After our Young Living convention and while the boys were still at camp, we ventured down a couple of the national parks in Utah. Surprisingly, Utah has several parks but because we were limited on time, we had to pick just 2. This year, we decided on Arches and Canyonlands. Warning: you will see a crazy amount of red rock/mountains. This blog also serves as my scrapbook so I'm wanting to post these to reflect back on down the road. :)
We left Salt Lake City and made the 4 hour drive to Moab.
We decided to swing into Arches and do some scenic driving. We knew we were coming back in a few days but we were eager to see it all.
So beautiful.
Delicate Arch from a distance.
Its crazy to me when I see large rocks that are barely supported by anything else.
We made our way to our hotel for the next 2 nights. Red Cliffs Lodge was so amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to stay in this area.
They have this little winery on site and we decided to pop in and do a little wine tasting.
The grounds are well maintained and the surrounding beauty is breathtaking.
Our cabin was simple but clean and comfortable.
This was taken on our back porch. It's hard to see it but the river is down at the bottom. This view never gets old!
Lots of movies were filmed in this area. Thelma & Louise, Breakdown, and lots of westerns. They had a cute little museum on property so you could look at movie memorabilia and watch some clips from the shows.
The restaurant on site was so yummy. And again, check out this view from our dinner table.
The next morning we had an excursion booked in Canyon Lands. It was a half day 4X4 scenic ride and a half day river trip. I had to leave my phone in the car so no pictures from the river but the views were pretty great!
On our drive, we stopped off and looked at some carvings in the side of the mountains. These are so interesting to me. Check out all the symbols......I wonder what story they were trying to tell?
Again, how is this rock just sitting there?
It was really hot that day so we were thankful that we could get out and enjoy some sights but then get back inside the truck with some good A/C. I admit it- I love me some A/C.
These formations were really cool to see.
Its kind of hard to see it but right behind us....is an arch. Long time ago, you could drive/walk across it (um, no thank you) but over time, its been wearing down so now its no longer safe to cross it.
We got to see the area where Thelma & Louise was filmed (the end scene where they drove off into "The Grand Canyon")
We used Navtec for both of our tours and were pleased.
It was a long/hot day but we came home to our cabin and this view. Stunning.
The next day we ventured out on our second excursion in Canyon Lands. This day consisted of extreme 4X4 off roading (I had no clue) and hiking in the Needles area of the park. On our way out, we saw more carvings.
So when we booked this trip, Shawn told me that we would be doing some 4X4 driving.....you know, in a Jeep and up some steep mountains. Nope. This was a suicide attempt. This was willingly getting into a jacked up Land Cruiser and going across rocks that are not meant to be climbed. This was driving so close to the edge that if one tire accidentally slipped, the entire car would fall off the mountain. I took some video.....in between closing my eyes, clutching the seats, and inhaling my peppermint oil....but it wouldn't load here. Ya'll, it was cra-zy. Never ever again.
This was so tight that we slowed down to an almost stop. Had to bring the side mirrors in and carefully maneuver through it. Gah!
Once we got the the stopping place, we ate some fruit and sandwiches and loaded up on our hike.
Now, we knew this would be a hot day. We had checked the weather app on our phones when packing for this trip but we had no idea that a major heat wave would blow through and it would get up to 105-107 during the daytime. I'm sorry but hiking in 105 is just miserable.
This was a very strenuous hike. Add on the heat and I was borderline miserable.
Crawling up tight spaces.
Seeing stacked rocks along the way.
Now this is where the hike got really cool. Literally. We hiked through these very narrow cracks or "joints" between the rocks. It was naturally cool inside and was a very welcomed break from the scorching heat.
This was taken while I was walking and I pointed my camera up to the sky. See how narrow it is?
The view at the top was gorgeous and provided panoramic beauty.
After we almost died got back down the mountain, we went back to our car and made our way to our next hotel.
For those of you that don't know me, I am fascinated by unusual lodging. Give me a treehouse, an igloo (on my bucket list), any sort of hotel that is cool and unusual and I'm in. When we were searching for hotels for this trip, I came across these teepees and I just knew I needed to stay there. Shawn was not as convinced and it took some major begging on my part to get him on board. There were 3 "levels" of rooms- basic teepee (no toilet or shower- had to use community bath), deluxe teepee with toilet and shower and the deluxe suite that was larger and had the toilet/shower as well. The middle option was sold out and I knew that the basic teepee would not work for us. I get up a couple times each night to use the restroom and I knew I wouldn't want to walk outside to do that. So, we reserved the deluxe suite. I didn't pay much attention to the details of the room. I heard the words "deluxe" and "suite" and figured we would be fine.
We pulled into the area and I got really excited. There was a huge open area that had teepees all spread out. It was beautiful.
We go to the large tent that served as the lobby/check-in area. It was really pretty and had some refreshments and a fire pit and some couches to sit on. Things were going great so far.
And then they told us.
No Wifi (I figured)
No TV (of course not, wouldn't want it anyways)
No A/C (what???)
No electricity (huh??)
Yall, if looks. could. kill.
And then I did what I always do when the situation is uncomfortable: I laugh.
We got to our room and I'm trying to build it up and talk about what a neat experience this will be...blah, blah, blah.....the entire time I'm dying inside that we will not have air conditioning. We just finished the hottest/hardest/longest hike of our lives and we now learn that air is not in our future.
I talk about how everyone on Trip Advisor raves about how comfy this bed is. Yep, he's not buying it.
We discover that our "shower" has the pull down chain and turns off the second you let go. There is no way to control the temperature of the water since its natural and because it was as hot as the sun's surface that day, we didn't get a cool/refreshing shower but a hot one.
But the view is nice, right?
We check out the welcome basket and find 2 hot waters inside. He's fuming at this point. And did I mention that this teepee is the MOST expensive lodging of our entire 10 day trip? Even more than the Waldorf??
I wasn't sure if I should be annoyed or laugh at the fan in our room. It's the size of a baseball and we got ONE. Of course, I let him have it on his side of the bed....which meant I felt nothing. We had a battery pack that charged the fan and lantern.
I decided to sit outside and get some breeze. Heat aside, it really was a neat place.
He's trying to make the most of it but he's not impressed.
We found out that they do smores each night so daddy was excited about that at least.
We walked back to our teepee and spent some time in the chairs under the stars. It felt nice with the breeze and the view was amazing. It was great to step away from technology and talk and spend some time in nature. We saw a shooting star before going back inside.
We made the mistake of just dropping our bags down and not getting settled when we first arrived. Because of the no electricity, we had no lights other than the dim light from the lantern. I had to search for pajamas and my toothbrush in the dark and manage to get showered. We felt like real pioneers that night. Ha! We laid down (on the comfy bed) and tried to fall asleep. I was almost certain I would wake in the morning to the bed by myself and Shawn at the Marriott down the street but much to my surprise....he was still there the next day.
My review: this place was really cool. It would have been WAY better if we came in April or October instead of during a heat wave. I felt like we couldn't really enjoy it because of the heat. But for those of you that like unusual lodging or just want a different experience, I think you should check it out.
We went back into Arches to hike and explore.
I never travel without this guy. Using national park restrooms (aka: a hole in the ground) is disgusting.
We made our way back to Salt Lake, spent the night and flew home the next day. Then on Friday, we got to pick these boys up. I could not wait! And as you can see, camp wiped them out!!
