How to Plan the Ultimate Utah Trip Without the Stress with Kim + Wade from Utah Travel Escapes

Kim and Wade from Utah Travel Escapes are locals who turned their love of exploring Utah into a business. They’ve raised seven kids, traveled across the state for years, and now they help others do the same. They plan full custom Utah itineraries for free, working directly with guides, tour companies, and hotels they’ve personally vetted.

We talk about what it’s really like to visit Utah. They’ve hiked the Narrows wearing coats and beanies because the water was freezing. They’ve rafted rivers in Moab, explored slot canyons near Kanab, eaten at the cowboy dinner show by Ruby’s Inn, and camped all over the state with their family.

They plan solo trips, family trips, babymoons, and group adventures. You tell them where you’re flying in, how long you’re staying, and what kind of experience you want. They take care of the rest. They also explain why trying to do all five national parks in one trip just doesn’t work and how to avoid the crowds by planning smarter.

Sharing real stories from the road. From naked Europeans swimming in Tropic Reservoir, to a flipped side-by-side in the sand, to picking up lost New Yorkers walking barefoot to a canyon. And the moment I stood at Corona Arch and thought, this is why we travel.

If you want to visit Utah and actually enjoy it, you'll need to watch this episode. Utah has a lot to offer in terms of adventure, but be sure to plan ahead. Take the hassle out of planning and let Kim and Wade handle it all, at no cost!

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Transcript

 Hey guys. Welcome back to the Samantha Parker Show. Today I have two people who have never podcasted. Is that what I'm gathering? Absolutely. This is our first podcast. So I'm sitting here today with the four shows behind Utah Travel Escapes. I have a lot to say about you guys, but I know you kind of, I mean, we like hiked the narrows.

We went to, where did we go? Moab? Moab. Moab. I was gonna say Kanab We didn't go to Kanab. Was that. You went to Kanab? Yeah, we've been in Kanab. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't go together to Kanab, but we went to Moab together. Yeah. Did the Jeep tour. Yeah. So you guys are one of my clients though, so I'm a little jaded and I just think you guys are amazing.

Ah, we think youre amazing. You're so okay. Yeah. You're very amazing. Good. We have been so lucky to have you. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, because your TikTok is pissing me off right now, but we're gonna get there. I know. I'm like, we should have higher views guys. What happened to our views? It's actually TikTok.

We've been impressed with TikTok. Oh, you have? Yeah. Oh, your views have been making irritating me. I'm like, why haven't we gone viral again? Oh, seriously. Yeah. Well, maybe it's a trade off with Instagram because the Instagram seems to have started to take off. Yeah. Yeah. Instagram's picking up in our Monday meeting.

Jess does your Instagram content. She works on my team, and she's like, it's working. I finally got some movement on them. Yeah. Yes. And I'm like, well give it back to TikTok. Yes. I know. It's kind of like the, it's a trade off. Yeah. I'm one of those people, like I wanna see a million views all the time. You know?

I want my clients just to be popping. And if they're not, I sit up at night and I'm like, how can we get them more views? But it's something you can't really control that much, you know? Yeah. Well you did incredible work. So many factors. Yeah. You do amazing work. Well, thank you guys. The posts are in. Well, what I think is really cool about you guys is you guys are Utah Travel escapes.

You plan vacations for people to Utah, and I wanted to bring you on the podcast to talk about that because I think what you do is really cool. But what kind of started your love for this? Like why did you wanna do this? Well, I started in the travel industry a couple of years ago and had another travel business and then Wade was like, I kind of wanna do this with you.

It looks like you're having fun. I was like, well, let's do one separate and let's do what we love and know. And that became Utah because we're both natives of Utah. We grew up here. We love Southern Utah. We've done all the national parks. We love the outdoors. We love to travel to hike, to tour. Have you been to all the national parks in Utah?

All, yeah. Except for Monument Valley. Oh, monument Valley. Yes. I bet I've been there. Have you? I bet I have. My dad took me some weird places. You guys, I've even been to that weird train place in the middle of nowhere up north. Have you driven to like the Oh, golden spike? Oh yes. Oh, golden Sky. Yeah, golden spike.

Yeah, I remember that when I was little. Yeah, I was, it's been a long time since I was there, so, yeah. But yeah. Do you have a favorite national park? We've talked about this because people have asked us this since we started and it's hard to know because they're all so different. I think it depends the time of year.

Yes. That's so true. Like right now Zion not my favorite park. Yep, yep. Exactly. 100%. Why would we go there? Yeah, exactly. Too many people. Too hot. Yeah, but Moab is kind of hot right now too. Yeah, so. So right now you're right. Bryce Canyon would probably be our favorite. Oh yeah. You guys just went there, didn't you?

Yes. Yes, we did actually. So my dad loves country western shows where they do like the singing, the old time songs, and then they do cowboy poetry. So Ebenezer is there by Ruby Inn and he wanted us all to go, my siblings and Wade and I, and we were staying up on Pengu Lake and we just ran down and went to the Ebenezer show.

It's like. It's country singing from the eighties, right? Yeah. Yeah. I saw you guys drop that content to me and I've literally been trying to figure out what that was. Oh, oh really? See? Is that what it was? Yes, that's what it was. Yeah. Okay. Because I was like, what's going on here? And I was like, what is this?

I've gotta do some research. It's really quite fun. Yeah, it is. Is it? It's fun. They do. So they have the singing but then they also provide a dinner. And the dinner's amazing. So it's like a dinner show? Dinner show? It's a dinner show. It's a dinner show. Yeah. And it's kind of the old time food, like barbecue.

You can, well you can choose steak or barbecue ribs or chicken or salmon, but then they have like the mashed potatoes, the baked beans, the rolls, stuff like that. But it was really, really good. Yeah. The food was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. And the entertainment was great too. It was. It was great. I like Bryce Canyon.

I've stayed at Ruby's Inn before and I've ate like at the buffet. Which I was surprised. I walked in and I'm like, what's happening here? It's like pretty impressive. The buffet. Impressive. The is big. Mm-hmm. So you don't realize when you walk in how big the buffet is? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We love Ruby's in Buffet.

Are we good over there? Yeah. Okay, cool. We've also pulled our trailer over to Ruby's in and stayed in their campground and It's fabulous campground, huh? Yeah. Fun. And you can take, we enjoy doing that too. Take advantage of all the amenities that Ruby's in-house. Yeah. So basically, you guys love traveling.

Oh yes. We love traveling. I think I cut you off earlier. We're passion about Utah. We love Utah. We're passionate about it. So I think that's kind of why we chose Utah to focus on Utah. 'cause we feel like we've traveled here our entire lives and we've seen so many things in Utah, and we're just passionate about it.

So yeah. That's cool. But you guys also have like a lot of kids. Yes, we have seven kids. Seven kids. Yep. Seven kids. So we just graduated our last two. I like our twins. Yeah. I feel like that goes into your travel and what you're passionate about here in Utah. Yes. So we've always camped with our kids.

We've always been in the mountains. We've four wheeled, river tours, everything nature. 'cause we love to have our kids out in nature and they love it. Yeah. They love Utah and being in the mountains. So do you feel like that kind of drives like the heart behind this? Yeah, absolutely. Yes. 'cause you can tell we're really passionate about it and so is our family.

Yeah. Yeah. Do any of your kids have kids? Oh, yes. Mm-hmm. Oh, do they? Yeah. Mm-hmm. I can't remember what you guys told me. Go ahead. So our oldest daughter has four kids, and then our second to the oldest son has one third to the oldest oby. Oh. But the second of the oldest son. Oh, okay. Yeah. Second, the oldest, our third child.

I'm gonna need a map. Our third child, has a little girl and then they have one on the way. So we're expecting our. Sixth. Sixth, fifth. Sixth. Yeah. Sixth grandchild. Sixth grandchild. Grandchild. That's fun. Yeah. Yes. Do you guys like being grandparents? Yes. We love it. It's amazing. Yeah. I'm definitely not there yet.

It blows being a parent outta the water. Yeah. Well I have a nephew. You always hear that. But yeah, I finally got a little nephew and I feel like that might be similar. Since my kids are older, I'm like, oh, he's so cute. And I'm like, okay, now you can go home. Exactly. Yeah. You always hear that's the way some grandkids, you know, yeah.

You can spoil 'em and then send 'em home. But it's really, that's legit. I mean, it really is true. You can do all you want. You can spoil 'em, never get mad at 'em. They can do whatever they want to do, but. At the end of the day, you can send 'em back to their mom and dad. Yeah. I'm like, goodbye. Yeah. He had blueberries for dinner.

My sister's like, thanks. That's what he wanted. Wow. You know, it's super fun. I love to travel and my dad kind of instilled that into me, like he would take me to all these weird places like I've been to Pgo Lake. I have you guys been to Tropic Reservoir? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Yep. I have the funniest memory of being at Tropic.

Me and my dad were there and people swim there in the summer. It is cold as hell though. Have you guys gotten in it? No, we haven't. Didn't. No, but I bet it's cold. It's freezing. Yeah. Yeah, so I remember we were like swimming and then, because you know it's out by Bryce Canyon and you get like the Europeans or people that come on the buses, you know, it's like this whole family of Europeans gets out, strips down naked and jumps in next to us.

And my dad, I was like, what are they? Why are they doing that? He's like, it's fine. Everything's fine. And he is like, I think it's time for us to go. And I can remember he was just like, we're leaving. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah. Oh shoot. And, but I didn't know. It was funny. I just kept being like, why are they naked?

You know? That's awesome. So that's kind of a funny story. Were you gonna tell about the rodeo? No, go ahead. Yeah. Oh, so they have a rodeo by Ruby's Inn. In Bryce Canyon and so we went to a rodeo once when we were over there and you're all sitting in the stand and you know when they come out and they are riding the flag around the arena.

And so we both automatically just stand up and put our hands on our hearts and we look around. We're the only ones standing. Oh really? 'cause they were all European, Asians, Asian and European. Yes. Tons of Asians. You should have been like, excuse me. Excuse me. Yeah. It was so funny. It was crazy. We didn't realize it until we, until that moment that we were like the only Americans there in the entire audience.

Yeah. But the rodeo was a blast and people love it was amazing. They love it. So is that kind of like a show for like the travelers coming in? Yes. Yes. I think kind of to experience the whole cowboy culture. The wild, wild west of Utah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Do you guys have like a favorite trip that you've done?

How about let's do this, like do you have a favorite solo trip, like no kids? Where would you go? I liked the river rafting in Moab when we went by ourselves and we did an overnight trip and we did take a guy, a guy took us and they just get you on that raft and we floated all day and had so much fun.

And then they, we got off and they set up your tent and everything for you. They cook your meals for you, everything is done and we just had to enjoy it. They go off, obviously they have to stay the night there too, but they just go off on their own and we went off on our own and yeah, that was a blast I think was one of my favorites.

That's, I have to agree that up in Moab. That amazing. So was it just you and the guides or was, were you on like, so it was just Kim one guy, that one. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be way cool. It was cool. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Did they teach you cool stuff? He was super nice. He taught us, well, they, they have all the food prepared.

Mm-hmm. Oh. But he made the best meals and we, yeah, the meals were amazing. We've used them ever since. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. So you guys set up like itineraries for people? I mean, I've witnessed some of it, so, but I just wanna like take it through, right? So I'm like, okay, I wanna go on a solo trip.

Where should I go? Time of year. Like you would set all of that up, right? Oh, 100%. Yes. And I feel like that's the problem. Like we, we are on Facebook groups of Zion and Bryce and Webb, and there's so many questions like, well, we're coming where we wanna do all five. National Parks the mighty five, but where do we stay?

You can't, we spent, no, you can't. Five parks in one trip. No, no, no. We really can't. And I've told people that, like I actually have a couple right now that I'm working with and they're like, well, we wanna do Zion and Bryce, but we wanna do Moab. And I'm like, okay, do you have another year? Because let's do one one year and let's do another the other.

You could Zion and Bryce, I think together. Yes. Yeah. Yes. But then to throw Moab into it, unless you're here for a homework, you can't, it's, yeah. Maybe, you know, I had a friend who, she flew over from England and stayed with me for a while and I was like, I drove her out to Zion and she's like, this is so far away, because she's, she's like, you're, everything's really close.

Yeah. And then we drove down to Vegas for the day and she's like, we're we were in the car for so long? And I was like, no, we weren't. It's only an hour and a half. Right. Yeah. For us it's nothing. But for the Europeans, it's a long ways. Yeah. I think sometimes you have to. People don't realize how big it is here.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. It's perspective, it's huge. I think one of the things I was going to mention is the, with the itineraries, we have, collaborated with a lot of these tour groups and excursion groups, and what we've tried to do is we've gone out to all of the different. Tours and excursions, and we've actually vetted them.

So we've actually done their tours. So we, so I think that gives us a lot of insight with making recommendations because we've actually, and that's our goal, is to try to do as many of those tours and excursions as we can, just so that we can, plus it's fun. It is fun. We've had a blast. We've amazing.

It's a great, it's been amazing. Great opportunity for us to just get to explore more of Utah. Yeah. Yeah. But then we can say to our clients, like, I've had a lot of people even ask me like, do I have to rent the clothes for the narrows? Well, in the summer, probably not so much. But you do want a good stick and you want good shoes.

But in the. Like when we went, when you did the narrows with us. Mm-hmm. Definitely. We wanted the clothes. 'cause it was freezing, right? The water was cold. Yeah. Well we were cold. We were cold. Yeah. We had, we actually had coats on be on. Yeah. Beanies and coats. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. That was actually such a cool experience.

Isn't that amazing? I don't know. Yeah. I don't. I think I was just trying to like keep it together, but I was having like moments where I was like, I think God lives in this canyon. Yes. It was incredible. It was so cool. It is. It's Don't you feel that way? It's in Utah, just like mm-hmm. Nature just brings it all together and that's what's so beautiful about Utah.

Yeah. It felt like a, this is sound funny, but travel will feel like this. You'll go to places and you'll be standing there and you're like, how did I get here? You know? I'm like, and it brings like so much gratitude into your life. Yes. It really does. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, so many, so many emotions.

Like you said. I mean it's, mm-hmm. It's very emotional. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. I was hiking the Narrows. Right. You know, and we're standing there. It was that one, you know those cool pictures we took where it's like the background. I just took 'em on my phone. They're amazing. They're my favorite ones. Yes. I'm all, come on you guys, I'll show you the photo.

It was so cool. Uhhuh amazing. And then I told you, I'm like, come over and stand here. And you're like, just like this. I'm like, just like that. Those were my favorite, but I was just standing there and I was like, wow, life is really amazing. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That was an amazing, amazing experience. So beautiful.

And you feel that a lot? Yeah. When we went out to, white Pocket. Mm-hmm. Can. I've never seen anything like that. I didn't know White Pocket existed, and so crazy. You know, we've been posting about White Pocket on behalf of you guys, and I'm like, what is this? You know? So I've done a ton of research on it and it's like very comparative to the wave.

Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But no permits. Yes. No permits. Yeah. I, one thing I do love about you guys is you do go out with the guides. Like the narrows. Like, we saw people that were like Hot Mess Express, and our guide was like, we're gonna go over here. I'm like, follow the guide. Mm-hmm. You know? Yes. Yes.

And that changes your experience. I think it's, yes, 100%. Yeah. And they have, they're like a vast knowledge of information they share with you the whole time. We went out to, oh, the Pocket, the, by Canna remember, and we drove out and we met that couple that were walking. Oh, slot Canyon. Yeah. Slot Canyon Peekaboo.

Slot Canyon by Kanab. Peekaboo slot canyon. So we have a truck, so we just took the truck out, but it's literal sand the entire way. The road is just pure sand, like a foot of sand. I mean, it's really deep sand. Yeah. Yeah. So you couldn't take a normal car. So anyways, we drove out. It was what, a mile and a half to two miles out?

Yeah, from the trailhead. From the road Anyway, so we did it. It was incredible and we'd never seen that before either. Peekaboo Slot Canyon, we came out and we were coming back. Well, first off, the thing that happened is we saw a rolled over, side by side, side by side that had rolled over and had been abandoned.

So we're like, oh, I wonder when that happened. Was it old? No, it was, it was new. Was just that night. It was just that day we were there. Yeah. It was a tour company. Yeah. And they just left it and they left it and then they had to have somebody come out and Oh, okay. Toll it back. I was like, wait, I need details.

Yes. Some one of their clients had rolled it and it looked pretty sketch like it was right upside down. Yeah. So we were driving out it, it was kind of getting evening time and we see these two people walking carrying their shoes in the sand and we're like, they must have been on that. So we stop and they were like, can we help you?

What can we do? And they said. Oh, we thought we could walk out here. We thought it was close enough to walk. It said it was only a mile and a half. But what they didn't realize is you're in a photo of sand. Oh my gosh. Hiking in the sand is so bad. So they gave up probably like a half mile. They gave up, turned around.

'cause they knew they would get there at dark and wouldn't even be able to see it. And they were photographers, they were from New York and they wanna do photography out there and this makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So we said, jump in and we start driving and we look at each other like. We, we gotta let them experience this.

So we turn around, we're like, we're gonna take you guys. So we drove them back out. And did the whole Oh, cool. Slot Canyon. Canyon with them again. Second time you did. And they were, we had so much fun with this couple. Yeah. And that's another thing that we've experienced is we have met so many people. Yeah.

Just through our travels. You guys were super fun. I had never met you in person when we went to Moab. And I was like, I don't, you know, and I brought my husband, I was like, is it cool if I bring my husband to with me? Yeah. And he like, what are these guys like? And I'm like, I don't know. I've never met him.

Never. And he was like, what? And I'm like, it could go both ways. And we had the best time. We had a blast. We had an absolute blast. It makes me cry. I know. We did. We had a blast. It was a great trip, wasn't it? What was the place we ended up at the ash. And you Potash Road. You kept being Potash Road.

The Potash Road. And I was like, I swear the Potash Road goes somewhere. Yeah. And it did it. That was amazing. That's where we went to Corona Arch. Remember we did that big hike and that was the most amazing arch I've seen, and that's why I bought a drone. Yeah, yeah. Because I was mad I didn't have a drone.

Yes. Yeah. That's why I own a drone now. So we're going back, I'm like, what is it? July? We can't go back till like November, probably October. It's too hot. It's too hot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go drone it. But that road is so cool. And you know what's cool about it is remember I was like, we gotta come over here.

I saw it on TikTok. Yes. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I was like, this is really where I wanna go. 'cause I saw it on TikTok and that turned out amazing. Yes. Well, didn't you plan a lot of those little things? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Via TikTok. TikTok, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did. Yeah. We went to Moab Garage. Yep. And that one, I, now I'm thinking about content, I'm like, and that actually did performed well online.

The, every time we post about Myop Garage, I feel like it does good. Oh yeah. Well, I've hads a cool place. A lot of great places to eat. Yeah, that's a cool coffee shop. But you know what was funny is the back is totally different experience. Yes, 100%. Because wasn't it one of those, like a speak rooms a speakeasy?

Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was like, we're in the back. And I'm like, when you come back here, I'm like, where are we? Yep. It was pretty cool. It was cool. It was amazing. You guys have a favorite place in Moab, , to eat or stay or all of it. Well, we stayed at the Hoodoo and I kind of fell in love with it.

It's just a nice Is that where we stayed, right? Yes. That's where we stayed. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, we really liked the hoodoo. It was, it's amazing. It's an amazing place. But another great place that we stayed on our anniversary one year was, it's at Red River Resort. It's out by the river and it's a resort out there.

It's not cre is it Rell? No, it, no, it River Red River. River. Red River. The re is great too. Yeah. Yeah. The Red River was amazing. We stayed there, what's it been four or five years ago? Yeah. Yeah. It was incredible. Yeah. Amazing. Okay, so take me through like your perfect day in Moab. Like, let's plan this.

So we love to start our day at that little cafe. What's it called? Grace Graces, or I think go. Is it the, is it vegan? It's kind of, it's healthy. Okay. It's healthier. We, that's one of our things is we're kind of. Help people too. Well, you're a physician. We should throw that out, right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. By day.

So we do, when we go to places, we do try to find out healthy places that are healthy. They always work out every morning first. Yeah. Always. Oh, grace's is always, always lying. Is it grace's? Is it Grace's? I didn't, doesn't sound right. It's on the corner. It's a great place. You guys. I'll have to It's on your Instagram.

Yes. We'll, yes. It'll it's on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we liked that place. And then probably head out to, I mean, it just depends on what we wanna do. Last time we headed out to, canyon Lands, I feel, oh, did you? Yes, we did Canyon Lands. I feel like Well, we did that. We didn't do that when you were there, did we?

No. I feel like we took the perfect trip. Right. So we went to one of the cool, there's cool coffee places. There's quite a few. We got breakfast. And then we went out on the Jeep Tour. Yep. Yes. With three alarm. Yeah. Three alarm. Three alarm Jeep Tours. Okay. Three Jeep Tour. Need notes. They're amazing you guys.

Yep. He was Jason. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Jason Smith. He's amazing. And we did. Where were we? It's, we did Health revenge. Health revenge. Health revenge. Yes. Yes. I feel like we spent the perfect day, right? We did. So we went out. Yes. Not super early, but we went out with him for, honestly, by the end I was ready to get outta the Jeep.

So I thought it was like perfect amount of time. Yeah. Yes. And I've been, me and my husband now laugh all the time when we go by historical things and they're like, these are dinosaur footprints, or this is an ancient tree. Oh my gosh. 'cause he was pointing out this. Stuff. And it was funny 'cause I was like, Emma, all this guy's full of crap.

And then you're like, you're making this up. It was so funny. Well, so it's funny 'cause every time we've done more of the excursions and tours, it was a white canyon. I mean White pocket. White pocket. Yeah. We were at White Pocket and I said to Kim, I said, come here. There's some more dinosaur tracks over here.

But he literally told us that. Yeah. So he So the guy literally said that. Yeah. But I said to Kim, I'm like. This guy's full of it, just like Jason was. Well, they just speculate, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And he's like, and here you can see where the dinosaur dragged its tail. I was like, okay, now you've lost me.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I thought it was so funny. But so we, it really is famous for its dinosaurs. Utah is, no, there are actual dinosaurs in dinosaur tracks here. Yes. Yeah. It was just funny. It was funny. It was funny because some of it went, it did not look like some of it was extreme. Like the tail. Mm-hmm. The tail dragging.

I could see there were some like, you know, actual prints. They kinda looked like dinosaur tracks. Yeah. And then remember when we went out to the point and looked, looked into the river? Mm-hmm. That was an amazing view, wasn't it? That's some amazing content. Yeah. That was amazing. I wish it hadn't been so windy, but it was hard to even like remember how the wind was blowing us.

Mm-hmm. I was like, ah. Which I guess I wouldn't have been able to fly a drone 'cause I had my little drone, but I couldn't 'cause it was so windy. You did fly it. On Main Street, didn't you? Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're It's fine. I'm going back. I'll get all the things again. Okay. So we did that and we got back and we had like a late lunch in the truck, the food truck court.

Oh, oh yes. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah. And that food was really good. Very good food. Yeah. How cools of variety. Especially unbelievable for a small town Utah. Like to have all those food trucks. Yeah. Yes. Food trucks are really stepping it up. There's one here I love. Have you guys been to the Noodles and Dumpling one?

No. No. Which I actually, they, yesterday they were at the dinosaur tracks. Oh. Oh, how funny. They were at Dinosaur Crossing. Yeah. Oh, shoot. Which these, this is real, you guys, there's real dinosaur tracks here in Utah. They really are. Yeah, yeah. We're not mocking it. No, we're definitely, definitely not. Yeah. You can go to price and see the museum.

Yeah, so my mom and dad lived in price and they have a huge M museum and their big claim to fame is the Raptor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Utah Raptor. Yeah. Yes, yes. Mm-hmm. No, there's Utah's. Pretty cool. Yeah. Honestly, it's amazing. So we did that and then we drove over, on the Potash Road. Uhhuh, yes. The old Potash Road, which is just an incredible drive.

And then Corona Arch like, blew my mind. Unreal. How was that? Not one of the parks. Unreal. Unbelievable, right? And it was crazy. It was so, it's so easy to get to. I mean, it wasn't, uh. Hard hike. It was a good hike. Well, you guys are some sort of climbing the ladders and No, but it wasn't too far. It wasn't too far.

It wasn't too steep. Mm-hmm. And then you get there and you're like, no, but you guys literally, well this is better than Delicate Arch. I just think you guys need a disclaimer. If anyone's gonna hike with these two, which they don't go on your trip with you, but if you are gonna hike with these two, they are like, they're gone.

They're gone. Oh, you're so kind. You guys kept, you guys kept right up with us. Another disclaimer, if you ever wanna go with us, we'll take you. We'll take anybody that wants to go. 'cause we love it. Yeah. I just kept dying and I kept telling you, I'm like, you just have to stand in one spot for the video.

Well, he's a mountain goat, so Yeah. He was gone. Hard mountain goat. He was gone. Yeah, we were in the back making jokes though. I'm like, if you wanna keep up, you've gotta run. I'm sorry we, oh no. We had fun. It was fun. It was amazing. I thought what was cool was like the little steps. Mm-hmm.

And the chains that you held onto as you climbed. Yes. The rock. And it's not like angels landing Rock. Angel's landing is sketchy. This was just a little not sketchy at all. Yeah. This was a little climb up. Coolest ever. Remember the moon because see the moon of the Arch Yes. Was unbelievable. We had a dream trip.

I really felt like we did. It wasn't I. We felt the same way. Yeah. We were driving away from there and Kim and I are both like, man, that was incredible. And Corona Art De and you and your husband. Definitely. Jim made it. Amazing. Yeah, you really did. No, we had so much fun with you. In fact, I wouldn't give you guys any shit if I didn't enjoy it.

So it was a fun trip if we didn't do it again. Yeah, it was a fun trip. We definitely needed to do it again. I actually have people who message me and like they're like, oh, you do Kim and Wade's content. Like you guys are like known. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Well you do be content. Sweet. We're, we're well known because of your content.

I mean, seriously, the content is unbelievable. I think you guys are well known from Beaver. Well, yeah. Kind of Beaver, Utah. We kind of, we kind of are. Yeah. Stop and eat at Beaver Taco. Haha. That's the big joke. I've never had a taco. Or the creamery beer. The creamery is like blowing up. Yeah. Yeah. The cheese factory is huge there.

Yeah, because it was kind of like a little sketchy, you know, dairy building. Mm-hmm. You would go in and now it's a full fledged attraction. Yeah, yeah. Does do people in the city like it? Yeah, I think everybody does like it. Yeah. A lot of people take it advantage of its, it's got pretty good food and Yeah.

Yeah. They have a little restaurant there and their food is great. It's really great. And then you get your cheese curds there. Everybody stops for the cheese curds and there's an ice cream shop. It's pretty, pretty nice. It's loaded. It's loaded with tourists. So what I see, just to kind of take a different side here is you guys get a lot of comments about like, don't tell people about Utah.

Yes. Like Utah's full blah, blah, blah. Yes. Yeah. Like what do you guys think about that? I can understand their feelings. 'cause you do go when it's busy. Like you're like, oh, why is there a million people inside? 'cause when we were kids, we would go and not a soul there and you didn't have to take a shuttle and you could do whatever you wanted, right?

Mm-hmm. We could drive through the park. Yeah. Isn't it the second most visited park, I think? Do you guys remember what the first one was? It was on our tour. No. It's the one, it's like back east, maybe like Tennessee. It was like the rocky, oh my gosh. What is it? Will you look it up? But I think Zion's number two.

Yeah, I do remember that. I remember those statistics. Is it, I, smokey Mountain. Smokey Mountain. I was thinking of Smoky Mountains, I don't, I don't like that because other people share their states with us. Yeah. Right. So, 'cause I love to go to California and I wouldn't want them to be like, stay away.

Yes, the Great  Smoky Mountains. Great  Smoky Mountains That's what, yeah, that's the number one decided National Park and then Zion after that. Yeah. But it wasn't until like 2020, I think when Zion really popped off because of COVID. Yeah, yeah. Yep. You know what's funny, I would have people messaging me and they're like, how are you?

Like, I was still at spin, or like, how are you out doing things, you know? And I'm like, well, aren't you doing things right? So it was just kind of different here. And I think people saw it and they were like, I wanna go there. Yes. Did you guys ever go out to Sand Hollow during that time? Yes. That was insane, huh?

Unbelievable. Didn't One day? Yeah. Really? Yeah, it was. It was crazy, wasn't it? Well, because think of it, it's safe. You're on a boat with your own people. Mm-hmm. So it's the safest way you're quarantined basically. Yeah. It was like, we actually went camping. We decided to go camp for a couple days. This is now, now it has like legit trailer park spots everywhere, you know?

But it was when you would just go out on the beach and we were just surrounded by people from Nevada. It was super interesting. Oh, yes. Yeah. Very interesting. Very interesting time, wasn't it? Mm-hmm. With code. It was crazy. Yeah. Crazy. But I do know that, the stats of like people coming into Zion shot up after that.

Yep. Which I was like, it's cool here. I like it here. Yeah. I came from Salt Lake. We've been here for like 12 or 13 years, and I love it here in southern Utah, but actually, okay, so Salt Lake. Here's a great segue, guys, you'll like this. What do we do in Northern Utah? I feel like I'm, we're always just down here in southern Utah.

I know. And I'm like, Utah has so much cool stuff, so much amazing stuff. Unbelievable. Like, what do you guys do in Northern Utah? So we go to Bear Lake. , We love Bear Lake. Have you been to Bear Lake? I have, but I never really, like, I know people fall in love with it, but I was just like, it's cold and.

I don't know it. It is, you have to go certain times of the year. Once again. I mean, have early July, August. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause even in June, we went the 4th of July one year, and it was, the water was cold. It's a little chilly. Mm-hmm. Like it was pretty cold. But it's such a beautiful lake and it's huge. Yeah.

Isn't it true that they've never found the bottom? I think so. I think they've said, think they said that. Yeah. Yeah. Well people drown out there quite a bit 'cause the waves get so high. Yeah. It's such a quaint little town. Mm-hmm. You know, there's Little Garden City Garden City's amazing. See Little Cafes and they have, raspberry days where you get the famous raspberry shake and all and celebration.

Yeah. We've been there with on Raspberry Days, which is pretty cool. Yes. It's just a cute little town. And I'm sure in the winter we've never been there in the winter. I'm sure it's like. Dead and it's gotta be closed down, boarded up. Yeah. But people still do live there. Yeah. Have you guys heard the theory that from Bear Lake to where the lochness monster lives?

Supposedly it's underground caves 'cause people claim they've seen the Lochness Monster in Bear Lake. Really? I've never heard. You never heard that You haven? No. I'm like, where the Lochness monster lives? Where is that? It's in Scotland, isn't it? I'm asking Cindy for all my It's by Scotland, isn't it? Yeah, Scotland.

Yeah. Yeah. They claim that it can swim from there to Bear Lake. Oh, away Scotland to Bear Lake. Oh my heck. That's crazy. Hmm. I don't know about that. That's interesting. I mean, you guys have never heard, I mean, I've never heard of that. No. Plane ride is literally eight hours from New York since, yeah.

Scotland. So, from Scotland under the United States up into Utah all the way too. That's crazy. Yeah, that's, I've never heard that before. No, you haven't. It's amazing. And even the drive. So Logan is beautiful. I love Logan. I think it's a beautiful little town, city, I guess. And then the drive. Oh, they have found the bottom of Berlin. Oh they did? Oh, interesting. So, do you wanna know one place in Utah where they haven't found the bottom?

There's a hole is right up on our Beaver Mountain is Lake. Oh really? Yeah. They claim they haven't found the bottom of Puffer Lake either. Yes. Yeah. How far down have they gone? Do you know? I don't know. You can maybe Google that and see too. I don't know. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of, that's kind of the talker that's always been Beaver, is that it's a lake, up on top of the mountain and they've never been able to find the bottom.

Is that where you guys hide the bodies'? That's, we hide the bodies actually. Was part of the problem. 'cause did they ever find the body? Oh, they've, I don't know. They've had several different drownings there. Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah. Hmm. Crazy. So, in the winter, I know Northern Utah is a hotspot. We've got Park City.

Yes. You know, Hebrew's really blowing up. My parents live up there in Timberlakes. Midway is incredible. Yeah. Midway has the hot springs. Yes. Which, when I was a kid, my grandparents actually owned that. The, what is it next to it? I'm having a bad memory day. You guys, you know what happened is I drank too much coffee.

I had two ice coffees before I left my house. I had a coffee when I got here and I'm drinking a diet Coke. There you go. I, I always tell people. Focus more. Yeah, exactly. No, no. I always tell people I traded alcohol for a raging caffeine addiction. I'm not bad about it. But when I was younger, my grandparents owned that, resort.

That's right next to the midway, the hot springs there, the crater. What's the name of the resort? Gosh, I know that homestead. The homestead Homestead. Yeah, the homestead. I was like, blah, blah, blah. Words, words, words. So when I was little, I can remember I used to fill the pools with it and like I remember going in the mornings and they'd be filling the pools.

It was kind of cool. That is cool. Yeah. Way cool. And your grandparents owned it? Yeah, so, well, my grandma's parents owned it. Oh. And then like she died, eventually, but what they ended up doing is selling it and there was like three kids that they split it to and one of them was my grandparents and they sold it for a lot of money.

Wow. I bet. Yeah, because that place is incredible. It's amazing. Yeah. We actually set up a side note of people that we booked trips for. We actually did a trip for a couple that went and stayed at Midway during the winter. It was in January. Yeah. Because they wanna see the ice. Oh, the ice castles? Yes.

Mm-hmm. The ice castles. Mm-hmm. Unfortunately, we didn't get any moisture. So they didn't get to see the Ice Castles, but they went to the crater, they did that, and then they have a new restaurant where they have domes. Yes, I've seen it. And they have your meal and they're private. I've seen it. It looks so cool.

Yes. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, I know. I have this aversion to driving north. I know. It's bad, isn't it? Yeah. Do you have it too? Do you guys suffer this? Yeah. You guys are too far north from me. Even. I'm like, it snows there. It's no farther north than what? Cedar? Cedar, yeah. Cedar's Farst North. Yeah. The funny thing is, we're only two and a half hours from Salt Lake.

Airport. Airport, but we'll always go to Vegas. Will you? To the airport? Yeah. Oh, of the weather. It's three hours. You guys know I've flown outta Cedar many times, which is just 45 minutes from here. Isn. Isn't that nice? Yeah. Yeah. Well in St. George too. It's nice to out. Both of those airports are amazing, you know?

But do you remember when the St. George airport was sinking for a couple years? Yeah. And so I just like, I took a bunch of flight. Flight outta. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We've flown outta cedar before too. Yes. So chill. And it is nice. So chill. And if anybody's listening to this, coming to Utah, you can fly right here.

You camp flying to St. George? Yep. Because I have so many people say, we're flying into Vegas. Where should we stay? 'cause we don't wanna drive to Zion in one day from the airport at. We'll fly into St. George and right there. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And a lot of times it's not that much money when you look at the whole big scheme of things.

It may be a hundred dollars more. Yeah. And then for us to, like, sometimes we will drive to Vegas, like we just went to the Dominican and we ended up driving to Vegas. You know, I did the math though, but it's like once you pay for that much parking as well. Yes. Yep. But it was saving us a thousand dollars, so it felt worth it to me that trip.

But most of the time I'm like, always St. George. It's not worth it. Yeah. Yeah. Next week I'm flying direct St. George to la. That's sweet. Oh yeah. We did that when we went to Disneyland. We did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you can fly in and outta St. George, it's mm-hmm. It's unbelievable as far as comparing it to, you know, the big city airports and, oh, don't you love when you get out and it's just quiet?

Oh, it's so amazing. It's silent. Yes. And like you've been in LAX or through customs hell or something, and you're like. What? Oh, it's incredible. It's amazing. Perfect airport. Yeah. Yeah. And to get in through security. It's like nobody's in line. Yeah. Oh my gosh. You just walk right in. Have you guys, everyone talks about this, you know how security there doesn't open until right before the flight?

Mm-hmm. But they'll yell at you like the gate agent for not being like two hours. Mm-hmm. Before your. And I'm like, I don't know what you guys want from me. Yeah, exactly. And everybody talks about it. You want us here two hours early, but we start the process like 10 minutes before. Before, right. Before, yeah.

Yeah. I'm like, so I don't know what we're supposed to do. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's funny. Okay, so we did talk about Soul trip. Favorite like family trip here in Utah. What have we done with our family? We've kind of done a little of everything. Yeah. We've done the river rafting with family.

That was fun. That was, oh yeah. That was a lot of fun. , Once again, that's kind of, that was our solo trip, but also, lots of fun with family. Let's see. Canal's a great place 'cause there's so much to do around there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. To stay with family and then you can have all the High Hollow amazing.

We've done, we've taken the family to Sand Hollow several times. Oh, I just went out and stayed at Black Desert so I could get content for you guys. It was an excuse. Sweet. Was it incredible? It was because it looks incredible. Did you see the videos? I'm sure you guys saw 'em. They were amazing.

Yeah. I wanna go stay there too. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Black Desert was amazing. Yeah, it looked amazing. It was, yeah. And you know what we did as locals? I think that's the thing too, is you guys are here in Utah and it's like you still spend so much time in Utah. Yes. You know, and like as a local, I mean there's so much cool stuff to do, but what we did is we went Saturday night, and then we just checked out of our room, but we stayed at the pool all day Sunday.

Oh nice. Oh wow. That sweet. Yeah. And we went home like late Sunday. That's awesome. Yeah. That was a good idea. I, it just came to me. Perfect. I was like, Hey, what if we just took the bags to the car? Yeah. And they don't seem to care, you know? Yeah. Hang out at the pool. Mm-hmm. That's awesome. That's great. It was amazing though.

It was really nice. There's still so much construction out at Black Desert, but it's really nice. Yeah. You, and did you know they're having another, PGA tournament in October? Yeah. So for all the golfers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is beautiful. Yeah, it really is. And it, at night I noticed like a bunch of people were walking out onto the golf course, so I just like grabbed the camera and we like, did the same thing.

And I was like, this is magical out here. It's crazy. It is. It is. It's beautiful. It's beautiful, beautiful golf course. It really is. Yeah, our sun golfs and he went and did the course and he's like, wow. It was amazing. It was an incredible course. Well, I think it's great, and you guys can recommend this to people obviously, but Snow Canyon is one of my favorite places.

Yes. Snow Canyon's amazing. Yeah. I'm like, go ahead, Skipp sign. You could just go to Snow Canyon. Mm-hmm. If you want, but so Snow Canyon is out there, so you can stay there. You can stay at Black Desert. But it's like, you know, if you have a husband who golfs, I think it's like the perfect trip.

Like they can golf, you can hang out at the pool, you know, I'm like. It would be amazing. You can go out to Snow Canyon. There's so much like even cool like stuff to eat there. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And they have the spa too, so if you don't golf mm-hmm. You go to the spa while your husband golfs. Did you guys see the videos I took of the gym there?

I was blown away by the gym. I didn't know. I didn't see, I didn't see the gym. I don't think we really posted them because I was like, I don't know what to do with this. My husband, I got him to go down and work out with me in the morning and both of us were like, what the hell are we was amazing. It was amazing.

I bet they have like hundreds of thousands of dollars of gym equipment in there. Oh wow. You guys it top of the line. Huge. Like there could have been 50 people in there. So were there many people when you were there? No, I saw like one person. Oh my, wow. Blow your mind. TV's everywhere. Like, it would blow your mind.

That's crazy. Yeah. The, well here we can do a whole little deep dive on Black Desert. We love it there. Yeah. I mean, we really do. It's amazing. Yeah. And they partnered with us and have been good as gold. Like I'm actually trying to do a babymoon package for a girl. She wants to come out and do, like her husband and her wanted golf, and then she wants to do the spot and then we're taking him out to the hot springs.

Oh, perfect. And Canyon Hot Springs, like it's perfect. Babymoon. And then I've lined up a photographer to go out to. Snow Canyon. Mm-hmm. And new pictures with Stop it. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be a whole package. You guys are killing it, so it's gonna be amazing. Yeah. Okay. Just to wrap up here, break me through, break it down, take me through, like how do you, just like that, like people reach out to you.

Um, and I know a lot of people, and I've tried to explain this on like just when I've answered a few comments here and there, I'm like, it's totally, it's free. You know? It's not like this huge extra charge. Yes. That's the amazing part of it. There's no, it's a no cost travel company. We don't company, we don't have a planning fee.

No. And so people are like, well, and, and I've had people actually say like, on Facebook, well then why? How are you making money? Why are you doing this? You're like, we get, well, we get affiliate, we get commissions with our partners. Yeah. We partner with people. They offer us good deals. They also give us commissions and so we just plan a package and that's how we make our money.

Yeah. So, and people can, do, we have packages, they can choose. Or they can do whatever they want. They just tell us, I'm coming into Vegas this day. I wanna do this park. This park, I wanna do this and this. And we have a list, like a form that they can fill out. Like, do you like river rafting? Do you like canyoneering?

Do just the, the form's actually pretty amazing because it really narrows it down to what they want to do. Mm-hmm. , And then once they submit that form to us, then we review the form entire trip, and plan the entire trip. And then we usually typically give them like three or four different options. So Yes.

Yes. Like, 'cause if there's not enough time to do everything, unfortunately in Utah, yeah. There's so much to do. There's always those trips where you're like, we'll just show up. You know? And sometimes you find cool stuff, but I actually think that like if, just for you guys listening, like if you plan out your trip to Utah.

Then you can plan out time to say hi to me, you know? But plan out, meet and greets guys. Absolutely. For my 50 fans, no. And come to the cheese factory in Beaver, right? Yeah. But no, there's so much cool stuff. Especially if you take like a guided tour. I told you guys this, I'm like, I love doing guided tours.

'cause they know, they know the things. Yep. So we've done the narrows on our own, right? Mm-hmm. But then we wanted to do a tour with this partner company, the one that you did with us. It was like night and day. Night and day. Yeah. It was a fabulous tour. We learned so much. It was so much simpler. They actually help you teach you like how to walk, because obviously there's rocks in the bottom of the river and they just map it all out for you, and they just know so much.

Yeah. So that's, that was really cool. I think what you're saying too is the planning. Mm-hmm. You know, uh, it's, it's so hard if you just show up at a place, show up at a location, versus having it planned where you have. You have detailed options. It's not like you have to lock into one thing, you can, mm-hmm.

You can change your mind. You can do whatever you want, but all of the different amazing things that you get to see. If it's a little more planned. So it's stuff makes a big difference. Missed stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And I don't think people realize too, like, yeah, I could just drive out to Zion right now, but you're not driving up the canyon.

You know, you're gonna, in fact, sometimes it's so crowded you have to take a bus from Springdale to Zion National Park. Exactly. And I don't think people realize that. Yeah. Yeah. My god, those little things are so important. I made a huge mistake the other day. I was going, up camping where we go. My family has some property up, kind of like Orville area.

We did the, we just did the 4th of July there in Orville. We went to their parade and stuff. It was awesome. I bet that was amazing. But I like to go out to. Like and take the cane bed roads across there, which have you guys been to that? There's a little state park. The pink coral sand dunes. Yes. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Yep. So I take that cane beds road. Mm-hmm. And you just go through the other, so I'm yapping, right. And it's me and my sister in my Jeep. And all of a sudden I'm like, shit, we're in Zion. Oh, I went the wrong way. Oh no. Yes. And it took us an extra hour. You went the east side, you were on the east side of Zion.

So I ended up, yeah. So I ended up having to go like through the Zion tunnel. Oh. And my sister goes, that's crazy. I've never been through this, and I was like, well, that's why we're here. Then I'm like, how have you never been through the Zion tunnel? That thing is cool. It is cool. Isn. That amazing. It's amazing.

Amazing. Yes. Yeah. I just couldn't believe it though. I was like, we did a, we did an a TV ride, , on the pink coral sanding. Remember that? Oh, wow. It went forever. We were going through the creek bed and we ended up by Mount Carmel. Mm-hmm. Right there by the dragons. Belly of the dragon. Belly of the dragon, yeah.

Oh, that thing's cool. That's It's amazing. Yeah. That's right there at Mount Carmel. Mm-hmm. Was it about half can mile? Yeah, just outside of Kanab. But yeah, you can see the belly of the dragon pink coral sand dunes. The sand caves are right there too, so, which are incredible. And they're simple. Yeah.

But yeah, I would, I highly recommend reaching out to these guys., Well, mostly too, like if you wanna hit Northern Utah, I've backpacked a ton of the utas. I mean, we're here in Utah, it's insane. You wanna do your winter ski trips, like plan 'em now? Oh, when you said one more thing, sorry. Yeah. Family trips.

We have done that a lot. Gone to Park City and just got an Airbnb there and skied. Yeah. Fun. That is, and that's a great family, family thing. And there's so many ski resorts besides just canyons and. You can go up Cottonwood Canyon, Sundance. Yes, yes. Sundance Brighton is amazing. We ski Brighton a lot. Yeah.

Park City. I learned to ski in Sundance. Yeah. Did you really? Yeah. It's Sance is. Sance is cool. Sun is such a quaint little ski. You know, my favorite resort Alta really Uhhuh. I'm trying to think. That's interesting. Have we ever been to Delta? I don't think we have. No. Oh my gosh. I've spent so much time in Alta.

Wow. Alta is for skiers only though. Yeah. You can't board, right? Yeah. So it's Deer Valley. Yeah. Deer Valley's the same way. Oh, I love it. Yep. It's kind of nice. Yeah. If you're ski, if you're a skier, it's super nice. Yeah. Yes, yes. Have you guys ever snowboarded. No. Mm-hmm. Oh, I'm not even gonna try it. I, we started skiing at, like, I started when I was five years old.

And I've been skiing ever since. So it's tough to transition to a board, you know, two of the most painful experiences of my life. Really? Yeah. Snowboarding. This is me, you guys. I was like going boom. On my face, boom. On my face. Boom. And you don't just like, slowly fall. It's a straight knock the wind on your face.

Yeah. Plus you're going downhill, so. Mm-hmm. I thank God everyone wears helmets now. I dunno. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah. I've always thought of like, we didn't grow up with helmets. I didn't. No, we didn't. I've always thought of, boarding as, you know, you get off the lift and then you have to sit down and put your bin bindings on, and that just seems like such a pain.

Yeah. So I'm obscure. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you guys so much for your time today. You can find you guys on TikTok, Utah Travel Escapes Instagram, Utah Travel Escapes website is Utah Travel scapes.com. Oh. Escape to utah.com. Escape to utah.com. Yep. Yeah. You've been amazing. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you guys.

Thank you for everything you've done with our social media sites too. It's, oh yeah. Thank you. Yes. Did we get that on camera? Sounds cute. Samantha is. Samantha is the best. I appreciate that. The best. It really truly is. We love her. Okay, now these guys are gonna transition and we're gonna go do a bunch of content.

So you guys ready? This is a warmup. We are ready. I guess we're ready. Awesome. Thank you guys.