Arches and Canyonlands

On Monday, we rented a car and headed out to Moab, Utah.  The Sonic stops started the day we headed out.  Sonic happy hour slushes with all-American hot dogs?  Yes, please.

Moab is right in the middle of Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.  We got to Moab late in the afternoon, set up our tent at a campsite/RV park, and then walked around downtown.  We had "picnic" with our dehydrated meal in a city park.

Winds were picking up that evening and we came back to our tent to find everything inside covered in sand and dirt that had drifted in with the wind.  The winds were gusts between 25-40 mph.  They even woke us up during the night.

The next day, we woke up early and spent the day at Arches National Park.  The park is pretty vehicle-friendly.  We drove down the main road and stopped at almost every overlook and arch.  At some of them, we hiked out to see them (the hikes were no more than 1-3 miles).

It was 99 degrees that day in Arches!  

Our "little tangerine" of a car.  She got a beating on this trip through sand storms, smelly hiking gear, and a little off roading.

We tried to find a good place to hang out by the Colorado River for the afternoon, but with the winds, and then me cutting my toe pretty bad near the river, we decided just to go back to the campsite and sit by the tiny pool they had.  That night we had a great dinner at the Moab Brewery.  The home-brewed root beer was really good!

At sunset, we hiked out to Delicate Arch in the park.  Apparently it was the thing to do, because there were probably 50 other people there waiting to get pictures at sunset.  The winds were around 50 mph at the arch and my foot was throbbing, so we took a few pictures and then headed out.

The next day, we woke up, packed everything up, and drove to see Canyonlands National Park.

This park was also vehicle-friendly, so we mostly just drove around the park, stopping at overlooks and hiking short distances to see other overlooks.  It was very interesting landscape.

After seeing a lot of Canyonlands, we got back in our car and headed towards Grand Canyon National Park.  Most of the drive was through the Navajo Reservation.  Barren land.  And this was our view for 3+ hours.  The winds were so strong that they created a sand/dirt storm as bad as an Eastern blizzard in the cold of January.

 Highlight: We saw the Google Street maps car at a gas station!

After spending 2 nights "in the dirt" as Bryce said, we stayed at a hotel in Tuba City, AZ to break up the drive.  Another night of glorious hot showers, McDonald's hamburgers for dinner, and a good night sleep on a bed with real pillows that you don't have to blow up.