Santa Barbara Home Designer Jeff Doubet vacations with his wife Lori at various Utah National Parks, trying not to think about his Spanish home design business.
Lori and I are Harvest Host members, but when we first got up into Utah, we decided to try something different. The Cedar City, Utah Walmart is one of the remaining stores that still allows overnight parking. After confirming an ok with the store manager, we scored this beautiful spot overlooking the snowy mountains. Something we rarely see living here in Santa Barbara, California.
Where does a Spanish Home Designer Vacation?
I tried not to think about my Spanish home design and consulting business while on vacation, but it wasn’t always easy! We stayed a couple of days at the Fruita Campground in Torrey, Utah. Above is the Gifford Homestead, a part of the campground. I had fun studying the various architectural details that were found throughout the grounds. The stucco finish on the house, old weathered wood siding on barns, pump houses and stone walls at the blacksmith shop were highlights.
We got lucky on this early Spring vacation in Utah. There were sunny temps in the 70’s and low 80’s at Capitol Reef National Park. The first day we set up camp, there were hints that the fruit trees and cottonwoods were starting to wake up.
The Fruita campground is located right inside the Capitol Reef National Park in Torrey, Utah. I took a jog late in the afternoon on the second day we were there. With a couple of warm days, the apricot trees began to bloom right before our eyes.
More Natural beauty to behold in Capitol Reef
I captured this shot of a herd of mule deer right in the Fruita campground. With no cell coverage in this area, it gave me a chance to slow my mind and take in the harmony and majesty of God’s creativity. The experience gave me awareness of my own creative limitations, yet at the same time- it gave me a sense that with Him as a Guide… all things are possible.
This beautiful girl is my wife Lori. We met and got married in 1988. To this day, we continue to live new and interesting chapters together- like this rock climbing adventure, below.
Here, Lori climbs toward Cassidy Arch in Capitol Reef National Park. Compared to Bryce Canyon and Zion, we enjoyed Capitol Reef the most. It wasn’t very crowded, and the scenery was completely different from back home in SB.
An ancient cottonwood tree grows near the road at the Fruita campground. When I first set eyes on it, I wondered if it was a hundreds of years old olive tree. This individual tree is documented as being alive back in the pioneer days of the 1880’s, and in fact had a big wooden “mail box” on it where the pioneers would receive their mail by Pony Express.
Also at the Fruita campground in Torrey, Utah- the Gifford homestead’s original blacksmith shop. Since I draw a ton of stone work into my Spanish style home and landscape designs, this particular building caught my eye. The pioneers used local sandstone rocks to build with.
Wandering into new discoveries
We eventually pulled up camp and headed toward Bryce Canyon National Park. The weather was still nice as we took a pit stop at this Red Canyon trail head.
For Santa Barbarian’s, it felt like we were winter camping when we arrived at our first come/first serve campsite in Bryce. We stayed here at Bryce Canyon National Park for just one night, on our way down to Zion National Park.
While in Bryce Canyon, Lori and I took the shuttle to the many observation points. I smiled when I saw these stone capped columns, as it brought me right back into one of the many Spanish home and landscape design projects I feature here on this website. I frequently sketch these types of stone details into my Spanish home designs. They look great as driveway or pedestrian gate columns, garden walls and mailboxes. Utah stone is much redder than local Santa Barbara sandstone, but you get the gist.
Lori bundled up for the Springtime snowy conditions in Bryce Canyon.
Here are some typical Hoodoos we saw throughout Bryce Canyon National Park.
More views of the Hoodoos as seen with the stone column and weathered log railings at Bryce.
Fellow Creators in the House
Lori and I typically do not camp in the snow, so I captured just one more shot. As we packed up to leave, a fellow Airstreamer came over to say hi. Turns out they are a couple who live full time in their 30 foot. He runs a non-profit, and she is an Airstream Ambassador via her Cedar & Silver Instagram account. As a photographer who captures Airstream lifestyle photos in beautiful settings such as this, it would have been fun to spend some time with them. Sounds like a really cool gig!
Next stop, Zion National Park, Utah. Here, Lori walks the Watchman campground where she booked us for two nights. Here, we also met other Airstream owners who were working remotely. One couple pulled the plug, rented their house and are living on the road for a 6-12 month adventure. Another mother daughter team had a pair of their own A Class buses, each pulling Jeeps. Our 23′ isn’t big enough to live in, but it was fun to hear their stories.
Here I sit at our camp site A5 in Loop A. Lori scooped up the 2 night spot right after someone cancelled. We had beautiful backdrop scenes from all angles, and could hear the Virgin River throughout the day and night.
Inspiring Settings for being Inspired again
Staying in Zion National Park for a couple of days was really cool. We were able to see these awe-inspiring settings and to get out of the everyday flow of design work back in Santa Barbara. The most impressive part of Zion was coming through the 1 mile tunnel and opening up to the huge canyons below. We were so awe-struck, neither of us were taking photos!
In these shots, we were standing in front of a restoration project, not too far from our campsite.
On our last night in the park, we started to hear live music nearby. We walked over the bridge from the campsite and sat by the river, listening to these fine gents.
Well friend, this wraps another Jeff + Lori vacation trip. But this Photo Blog is about how to infuse more Santa Barbara Style into your own Spanish home design project. Scroll to explore more helpful links and resources for designing and building your own Spanish-style home and landscape.
