Our epic Thanksgiving Utah Road Trip (camper van sponsored by Dave & Matt Vans)

Our epic Thanksgiving Utah Road Trip
(camper van sponsored by Dave & Matt Vans)

The holidays look different for many people this year including the way we choose to spend our Thanksgiving holiday.  To avoid busy airports and hectic travel days we took an early November trip to visit my family back in Cleveland, Oh (O-H!) which was timed up really well and we had a great time trail running the metro parks and walking the holiday streets of Chagrin Falls.  We had the idea to mob out to Moab for the actual Thanksgiving holiday and we turned the invite over to a small group of our adventure pals.  After hearing ‘Yes’ from a handful of our friends we decided to make a plan to send it to Utah for Thanksgiving.  

To prepare for this trip we knew we would either have to rent a campervan or partner with a van company to see if they would give us a van rental for the duration of our Thanksgiving trip.  I’ve worked with Dave & Matt vans before on a few other van trips so I took some time to email them and see if they would partner up with us on our trip and sponsor us with a free van rental.  Dave & Matt had been busy working on adding a third van to their rental van fleet which timed up perfectly with out trip.  We had the opportunity to take out their brand new ProMaster 2500 Campervan for the duration of our Thanksgiving trip.  This is a partnership I have built over the past couple of years and I’m incredibly thankful for the team over at Dave & Matt vans.  If you log onto their website or check out their rental page on Outdoorsy you’ll be able to peek at some of the van photography I’ve complete for their brand.  I stumbled upon their ambassador program about two years ago and I’ve been super fortunate to be an ambassador for their brand and their growing van-conversion business. 

Dave & Matt Campervans (Gypsum, Colorado)

RENT - Dave and Matt Vans on Outdoorsy

Now that we had our van booked and partnership locked in for the trip, it was time for us to make a plan.  Here’s a peek at the rough itinerary we had planned for our trip - it was Ashley’s first time out exploring Utah so we had a few classic locations picked out and also some new spots for us all to explore.  

We had the ambitious idea to try and cook and enjoy a turkey dinner out in our van on Thanksgiving.  Very ambitious indeed, a challenge we were willing to take on but we ended up with the following (instead of Turkey): rotisserie chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, buttery delicious green beans, stuffing, rolls and Whole Foods mini Apple pie.  Not bad for Thanksgiving in a van, not bad at all… others in our group enjoyed Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream.  I’m a bit biased towards Apple Pie myself, but let me know your favorite holiday pie or Thanksgiving sides in the comments below.
Alright, let’s take a peek at our trip in a day by day journal format… here’s what we did each day. 

Day 1 — Drive out to Gypsum, Colorado and load gear into Campervan rental then continue driving west to Utah.  Our first location for the first night was to camp just outside Goblin Valley State Park in an area of BLM land located at the foot of some of the towering buttes just outside Goblin Valley.  We arrived to the area around sunset (after about 6.5 hours of driving from Denver) as we searched around for a suitable campground for our van and a few cars… there were other groups out there doing the same thing as us, camping out for Thanksgiving.  It felt good to be off the grid, but also being surrounded by close friends was really special for us, once again a different way to spend Thanksgiving but we learned to love it.  We pulled our van off the main road outside the state park as we float down a dusty dirt road… we approached the base of the butte and found a flat spot for our crew to car camp out for two nights.  I watched the stars rise over the van and then the moon came out to light up the surrounding landscape, it felt like we were on another planet transport by our spaceship, Dave and Matt Vans.

Day 2. Sunrise in Goblin Valley State Park

On the second day of our trip, our first sunrise in Utah we made a plan to meet up with fellow photographer Mike Lindel and the infamous Calvin Weibel. Our plan was to meet in the parking lot and start a sunrise hike inside goblin Valley State Park, Calvin had download the map on AllTrails and we thought we knew a way through the hoodoos. The keyword was ‘thought’ we knew a way through the hoodoos... we searched around for a little while until we found the correct trail which eventually leads you up and through the Mars looking red rock stacks to an interesting viewpoint that overlooks the entire state park that is famously known as goblin Valley. We spent our time up here at this cool lookout capturing landscape and adventure images… Ashley ran over to a monstrous rock formation and I was able to capture these images of the sun rising behind her. That afternoon we planned to hike a nearby slot canyon and to stimulate our appetites for Thanksgiving dinner out in the middle of the Utah desert. The slot canyon was incredible, I’ve never hiked anything like this in my entire life so it was really cool to experience some new textures and see some new things out in Utah, there’s so much to see and do out there it feels almost endless to me. Here are a few images from the slot canyon, I will let some of the photography tell this part of our story

After hiking 8 miles through two skinny slot canyons we made our way back to the trailhead and eventually back to our camp to begin prepping for our Thanksgiving meal. It was an incredibly unique experience to try and cook a Thanksgiving dinner in a camper van but we had a blast doing it and it was thoroughly enjoyed after a big adventure and hiking day. We spent the evening laughing, playing cards, and eating pumpkin and apple pie with the warmth of the van keeping our entire crew comfortable late into the night.

Day 3. Re-group in Moab and then to Canyonlands National Park for sunset

I snuck out of the van early to watch the sun light up the surrounding Mars-like landscape and as soon as I saw Calvin stirring we took a drive around this massive butte to capture some drone footage, drone photos and landscape shots. This was a sweet campsite and I’m glad we were able to camp out here for a couple of nights, that afternoon we made our way over to Moab to hit a coffee shop, refuel and send it over to Canyonlands national Park for sunset. We found a decent car camping spot on some nearby BLM land and everyone piled in the van as we drove into Canyonlands about an hour before sunset… I wish we had more time in there but it was amazing to revisit one of my favorite national parks in Utah. We stopped at some really mega viewpoints and let Ashley get a small taste of the epicness that is, Canyonlands National Park. After watching the sunset from a popular overlook we drove back to our camp spot and decided to crash early for another sunrise mission inside Arches National Park. Our plan for the morning was the hike delicate arch for sunrise light

Day 4

We woke up early to 12° temperatures where we had car camped in our campervan for the night… We were especially thankful for the heater in our van. Calvin jumped in our van and we headed off for Arches National Park to hike the infamous Delicate Arch for sunrise. I knew that we weren’t going to be the only ones with this plan and as we rolled up into the parking lot it was already half full. We hit a quick bathroom break and immediately started charging our way towards Delicate arch to watch the sunrise. This trail stays quite busy because it’s not very strenuous and takes you to one of Utah‘s most famous rock formations, here are some of the images I captured there.

After our sunrise in arches we left the park to make breakfast and find another camp spot for the night, we were lucky to find something along the Colorado River, we were skeptical at first because of a busy Thanksgiving weekend we weren’t sure if we would find any open campsites. We got lucky and found a really pretty campground basically on the Colorado river with a red rock canyon backdrop, here are some photos that I took around our campsite

Once we finished establishing our camp we made our way over to the Fisher towers area to hike and explore a new area that we wanted to check out… It was exceptional to explore this area and although we didn’t hike very far we will have to make a trip back to hike a few of the trails in this recreation area. Check out some images of the Fisher towers and catching sunset at the towers (see below) while we were there a a few hang gliders slowly drift above us and let out an excited “Yeewwwwyahoo!” I can only imagine what their view was like as he drift to the canyon floor below with the sun setting in the distance.

After watching the sunset we headed back to our camp and picked up some firewood… because of the dry conditions in Colorado we’ve been unable to have campfires during some of our past camping seasons, it felt good to set up a campfire and enjoy some s’mores under the moonlight while we laughed and cracked jokes at each other. It was the perfect temperature to be huddled around a campfire with some of your closest pals and a Christmas ale in hand.

Day 5 & 6. Time to say goodbye and enjoy some quiet time in our camper van

Some of our crew had to head back early on Sunday to beat the holiday traffic heading back to Denver from the surrounding areas. Ashley and I were lucky enough to have an extra night to explore Dead Horse Point State Park before making our journey back to Colorado the next day. We found a new campsite on our last day, and went into Moab to finish some remote work before chasing an epic sunset inside Dead Horse Point State Park. I loved being able to show Ashley around some of my favorite spots in Utah and was incredibly thankful to be surrounded by a close group of friends (Britt and Calvin!). It was an epic trip exploring Utah and seeing some new places, new trails and experiencing new things. If you’re looking to plan a trip like ours I recommend looking into a van rental from Dave & Matt Vans especially this time of year (because it can be cold out in Utah but if you have shelter and a heater you can still experience many of the epic parks in and around Moab, Utah) . It’s so funny how many camper vans you will see out in Utah.. it’s the land of the camper! Thanks for reading along and hopefully we will have some more awesome trips coming soon as we take a look at where we are headed in 2021!
More blogs coming soon, have a wonderful holiday season and happy new year! Stay safe and be well out there
-Frankie Fr33Water

Want more action and image inspiration, follow along all the adventures on Instagram: @Fr33Water

(I’m hoping to add a gear list for must-have pieces of gear to bring with you on a Utah Campervan trip, coming soon)

Additional resources, BLM maps and park links:

Camping Along the Colorado River - Goose Island Campground

BLM Outside Goblin Valley State Park - Resource Link

BLM Outside Moab, Utah - Resource Link and Area BLM Maps

Canyonlands National Park - Main Website

Arches National Park - Main Website

Goblin Valley State Park - Main Website

Need more information? Curious about a detail I mentioned or a location I talked about in this blog post?
Leave a comment below, DM me on Instagram or send me a email! Happy adventuring out there… and be safe!