May 12th 2017. It was going to rain all the weekend in Salt Lake City UT. I don’t know about you but I am not crazy about rain especially when your birthday lands on one of these days! Yes it was my birthday. So my boyfriend and I, decided to go out of town to a canyon called « Little Grand Canyon ».
Find transportation
I am not teaching you anything there and you already know that you need a way of transportation for a road-trip. If you don’t have a car rent one or simply convince a friend who has one to join you. Carpooling is fun and better for the planet!
Pack your bag
It’s possible to pack your bag for a last minute weekend organization. Only make sure to check out the environment and forecast the place you are going to. The desert for example is tricky, it can be hot during the day and freezing cold during the night. Plan your food and water. Especially in the desert, bring enough food and water as there is no access to stores or many water resources. Depending on how you want to sleep, bring the essentials for camping. We took with us a mattress to sleep in the car.
Plan your route
It was only 3 hours drive to arrive to Little Grand Canyon. Before getting started check the route on a map. Don’t put the general name of the place you are going to (« Little Grand Canyon » for instance), look for a specific destination « Wedge Rd, UT ») and it will reduce the chances of loosing yourself. Knowing where to go without depending on a GPS is so important. Notice that we didn’t have any network connection for at least a ¼ of the trip. My advice is to download your route or have an offline GPS application on your phone.
Find a camping spot for the night
We planned car camping for the weekend so the only thing we had to do when arriving at the camping was to find THE perfect spot to wake up the next morning with a view.
Explore and enjoy
Arrived at destination? Then it’s time to relax, enjoy and explore.
Conclusion
As you can see it is not so hard to plan a last minute weekend road trip. There are few things you need to know and look before heading the road such as checking the route, forecast, environment, etc. Beside of that my advice would be to relax and take as many as things you want. You are road-tripping and not backpacking remember? You don’t have to be « ultra light » for these days, you only have to be « ultra relaxed ».
