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Book Review: Utah Day Trips by Leigh Wilson
Summer vacation is a week away and travel author Leigh Wilson has the perfect road trip guide with her book Utah Day Trips By Theme.
Wilson grew up in Illinois and she spent 20 years in the corporate world before answering the call to explore. She’s lived in several cities around the country and currently resides in Park City, Utah. Wilson has a travel blog Campfires and Conciergeswith activities, bucket lists and a guide to the best places to eat in 20 states and a dozen countries.
Utah Day Trips By Theme has information for just about every road trip mood with chapters on Ghost Towns, Culinary Experiences, Scenic Drives, Trains & Planes and Waterfalls. Wilson has traveled all over the world, but Utah still surprised her. “Besides the very friendly and welcoming locals, the diversity of landscapes in Utah was the most surprising to me,” said Wilson. “I live in Park City, surrounded by snow-capped peaks yet I can be in the desert hiking amongst hoodoos and arches in about four hours.”
Wilson includes a chapter for the five national parks in Utah as well as one on 14 state parks and national monuments. “Visually, my favorite national park is Bryce Canyon because it’s so unique,” said Wilson. “I really enjoyed the time I spent in Bears Ears National Monument with a Navajo guide from Ancient Waves who took us on a hike to ruins and petroglyphs that we had all to ourselves.”
Each destination in Utah Day Trips By Theme has a physical address, phone number and website address along with a one-paragraph description.
“This National Monument is larger than the state of Delaware, covering a huge swath of land from the Arizona border to Glen Canyon and Capitol Reef National Park,” Wilson writes of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
“I definitely want to spend more time hiking and camping in Grand Staircase as I’ve barely scratched the surface of that area,” she said.
There are plenty of day trip options within an hour of Lehi in Wilson’s book like the Tooele Valley Museum and Historical Park, Utah Warriors Rugby at Zion Bank Stadium in Herriman,Sundance Mountain Resort and the Wasatch Wildflower Festival in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
