I've been through the state of Utah several times on my drives across the country. It has always been one of my favorite parts of my cross country trip. It is so beautiful. Though I've been through it many times, I've never actually had the opportunity to stop and enjoy what it has to offer. I decided this was the trip I was going to finally see some of the things I have been waiting to see.
We crossed over the Utah/Colorado state line on Interstate 70 West. I'm familiar with this road. Familiar enough actually that once I get on it in MO after seeing Gretchen, I could, in fact, make it all the way to San Diego without needing GPS at all. We only stayed on 70 for about an hour before we pulled off onto scenic Byway 128 south towards Moab. What a beautiful drive! I was recommended this route by fellow hikers from a hiking group I am in. I'm so glad I took the advice and ventured on this road. It followed the Colorado River through canyons and valleys. It was beautiful.
We came to the town of Moab, which is a huge vacation destination for many. Jeeps come here to play, sightseers come to enjoy national parks, some come for the river. There is much to do in Moab.
First thing, we ran to a grocery store to pick up groceries for the next few days. We would be camping at Arches National Park for the next two nights.
With groceries in tow, and a new rewards card for a grocery store we would never shop at again (hey, we saved over $10!), we headed towards Arches.
Many of you have never heard of Arches National Park, but I am sure that most of you have seen pictures of the iconic Delicate Arch. You'll recognize it on the pictures below. I've always wanted to go to Arches and see Delicate Arch. Last year I thought of stopping by on my way home, but a thunderstorm with cloud to ground lighting encouraged me to keep driving. Not this time! The weather was perfect and we were bound to have an amazing time!
We got to our camp, which was really awesome.
We were both pretty hungry, so we started up a fire and I introduced Donny to mountain pies. Pizza Mountain pies to be exact! With a little bit of trial and error, we ended up with some pretty amazing pizzas for dinner!
The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and headed straight for Delicate Arch trailhead. There are two reasons why you want to get to this trailhead early in the day: 1) it gets hot the later in the day it gets and 2) it gets ridiculously crowded! Thankfully we went at a perfect time! It was comfortable out and there weren't many people yet. The hike wasn't difficult at all. It was very enjoyable. The best part of the hike was taking the last step and rounding the bend to see Delicate Arch standing in all of it's glory.
I squealed like a little girl!
That was the main highlight of Arches. Everything else was just icing on the cake!
While we were at Arches, in the middle of the day it was extremely hot, so we took a drive to Canyonlands National Park. We stopped for a picnic in the shade on the way and only stayed in Canyonlands for about 2 hours. It was pretty interesting, though I can't say I am excited to ever go back.
Lunch time!
Our last National Park stop was Zion. We had been waiting for this one. However, we had a bit of a snag getting there (I'll save that for another blog) and I also got sick our first night of camping. So instead of staying 2 nights, we only ended up staying one. And instead of doing Angels Landing, we just did the Narrows and Emerald Pools. It was nice, but I definity wished I could have done Angels Landing. Some day we plan on returning and doing all of the Narrows (Permit required), and Angels Landing.
Utah. Loved it. Definitely going back!
No comments:
Post a Comment