2024 Hyundai Santa Fe National-Parking In Utah

2024 HYUNDAI SANTA FE IN UTAH
Ain't Mother Nature Grand?

From a Shunpiker’s Journal
By Steve Purdy
Detroit Editor
The Auto Channel

The most prolific and creative artist of all time, we contend, is Mother Nature. It is she who has created an endless variety of artful works using every material, technique, and element in the world – from the microscopic to the global.

We’re exploring some of her most beautiful works this week; works she began hundreds of millions of years ago when she created a massive sea generating sediments tens-of-thousands of feet thick. Then, she caused the Pacific and North American tectonic plates to start banging into one another, one subducting the other, causing those layered sea beds to uplift, bend, fracture, and distort. Finally, more than a hundred-million years ago she began the process of erosion creating this series of artistic creations, along a couple hundred miles of high desert, each unique but all with a sandstone theme.

We know the region today as the Colorado Plateau, ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Grand Canyon, and from near of Salt Lake City to NW New Mexico and NE Arizona.

For this trip our friends at Hyundai offered a new Santa Fe Calligraphy, top trim level of the company’s newest version of their mid-size, three-row crossover competing with such worthies as Chevy Traverse, Honda Pilot, and Nissan Pathfinder.

The Hyundai valet had her shined, fueled and ready to go when we arrived in Denver. She was parked next to a Land Rover with the same color and design scheme – black, white, and boxy. They looked like siblings. First impressions were of a dramatically-styled, generously-sized people hauler.

This 2024 version of the Santa Fe represents the early stages of a new design language for Hyundai characterized by squares, rectangles and simple lines. The black and white paint scheme provides a crisp, modern ambiance. Big, black wheels and just a hint of red where the taillights wrap-around, contribute to its simplicity. Surprisingly, the taillight bar is low on the rear fascia flying in the face of conventional wisdom that would have rear lights higher for better visibility. Most of the chassis and powertrain is carried over, but the look is strikingly different.

The six-hour drive from Denver to Moab along Interstate 70 allowed time to acclimate to the Santa Fe. The interior looks and feels upscale with luxurious materials including: a faux suede headliner; broad multipurpose screens (one for IP and the other for infotainment); soft touch plastics; leather seats; a center stack angling from the dash to a broad console where dual wireless chargers, power outlets and deep cup holders reside. A shelf across the right side of the dash, a bin beneath the center stack, and other thoughtful cubbies contribute to thoughtful storage options.

Driving dynamics are unremarkable, but pleasant and car-like. You’ll not mistake it for a German or ultra-lux brand, but nothing feels cheap or tawdry either. Hyundai’s new concept for a shifter (a twisty stalk on the right of the steering column) seems a bit odd at first but we easily acclimate. Wide-angle cameras surround the Santa Fe and when we use a turn signal we get a camera showing us that side of the car. The rear camera shows nearly 180 degrees, and the surround view monitor gives us a bird’s eye view around the whole car. (I’m still amazed they can do that with such clarity.)

The National Parks of southern Utah represent jewels in the crown of America’s park system. The best way to understand the geology, geography, ecology, and culture of any region is through the network of National Parks. The spectacular rock formations and desert culture, of Southern Utah have huge stories to tell.

Moab is a bustling little high-desert town where extreme off-roading dominates the recreational landscape. Gangly, gaudy ATVs were everywhere: on trailers, for rent, jamming restaurant parking lots, buzzing down the street in packs. But, the ATVers are disallowed in the National Parks.

The popularity of nearby Arches National Park means that from April through October they strictly meter the entrance. We had to have a reservation. But once inside the gate shortly after 9 AM we found it wonderfully uncrowded with plenty of pull-off opportunities for short hikes or dramatic vistas. Thousands of natural sandstone arches punctuate miles and miles of ridges, canyons, escarpments, and high desert formations.

This topography happens no place else on earth, so say the geologists. The character and design of these formations represent a unique stage at which erosion, under the artistic hand of Mother Nature, is cracking, crumbling, and abrading the sandstone into works of natural art. Park roads, overlooks, and hiking trails allow us to soak up, and marvel at, what is created here. The colors, shapes, textures, and particularly the scale and magnitude, have this writer worrying about where to find enough superlatives to describe it all.

By the way, your humble reporter is barely ambulatory after some medical issues so part of our focus will be about seeing it all by car. The Santa Fe has dual sunroofs and plenty of green-house so even backseat passengers have a seat with a view. The deeply tinted rear windows distort the colors a bit, but they have the better view of the high cliffs above than does the poor, overburdened driver.

At the edge of Moab, Highway 128 winds through more canyons and along the Colorado River for more than thirty miles of sheer-cliff formations that broaden out to narrow valleys along the river, then weave back into narrow passes. Vertical rock surfaces are sculpted, tinted and carved by the hand of The Artist into an endless variety of art pieces.

The Santa Fe’s handling, suspension, and powertrain are not particularly challenged in this environment, but we get a good feel for her. The carryover 2.5-liter turbo provides plenty of grunt at 277-hp and 311 ft-lb of torque, and with the 8-speed, dual-clutch transmission we have all the efficiency we need to go briskly when we want and still get 25 mpg. The “Sport” mode helps keep the RPMs where we like them, and the paddle shifters let us do our own shifting, which can be more fun in the mountains, but downshifting on long mountain slopes is not very effective. A few opportunities at aggressive driving were not rewarding. She just didn’t seem as eager as she should be, though she was certainly firm and stable when pushed.

Large areas of the Canyonlands National Park are not accessible by road. The park surrounds the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers near the center of the Colorado Plateau. Expansive mesas are cut into many canyons that have then eroded into more miles of canyons feeding the two main ones that divide the park into three, two of which are barely accessible without mighty big hikes. Here we get more views of the fins, arches, spires, buttes, and other structures that make the geology here unique.

Bryce Canyon represents another distinctive series of works by our honored artist. The park people call it “Poetry in Stone.” The Bryce Amphitheater stretches for miles and miles along a curving mesa dominated with the sculpted vertical formations known as hoodoos that evolve from ridges, or fins, of sandstone. Her creations here line up in rows and stand in groups that might remind us of soldiers. Again, the scale is breathtaking and the aesthetics dazzling. The colors change throughout the day accentuating one or another of the fascinating formations.

It occurs to us that we should have invited a geologist along to narrate it all.

We’re finding the Santa Fe easy to live with, but watch out for that tailgate. It’s extra big, and you’ll need to step back after you push the button or it may whop you in the chin. With the power third row seat folded we have plenty of room even when loaded with luggage for four. Stepping over the sill getting in will challenge only the very short or old and stiff. Comfortable, well-shaped seats make long drives easy, in spite of a twinge of sciatica in my old bones. Our rear seat passengers had no complaints about the captain’s chairs and both found occasion to use the provided window shades.

Zion has just TOO MANY PEOPLE! We arrived midday Friday and it took us three attempts on three different days to visit the Visitor Center where we must catch the electric bus if we want to experience the Scenic Loop, perhaps the most popular attraction of all the National Parks. The parking lot holds 450 cars and an auxiliary lot holds motorhomes and the bigger vehicles. Our first two attempts, Friday midday and Saturday first thing in the morning, were stymied by the full parking lot with dozens of cars circling and circling hoping for someone to leave. We could have parked in the village to catch a local bus to the park gate, but that would leave us a half mile walk to the Visitors Center. I’m not ambulatory enough for that.

In the meantime, the drive along Highway 9 which passes through Zion, features a long tunnel and more spectacular views. A great way to assess this iteration of Mother Nature’s art.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon at 4 PM, just an hour before the last bus for the Scenic Drive, we found success. As it turned out, while it is a beautiful drive up a narrow canyon, there were no big vistas without a hike of some length. About 80% of patrons on the huge, articulated, electric busses were young, athletic and equipped with lots of gear. They’ve all come to do the hikes required to earn those memorable vistas. If you’re one of the energetic ones, you’ll want to come very early in the day, or on a weekday, because the weekend, including Friday, daytime crowds are oppressive.

Our Hyundai Santa Fe Calligraphy review car shows a base sticker price of $48,300 and includes a remarkable level of content for that price: 21-inch black alloy wheels with Pirelli Scorpion tires; a super-sharp, 360-degree camera system; dual sunroof; power third-row seat backs; lots of nanny functions; and an innovative little, flush-mounted, handle to grab when you step on the rear tire to reach something off the roof rack. We also have a navigation system with 12.3-inch screen, Bose Premium Audio.

The Santa Fe easily achieved 25.5 mpg on regular fuel, but that number represents plenty of easy-cruising miles at less than 70 mph.

The ground-breaking 100,000-mile power train warranty remains (now mirrored by many other main-stream auto makers), but Hyundai still claims “America’s best warranty” with 5-year/60,000-mile coverage on the whole car, plus roadside assistance, and three years of complimentary maintenance.

We heartily recommend you consider the Santa Fe if you’re considering a three-row crossover. With nearly every automaker contesting this market segment, you’ll have dozens to consider, all with substantial merit. But, as we’ve come to expect from the Korean brands, they usually seem to offer a lot of content for the money and they usually score near the top of quality measures.

We found this to be one of those cars with a look that gives us joy. As we return after hopping out for overlooks or short walks, we’re struck by how good lookin’ she is poised there in the parking lot. Will it continue to inspire that little thrill over the long term?

Time will tell.

We even more heartily recommend visiting the National and State Parks of Southern Utah – paying attention and paying your respects to the artwork of Mother Nature. Like the Grand Canyon and so many other wonders of nature, you just cannot get a sense of the grandeur, the scale, the beauty, the natural art of these treasures without witnessing them.

Sorry . . . I’ve run out of superlatives.