Canyonlands National Park

 

After the Arches we headed to Canyonlands - the Needles District. We got all our backpacking gear together and filled up our 7 liters of water and headed off into the Tattooine looking landscape. We started at the Elephant Hill Trailhead and somehow ended up getting off path and were actually quite lost for 2 hours, wandered around looking at gps and our paper map until we found a part of the trail that linked back to the parking lot, arrived back to our start point and started AGAIN.

 

After our 2 hour mishap we hiked 3.5 miles to our awesome campsite. We hiked up a small hill to it and wandered around a cave up top until we set up camp on a rock overlooking the edge of the Needles and making some Chili Mac. The hike in was really pretty and filled with layered rocks that jutted up out of the ground and were striated with lots of great colors. The sky was really blue and beautiful.

That night we hung out on our own private canyon overlook with no one anywhere near us and drank some wine, did a little random yoga & stretching, and then I finished reading the first Harry Potter book to Joshua (yes, I do voices, I'm a good Hagrid)

view from our campsite

EC2 campsite



sweaty stud :)

 

 

 

Next morning we got up at around 5 and started the 3 mile hike to Druid arch. It was lovely to not have the sun on us yet as we wandered down a sandy bottom of and old river bed winding through rock formations and climbing up some really cool stuff. Then we turned the corner and realized the tall rock we'd been looking at the whole time was actually the arch, but you couldn't see it from any angle except the one the trail lead you up. It was a really tall arch with stunning blue sky peaking through. We were the first people up there that morning and just got to sit beneath it and stare out at the canyon as the sun started to peak over its top.



 

We were slated to stay another night backpacking but decided we needed more water so we hiked out and then thought we'd rather go check out another area of the Canyonlands and go see a friend, Katy, who happened to be in Moab the same time as us (crazy!!)

 

So that night we drove over to the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands and got a great view of the Green River and a few other overlooks that were really interesting and inspiring. We even cooked up some dinner at sunset inside the park before headed back.

 

 





newspaper rock



Next up The Great Salt Lake (I dare you not to start singing the Band of Horses song)

Arches National Park

 

 

 

After arriving in Utah we drove to a really nice park along the highway that wove around a mile up into the hills called Price Canyon Recreation Area for a cheap first-come-first serve campsite. This was the only campsite we could have a fire. The site was beautiful and quiet and the stars that night were unbelievable, even a little chill in the air that night (not for long)

 

We started out our anniversary trip this year in Arches National Park. We knew it would be busy so but wanted to see it so we got it out of the way early. Utah was HOT upper 90's whew. We hiked to the Delicate Arch which had fun views as you wove around rock formations until you got to the arch itself which was quite a stunner. This one felt unique because it stood alone and all stately-like.

 

We also checked out the Double arch and the Windows Arches which were pretty massive and provided primitive trials you could take which brought you away from the masses which was really nice. Just getting to soak in the arches was fun, picking out different rock types and trying to figure out how the middles came out of them.

Double Arch

windows arches

windows arches

 





formation names left to right : the three gossips, sheep rock, tower of babel, the organ



Overall the park was beautiful and everything was really accessible. Except a large portion of the hikes in an area were closed for parking lot renovations (terrible excuse!!!) At the end of the day we settled into a comfy campground, grabbed a beer at the Moab Brewery and found some imitation dippin' dots to cool us off. Next we're headed to Canyonlands Needles District to be totally surrounded by all the Utah landscape...

 (1st anniversary trip

2nd anniversary trip )

A National Park Thanksgiving

After our short soiree in Vegas we took off on a 4 hour drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The drive was beautiful, a desolate landscape with sun rays touching every surface and giant rocks puncturing the landscape.

We ran into some snow near and at the Rim which we hadn't expected. The North Rim is taller than the more popular and well known canyon views of the south rim. Sadly the sun was not in an ideal location and we quickly understood why the South Rim is the iconic view but it was still fun to see it and look deep into it's cavernous walls.

Then we jumped back into the car and headed for Zion. We drove into Zion as the sun was setting over the large sandstone formations and forcing them into a violent red contrasting the cloudless blue sky, it was quite the view. We also drove through a mile long tunnel under one of the rocks which was quite impressive. Finally landing in our campsite hubs set to work setting up the tent and such and I got to work on our Thanksgiving feast. It truly was a feast! We cooked the turkey over the fire and roasted a head of garlic to put in the potatoes while they softened in a ball of foil deep in the fire. This year though I also had concocted a plan to make stuffing over the fire, I love stuffing! And lo and behold and to our tummies great satisfaction it was delicious! We had a lovely Thanksgiving feast, we had leftover turkey for sandwiches the next day and we didn't even get to the fire-made pies until the next night. The intense and vast stars that hung over our campsite that night were the real showstoppers though.

Wood Fired Stuffing:
for two

5-6 pieces of bread; set out to get stale
1 red onion; diced
4-5 stalks celery; diced
2 eggs
1/2-2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
butter
& a cast iron pie maker

1   make a fire with some great coals
2   in foil place a tbs or two of butter and the onion and celery, seal it
3   place in fire until veggies are tender
4   stick pie maker in fire to heat up for a minute or two
5   melt butter into both sides of the pie maker to avoid sticking
6   mix bread, sautéed veggies, spices, eggs, 1/2 cup chicken broth in a bowl
7   add more chicken broth as necessary to get the bread coated
8   fill one side of the pie maker full of stuffing mixture
9   close it and place over coals of fire for a few minutes
10  rotate pie maker
11  pull it out of the fire and dish it out
mmmmmm!

We're thinking of making cooking Thanksgiving dinner over the fire an tradition. We've had a lot of fun with it the last two years.

And NOW some Zion Hiking