Plenty of room at Kodachrome!

profdant139 wrote:
Searching UT, you are in camping heaven -- it takes us two days of hard driving to get to where you are, and Utah has more great remote camping than any other place I have ever been (and that includes Colorado). Colorado is beautiful, don't get me wrong -- but it is much easier to find true silence and solitude in Utah. (Not with hookups, of course, but boondocking is priceless.)

Once you are retired, you are all set! The only trick is making sure that your trailer is four-season ready. Southern Utah is great for winter camping because although it is cold, there is usually not too much snow -- just enough to add contrast to those red rocks.

Being in Utah was the decision I made when I retired from the Air Force, primarily because there are so many outdoor adventures available here, and the quality of life is really quite good. I'm fortunate in that I've been able to visit every state, and 11 different countries through the years, lived 9 years total in Europe, lived on both coasts of the US for at least 4 years each, and am fortunate enough I will be able to retire for real when I turn 58, with enough financial resources to be able to hopefully travel a bunch more as long as our health holds out.

We just traded in our 4 seasons Timber Ridge for a Hearland Bighorn 5er which is supposedly good for down to zero. We've only used it with lows down to around 20 so far, so I'm not sure how it will do on cold nights, but I'm hopeful it will do okay. Over the last 5 years we've averaged a little over 7 thousand miles a year towing the trailer, so we get out a lot, and often do a lot of hard driving. That's part of why we are really looking forward to being able to retire and stay in each spot longer, and explore more in depth. We currently love to both hike, and atv which are both things you could do for months on end in the areas around Kodachrome basin. I'd love to take the RZR through Casto canyon right after a snowstorm, but haven't ever been able to make that work due to time/work issues. That area is as magical as Bryce canyon, but much less crowded.

One thing that always surprised me about Kodachrome basin is how loud it is at night. It's one of those places where on a summer night you are virtually forced to sit outside late into the night looking at the stars. While doing so, you can't help but notice it's quiet enough you notice it isn't really quiet because you can always hear jet aircraft way up above.