Utah Trip Notes Part 1

Last month, I headed to Southeastern Utah and surrounding areas for a week of hiking. My wife has an ambition of visiting all the National Parks and Monuments and this trip was primarily to hike. However, that takes a lot good eating (g).

Generally, we eat dinner at Midway when leaving on Friday nights. This trip, we decided to wait until we reached Salt Lake City. That was almost a mistake as there were thunderstorms in Chicago that night.


Red Iguana
736 West North Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
PH: 801-322-1489
http://www.rediguana.com/home.html

This is a small restaurant not far from Temple Square and is considered the best Mexican in SLC. I would have to agree. My first meal comsisted of of pork enchiladas covered with a mango sauce. At the end of the trip, I tried the pork loin stuffed with fruit topped with an almond mole that included the flavor of pumpkin.

Interesting flavors that are wekk developed. And the prices are very reasonable - about $25 for two.


The first hike was to Timpanagos Caves in American Canyon. It is a very rough hike with a gain of 1015 fy in a bit over a mile. It is NOT a hike that you would want to take on your first day out. The trail is not bad through the caves but you have to crawl and bend through narrow passages. Two of the three caves are as well decorated as Carlsbad but you are close up and can see everything.

SLC is always berated as a food destination. However, they make some great hamburgers. I wanted to head to Hires Big H in Provo for a hamburger. However, I did not bring the address. Instead, we ended up at


Burgers Supreme
1796 N University Pkwy,
Provo, UT 84604-1563
Tel: (801) 373-5713

Great hamburgers cooked to order. Crispy french fries with fry sauce.

After the hamburgers, we headed to BYU's 9th St Creamery. They serve some very good ice cream that is made on campus. Unfortunately BYU was destroying Utah State and the crowd was leaving the stadium as we arrived.

http://dining.byu.edu/creamery/ninthstreetgrillmenu.html


We stopped in Price and found little interesting. There was a steakhouse in town but $25 for an 8 oz Strip seemed a bit much for the atmosphere.

On to Moab. Little was open at 10am on Sunday. We decided to stop at a local Utah chain called Hogi Yogi - Teriyaki Stix.

All I will say was that the meal will likely be the WORST meal of the year. It was completely inedible. Have frozen steamed vegetables with shredded pork topped with a cough syrup style teriyako sauce. We were the first people in the place so the food should have come out hot at least. It was stone cold. A really bad meal.

Dinner was a lot better. We stopped at the Moab Brewery. They serve a wide variety of beers and have what would best be considered tavern food. The food that we had was pretty good. I made the sidtake of ordering the smoked salmon which was flavorless. The rest of teh food was well prepared.

Moab Brewery -
686 South Main Street -
Moab, Utah -
(435) 259-6333 - Open Daily @ 11AM
http://www.themoabbrewery.com/


Our final meal in Moab was the best - a meal at the Moab Diner. We had a bowl of green chile which was excellent and a hand dipped chocolate malted that was absolutely devine.

The Moab Diner
189 South Main
Moab Utah 84532
435-259-4006

http://www.moab-utah.com/diner/dinermenu.html

More to follow ...

While in Moab, we hiked all over Arches and Canyonland National Park. Much is written about Arches. IMO, Canyonlands is as impressive as the Grand Canyon. We spent a morning hiking the Canyon Rim Trail.

After a couple days in Moab, we headed to Cortez, CO. We stayed at the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel. Great place to stay - Marriott style rooms with enthusiastic service. Avoid the restaurant at all costs. You would do a lot better at a Flying J Truckstop.

The most interesting meal of the trip was the result of a wild goose chase. We picked up a Cortez Restaurant Guide. We saw this place called Shiloh of Stoner. We had no map, no directions and no idea how far it was. It ended up 35 miles from the hotel.

Shiloh of Stoner is a eight table restaurant that is connected with an RV park and cabins. In fact, it is about the ONLY place in Stoner, CO on the road to Telluride.

The service was interesting. We had at least five people serving us including a 6 yo girl who brought us the rolls. The rolls were outstanding and were served with a homemade rhubarb-strawberry compote.

The food is excellent and downhome. The chicken strips were hand-breaded. The only shortcoming were the green beans which were blackened . They looked burnt on one side. The flavor was actually pretty good.

The blackberry cobbler was legendary. The crust was flakey and the ice cream homemade.

Shiloh's Of Stoner
26055 Road 40
Dolores, CO 81323-9743
Phone: (970) 882-2204
Fax: (970) 882-1536
info@shilohsofstoner.com

http://www.shilohsofstoner.com/737886.html


We generally avoid fine dining on options. After hiking all day, we generally do not like to have to get dressed up. However, we had heard a lot about Cafe Diablo.

This meal was very good. The first course was a plate of marinated and roasted vegetables.

We had the pumpkin seed crusted trout and the fire roasted pork tenderloin. Good presentation, good service at a reasonable price.

Cafe Diablo
599 West Main Street
PO Box 750149
Torrey, Utah 84775
435.425.3070
gary@cafediablo.net


http://www.cafediablo.net/



MORE to follow.