The Wedge has been on our list of places to visit for at least a year. Most people have Glacier National Park, Yosemite, or other iconic places on their bucket lists, but as seasoned travelers sometimes we like to visit the lesser known spots. Located about an hour south of Price, UT, the Wedge Overlook sits on the rim of Utah’s Little Grand Canyon. The winding San Rafael River has carved massive cliffs worthy of the reference to its counterpart in Arizona. With stunning views and a 21-mile mountain bike trail calling our name, it was the perfect destination for a weekend date in the Basecamp.
On a late afternoon in early October my husband Sam and I hitched the Basecamp up to our Dodge Ram 1500 and pulled out of town, still in denial we had a kid-free weekend. Compared to towing our 27FB International we could barely tell the Basecamp was behind us, as it followed like a dream. Granted, our tow vehicle was a bit of overkill for the weight of the trailer, but we used what we had.
As we drove south from Salt Lake City, the landscape changed from the beautiful Rocky Mountains to the dry, arid deserts southern Utah is famous for. I love the red rock cliffs, the sagebrush, and the wide open spaces. There’s just so much room to breathe!
We turned off the main highway in Huntington, trusting the Bureau of Land Management signs and our GPS to take us to the right spot. After traveling roughly 20 miles down a decently graded dirt road we had our first glimpse of the canyon. Our jaws hit the floor and our excitement began to build. We were definitely ready to spend a few days in such a beautiful spot!
There are numbered campsites along the rim, but we chose to park in the middle of site #9 which technically was a group site. Weaving in and out of the scrub oak was a breeze, and before long we were parked, unhitched, stabilized, and ready to relax.
For dinner we cooked up fancy grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup in the trailer's small kitchen. The fall weather was chilly and the sun went down early, so the ability to cook & eat inside the comfort of the Basecamp was a total perk. I’m a fan of campfire cooking, but sometimes I just want less hassle around meal times.
We enjoyed the dark night sky once the stars came out and played around with some night photography before pulling out our sleeping bags and hitting the sack early.
The next morning I was surprised how late I slept thanks to the blackout shades over all the windows. Feeling refreshed, I opened the curtains to let in some light, and we leisurely prepared our protein pancake breakfast. The plan was to set out from our campsite and ride the 21-mile Good Water Rim trail around 10am to hit the warmer part of the day.
Our ride was epic. We stopped fairly often to snag photos, especially when we came around a corner and the view smacked us in the face. We ate a leisurely lunch about halfway through at an amazing overlook, and then finished out the ride by early afternoon. The trail was fairly straightforward. Not a lot of climbing or hills, but definitely some rocks to navigate.
When we hit the end of the trail, we had a nice easy downhill along the road about halfway back to camp. Unfortunately that’s when the long slog uphill began. 5 miles of a pretty consistent uphill ride was not my favorite way to finish out. As I fought to keep my pedal stroke even, I remembered that I had packed our Blendtec and what awaited us back at camp was a chocolate banana recovery smoothie and a shower.
Sometimes having comforts along on a weekend adventure is not such a bad thing.
Airstream Basecamp is the RV Business™ Magazine's 2017 RV of the Year. Read more blog posts about the award-winning Basecamp here.
