Kevin and I kicked off our first vacation of the year together in Utah. The 13 day adventure included hiking, camping, exploring riverbeds, UTV riding, stargazing, and seeing national parks. On the first day, we flew into Salt Lake City and drove four hours south to Moab. It was exciting that the first two nights were completely unplanned and we were banking on first-come, first-served BLM camping. Night one was a success after finding a sweet camp spot by Bowtie Arch and Corona Arch.

On Day 2, we ventured into our first Utah national park, Canyonlands, to see more arches. This also turned out to be my favorite national park of the trip. After exploring ‘The Island in the Sky’ area of Canyonlands, we passed through Moab to get to the southern portion of Canyonlands for Day 3. We were very hungry and knew that, with night two of camping ahead of us, we should probably stop in town for food. I saw in the corner of my vision, a food truck park. I had a feeling, I would be eating tacos after locking eyes with a food truck park.

And there, in the very front corner of the park, I spotted Tacos El Gordo. I briefly glanced at other trucks, but within seconds I was standing in front of the taco truck ordering barbacoa and chicken tacos.

“Tacos are my favorite food group” and “two more steak tacos because they are so dang good” are comments I heard from people passing by Tacos El Gordo food truck. I told Kevin, as we waited for our tacos, that this is what I like to hear!

Out of the tacos I had, I liked the chicken taco over the barbacoa taco. The barbacoa had a slightly gamey taste, but was tender and juicy. I ranked it a 2 out of 5. The corn shell seemed homemade and of high quality. The chicken had no hint of dryness even with a slightly salty taste and little fat. I did find the taco to have too much cilantro taste despite being covered with cilantro. I gave the chicken taco a 4 out of 5. For the salsas, I stuck with the milder salsa roja compared to the much hotter tomatillo salsa.

Kevin tried the carnitas and carne asada tacos. He liked the steak taco more than the carnitas taco. He stated “more flavor from the steak taco, but may be over-seasoned if that makes sense.”

I wanted to say that next we were off to the southern part of Canyonlands for our next spontaneous camping night, but I forgot we enjoyed a second stop in Moab for beers so that we could sit inside. We wanted to enjoy the only air conditioned space we would have for a few days. We cheered to good tacos, great arches, and a great trip ahead of us.

Price: $3 per taco, I’ll take that!