Moab Day 1

Bryan and I used to visit Arches National Park every 4th of July. Maybe not the smartest time to go, seeing at it was hotter than the sun – but I like it hot. Not sure how we fell out of the habit, but we need to get back into it. I love that place. LOVE IT. It’s a smaller park (comparatively) with a more rugged atmosphere than most. You can climb around and really get dirty. Or just tool around the car and enjoy the scenery. Whatever works.

And with the town of Moab close by, there are accommodations, restaurants, grocery stores… pretty much everything you need to make a trip complete. OK, Moab isn’t all that fancy – but just fancy enough to augment camping in the desert. Or biking. Or rafting. Or off-roading. All the stuff Moab is famous for.

But speaking of accommodations, remember how it was snowing when we left the Grand Canyon? We planned to camp in Moab since it’s usually quite warm there, even in early Springtime. But that snowy weather that was all over the western states hit Utah too, so we hit a friggin’ hotel.

And I really wanted a squishy, high quality bed since I was jonesing for my Sleep Number Bed. And Bryan really wanted a hot tub. We agreed we would find the nicest hotel we could find for Moab (it’s not New York, OK?) and were willing to pay for it. I sauntered into one that looked nice on the main strip and asked if they had any rooms. She gave me this pained look and said, “Well. We have one left. But the… Um. Well. (pause) The TV isn’t working.” I gave her my best poker face (remember, we are the folks who don’t have even basic cable at home) and said, “How much is it?”

“Normally it is $139 but I can give it to you for $59.”

I. shit. you. not.

They cut eighty dollars off the price for the TV not working. And apparently 3 people turned her down before we arrived. Obviously we had found our hotel room for our 2 nights in Moab. And I got a wondrous squishy bed, Bryan got a hot tub and Declan got cheesecake at the great Italian place next door.

The next morning we putzed around the heated pool in the morning and gathered our lazy asses (too much pasta the night before) into the car and headed to Arches.

And I fell in love all over again.

I think I took nearly 700 photos that day.

We knew we wanted to see Delicate Arch at sunset, so we started up the trail around 5:45pm.

Holy hell. That was 1.5 miles of serious hike. Our dog Rio was with us on previous trips, so we never attempted it before. And this time we tried with our freaking 4-year old. Bryan had Declan on his back most of the way while I huffed and puffed behind him. At least we burned off all that pasta.

And it was totally worth it, as you see below. And luckily, the idiots stopped getting into the middle of the arch for photo-ops before sunset… you know, before all the dudes who lugged 50 pounds of camera equipment up that slickrock had to go down there and beat the ever-living shit out of them.

Then the sun set and we realized we had to climb down that slickrock. In the dark. It was probably the one and only time in his life Bryan was not prepared for something like this. Well, he did actually have his headlamp and several portable lamps. In the car. Luckily it was almost a full moon, so the path was fairly illuminated, but I still nearly killed myself at least 3 separate times on the way down.

Damn, I was so proud of us.

P.S. Look for the boys’ silhouettes in several of the photos!

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Highlights from Day 1 Arches National Park, Utah:















(Click on any photo for the larger version. You may also be able to then click again with your magnifying glass to enlarge further, depending on your browser.)

This article has 7 comments

  1. Anonymous

    Awesome!

  2. aimee / greeblemonkey

    Ha! That is awesome! LOL. I just posted tonights – so comment away!

  3. merry

    Your pictures are fantastic, I especially like the one of your husband and son in the arch.

    And Declan is a cutie. I’d probably have a similar reaction if I had some of that cheesecake!

    Sounds like you had a great trip. I almost wrote up an Idol summary in your comments while you were gone …

  4. Anonymous

    I love the silhouettes!

  5. Oh, The Joys

    I am so jealous! (and you are a great photographer!)

  6. g-man

    I made that climb up to Delicate Arch many years ago. (Totally f’ed up my back the next day). I can recall some of the spots from your photos. Thanks. I’d love to go back there one day with my family.

  7. aimee / greeblemonkey

    Thanks OTJ and GMan… and isn’t funny how other people’s pics can bring back memories! And pain!

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