Reading · Buona Pasta Club

This page did not load. You can still read it on the original site — the toolbar below keeps your place in the directory.

Hi Pasta Fam 💛

The fifth stop of our cross country road trip was the first of the “Big 5” or “Mighty 5” National Parks in Southern Utah. We visited all 5 and I made homemade pasta in each one! If you’re not familiar, the other parks in the Big 5 are Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands, and each one was similar but SO different - it was awesome to see each of the parks one after the other to really see the differences 😍

You can watch the full YouTube video of our trip to Zion here!

Zion National Park is the only park of the 5 that we’ve been to before this trip, but this time we stayed at the Zion Canyon Campground just outside the entrance to the park in Springdale, Utah. Springdale is a super cute town, and has changed so much since we visited in 2022, with so many more restaurants and shops!

Here’s some photos of the views from our campsite, first photo is the view in one direction, and the 3rd is the view in the other direction - red rocks everywhere! The middle photo is our campsite setup, right along the river 😍 This was one of our favorite campsites, since we basically sat on the river 90% of the time we were there!

How cute is our campsite, with our string lights, right on the river!?

And this is the view from our spot that we posted up right below our campsite! Also the spot I made fresh cavatelli, can’t get much better than that :)

Another awesome thing about our stay here was that the shuttle stop was right outside of the campground so it was very convenient when we wanted to head into the park, since we only had the RV.

The campground was also right on the Virgin River, a river that runs through the park, and the one that you hike through when hiking The Narrows, which we did on our last trip to Zion - highly recommend this hike, and doing it in the early fall was perfect timing since the water wasn’t too cold!

One of our favorite things we got to do on this trip that we didn’t on our last, was hike Angels Landing, which you need a permit for since it’s super exposed and has a limit to the amount of people that can hike in each timeframe.

The summit of Angels Landing is 5790 ft and to give you an idea of how crazy this hike is, someone fell off while hiking the day after we hiked it, so it’s so so important that you take it seriously and give your full attention, since there are many spots along the hike that have a steep drop off. We rock climb regularly, and even for us it was very sketchy in certain areas that don’t have the chain to hold onto!

But once you reach that summit, the view is incredible, and like nothing I’ve ever seen - It was a check off our bucket list!

We started out the day with an early hike - Angels Landing! We got the early time slot which was a great way to start the day - we got to the shuttle at 7a right when they started running, and it was a short wait until we were headed to The Grotto which is where the hike starts.

You don’t need the permit for the first half of the hike up, so in the beginning we were hiking up with a good amount of people, although we hauled a** immediately after getting off the shuttle, so we could get a good head start since the shuttles were PACKED!

Here’s some photos of our hike… PS I made sure to be in a very safe spot, when taking photos of the hike, since one step in the wrong direction and you could literally fall off the side.

Such an incredible view!

Almost there…

After reaching the summit, enjoying the view, eating our snacks and taking some time to just hang out at the top, we ventured back down, which took about 1/4 of the time it took to go up, so we were back down at the shuttle in no time!

When we got back to the campsite, it was about 11am, and it felt so good to have gotten an awesome hike in before noon! By then we were super hungry, so we plopped down at the river, and I made a quick and easy - yet delicious - lunch for Hunter and I.

This is apparently a Midwestern classic - and I actually did mess it up by toasting the bread - so it would have taken even less time to make! There’s just something about the soft white bread, with the creamy mayo and crispy bacon - this is one of my favorite lunches that Hunter has introduced me to.

All you need…

White bread(don’t toast it like I did!) + Crispy Bacon + Mayo

Guys, I’m serious when I say this sandwich is just so unexpectedly good. I don’t make it often, but I was craving it on the trip, and it’s definitely a perfect camping meal, because we can always find bread, mayo and bacon!

We enjoyed our lunch on the river, and since it was so quiet and most everyone was probably hiking and exploring the park, I decided to make some homemade pasta right there on the river! Homemade gnocchetti pasta, right on the river, with the red rocks in the background - can’t get much better than that.

PS you can find all my in depth pasta tutorials including this one for free on my YouTube channel here!

For dinner to pair with the pasta, I made my classic Rosa sauce, but added pancetta and some creamy ricotta, and it was soo good!

Recipe for my Creamy Rosa Sauce with Pancetta…

4 oz Pancetta (optional)

1/2 Stick Butter

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 TBSP Tomato Paste

1/2 Cup Cream

1/4-1/2 Cup Parmesan

Salt & Pepper to taste

8 oz pasta of choice

Optional: Dollop of creamy ricotta

Directions:

Cook pancetta in a skillet over medium low heat until crispy, and move to a paper towel until ready to add back in

Melt Butter over medium heat

Once Melted add garlic powder and whisk into butter

Add tomato paste & stir until butter & paste are mostly incorporated

Let simmer for 1-2 minutes, tomato will become a deep red

Whisk in cream and simmer for 1-2 minutes until sauce becomes thick

Add parmesan & stir to combine

Add your cooked pasta, crispy pancetta and dollop of ricotta and enjoy!

Here’s the full recipe & video for my classic Rosa Sauce (without the pancetta/ricotta)

Our stay at Zion was amazing, some highlights for us was of course hiking Angels landing, having the river right behind our campsite, exploring the cute town of Springdale, and making homemade pasta on the Virgin River!

One of the only things we didn’t like as much about this campground compared to the ones we stayed at prior to this, was you are super close to your neighbor with no divider. This is definitely more common in the RV campgrounds since they usually have hook ups and therefore closer sites.

Here’s what our campsite looked like - honestly we had one of the best sites, because we chose the sites that are up against the river, so it was at least more private than the others!

Unfortunately, we had a pretty loud group next to our campsite, and the kids from multiple families were running back and forth through our campsite - which is pretty bad camping etiquette, not to mention that it made Moose constantly on alert since he gets excited very easily when a lot of people are around, especially wild & crazy kids!

Luckily we had the river right behind our campsite, so we spent the majority of our time down at the river, which was incredible and definitely made the stay since we were pretty much the only people down there! Also this was a game changer for Moose since he got to run around off leash on the other side of the river, play around in the water, and take many naps while we were there…

I even got editing & work done while relaxing at the river!

Another thing to note is that Zion National Park was probably the busiest parks of our entire cross country road trip. In the last couple years it has gotten very popular and there are just so many people, especially if you’re trying to get on the shuttle and head through the park. Luckily we got the early slot for hiking Angel’s Landing, so we got to the shuttle at 7a and only had to wait about 30 minutes for the shuttle.

When we returned after our hike at 10:30a, the line to get on the shuttle at the entrance of the park was - no joke - at least 3 hours. So if you’re traveling to Zion, I highly recommend getting to the shuttle early! I think it starts at 7a, which is when we got there, and there was already about 50 people in line ahead of us, but the wait wasn’t long at all, in comparison to later in the day.

As a reminder - you can watch the full video of our stay on my YouTube, here!

PS it helps significantly if you like and comment on my YouTube videos so just know it is greatly appreciated when you do - Also don’t forget to subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss future vids!

Looking forward to sharing the rest of our travels with you all!!

And if you want to book your own RV trip, here are my links!

RENT AN ROAD BEAR RV: https://shorturl.at/YNDYU
RENT AN EL MONTE RV: https://shorturl.at/cZVZl

Just a reminder…

You can find all my full recipes here

You can find my cookbook here

And all my other links including favorite tools and ingredients here

You can shop my merch HERE

If you want a ton of FREE pasta making tutorials…

You can find all my in-depth tutorials on my YouTube Channel!

It really helps me when you subscribe, and even more when you like or comment on my videos!

Here’s the LINK to subscribe to my YouTube & find all my tutorials!