By Sara Payne
Provo, Utah, can be the most exciting, beautiful place on earth. But, sometimes the dull shuffle between the Harold B. Lee Library and “home sweet home” in the blistering cold can become a little mundane.
Well, there”s a remedy. Five beautiful states surrounding picturesque Utah have much to offer the bored BYU co-ed who needs an adventure. These destinations take no more than 10 hours to drive and can all be traveled and experienced on a weekend. Now that midterms are nearly over, prepare for a road trip to the popular destinations in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, California and Nevada.
This month, Y Styles explores the unique features of Colorado, a state famous for skiing, hiking and Mother Nature”s color palette, Garden of the Gods, which features gorgeous red rocks jutting from the lush green earth.
Just north of Colorado lies Jackson Hole, Wyo., another popular location for BYU students searching for a switch in scenery. The town is a tribute to old west with its cowboy dining houses and elk horn arches. Wyoming also houses two national parks for the rugged road tripper: Grand Teton and Yellowstone.
If high adventure challenges don”t sound appealing, another hotspot, Rexburg, Idaho, offers the ticket to a weekend of fun. Countless BYU students travel this four-hour drive throughout the school year to visit their friends at BYU”s sister school, BYU-Idaho. There, the local students create their own fun out of tires and tubes. Creativity is the ticket for this quaint college town.
Southern California offers the heat and the beach, two words foreign to frosty Utah. Southern California not only provides relief from the snow and ice, but it also offers art museums and the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame to delight the casual tourist.
Known for its risqu? showgirls, Las Vegas doesn”t seem like the place BYU students will find their niche. But there are plenty of appropriate sites in the city of sin that won”t cause a guilty conscience on the car ride home.
So grab your bag, your three best friends and head off for a weekend of fun before settling back into the college routine.
