that wasn't totally ideal but he's a great sport!
On the website it said there would be a small cooking stove ect. but we did not find this and ended up having to buy one. I'm not sure if be cause it was a brand deal they did not give us the same service they would a normal customer -- from my experience we are usually treated even better because they are hoping for media to be delivered so this was kind of a bizarre experience.
Maybe they didn't understand how brand deals work or don't do many of them... I am not sure.
Either way we were still grateful to be on the open road and heading towards some absolutely stunning national parks!
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Our first stop (after Whole Foods Obviously) was Arches National Park.
It was just as stunning and impressive as all of the photos I have been stalking for years!
We did the short drive around the park but did not have time for a real hike before the sunset but we made it to Double Arch which turned out to be fantastic! It was a short and easy walk up to the massive arch which you could climb up to and inside! The sun broke through the heavy cloud layer just in time to spill golden light all over the surrounding red rocks for an incredible first evening!
After nature's show we settled in to make a campfire and have our first night in the van...
We picked a campground right outside the park in the town of Moab and settled in...
The temperature in the desert dropped quite drastically as we were warned it would and the van got pretty cold pretty fast! After the campfire we were ready for bed but having the small heater do its thing on the already cold van proved to be quite a challenge...
we went to bed cold and woke up in an absolute SAUNA... We learned that keeping the van preheated with the normal heating system and then leaving the heater on a low setting was the way to go... after we figured this out it was smooth sailing and a great nights sleep! We did not have an issue the rest of the time and the mattress was comfortable!
We drove from Arches by Canyondlands
Mystic Hot Springs:
We drove up to this super Instagrammable spot just two hours south of Salt Lake for a soak and a photo op! Apparently it is owned by the artist who did the graphics fort the Grateful Dead and the influence really shows! We even saw peacocks, goats, llamas- a ton of different birds! It was such a wild place and so interesting to visit!
Cost: $16 per person
