Moab, Utah....

Get ready this is a long post! Mostly pictures with a bit of explanation in between. 

We Just returned home from a great weekend in Moab, Utah. We left Salt Lake on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Moab around 8pm. It was a hot 94 degrees when we arrived but that was the last we would see of that kind of heat. 

Day 1

Just before dark as we were getting ready to make our dinner, this guy crawled over Justin's foot. As you can see he was huge.  All he wanted to do was burrow in the sand. We were careful to make sure we all kept our shoes on when outside.  Otherwise he didn't bother us at all.  Later we found him dead.  

We were also waiting for some friends from church to get there as well. They arrived safely and we soon went to bed.

Day 2

I had heard about a park where there were Musical instruments and I knew we had to check it out. This park is on Millcreek Rd.  Just a hop skip and a jump away from where we were staying on Murphy's Lane. This is the Rotary park and it had 3 playgrounds and nice walking trails.  Our favorite playground was the one below. IT WAS AMAZING. We all had a ton of fun here.

As you can see it is starting to rain.... so we left but we did come back later that day and many more times through out our trip.

We ended up leaving the park and then heading out to a place called Indian Ladder. It is really easy to get too. It is on Kane Creek Rd. We had great hopes of being able to climb I really wanted to go up but,  my legs were too short and I did not have the upper body strength to even get up the first bit. And as I caught my husband saying on video to another guy in our group, "My wife would never be able to make this". It's ok the only people who were able to make it were 3 guys out of the group.  He didn't know I had the video camera on watching him on his way down. I did not end up taking any photos here. Justin did take a lot of photos though.

After that we headed to some thrift stores, Wabi Sabi.  It was a great little thrift store. We picked up a brand new pair of swim trunks for Justin, Tags still on and everything, $4. A can of tennis balls $1. Some Litton ware 4 pieces  for a total of $4.50. Litton ware is a microwaveable cookware. I have a few pieces from a yard sale. My Mother in Law introduced me to it. It can cook in the microwave or reheat but it stays cool to the touch.  I love this stuff. I found 2 square pieces. 1 small round and a very Large deep round pot/bowl. All with lids!!!

Next we headed back to the Rotary park so the kids could play more.

Also at this park was a huge tree stump. It was old and the middle was hollowed out. It was almost like an Arch made of tree. I never got a shot of the whole thing, like I wanted to. But I got the kids in front of it as in this picture,

and on top of it.

After that we headed back to camp to make dinner, and sit by the fire. It was kind of chilly. We were also waiting on the last people in our group to get to Moab. They pulled in right in time for dinner.

Day 3

Saw us headed into Arches National Park as a group. We decided we needed to climb to Delicate Arch. It is the one on the Utah license plate. So my kids kept calling it License Plate Arch. First stop on the trail was at Wolfe Ranch. 2 little log cabins. I mean little, teeny, tiny, squishy inside cabins. The man who built them lived in the first one which is partially under ground. When he brought his wife there, he built a slightly larger one with a wood floor. When I say these cabins are small we are talking ONE room cabins. The table took up most of the room.  

Here is a picture of Zac and Jo wishing they could purchase it and move right in!  Ok I'm joking.

Here is the photo I was not going to post, however I needed proof that I actually did climb this thing and I lived to tell about it. But Just barely! The hike is only 1.5 miles all up hill. There is an elevation gain of 480 ft.  At this point in the trail I had handed Justin my camera, thus the photo. And had gone through 1 1/2 bottles of water. Upon handing the camera off I got a cramp in my shoulder that started traveling all the way down my back. I started shaking, my whole body was trembling and I could not stop. This was about the time that the feelings of impending doom started.  I continued on my way, holding Justin's hand. I just kept telling myself I needed to get there. I finished off my water, and the cramps started to subside and the shaking went away with it. We were almost to the top!  This is supposed to be a 45 minute hike each way. I know I took at least an hour and a half.  The kids and the rest of the group made it up and waited for us.

About the time I got there, the rain and thunder started.  So it was a quick trip down the mountain once again.

This time we were racing down, it is an open area and we were trying to beat the chance of Lightning. Elyssa was my hand holder. The wind started blowing and the rain started coming down, she was freezing, so I took off my t-shirt and put it on her. I thankfully was wearing layers, and had a tank top on. By the time we got to the bottom we were drenched. Soaked through in the way that water was dripping out of my hair and into my eyes and my shirt was dripping and my bra was soaked through. Can I just state for the record that when we started our hike it was HOT like 80 degrees hot, when we got back in the truck it was only 51 degrees. We decided we were all cold and wet and miserable, so we were not going back to camp to eat, we wanted some quick easy lunch!

After lunch half of our group headed back to camp to put a dutch oven to cook. It had a smoked pork shoulder, Kirk had prepared and it was to be our dinner. We were having pulled pork sandwiches. Then we met up with the rest of our group at Indian Ladder again. The kids liked looking at the petroglyphs there, and playing in the wet sand. After a few hours of exploring we went back to Arches and explored the Sand Dune Arch. It is by far the easiest and most fun arch to explore. The hike is .3 miles round trip. The picture here is the first thing you see when you round the bend. The terrain changes from solid ground to sand, deep, soft, red sand. FINE sand. 

Like the best beach sand ever!

One more slot canyon that is super short and you are almost there.  You get the reward of seeing this. and playing in the natural sandbox below.

Here are a few of our guys on top of the Arch. Elyssa made it too. Last year she could not make it but she has grown a few inches and only needed help in a few spots. 

(Zac, Elyssa, Justin, Kirk)

(Justin, Elyssa, Anthony)

Here they are coming down. But I wanted a picture first!

I thought I would do a Photo Shoot under the arch in a cave like area. I can't figure out which is my favorite so I put all 3. After all, they are my most favorite faces!

It had been a LONG DAY! I could barely walk. So we went back to camp, and everything was wet! Camp chairs, tents, sleeping bags, the ground, the picnic tables, the marshmallows. Luckily we had more marshmallows in the trailer and the Roaring fire was nice and hot, we were able to sit on coolers, and we had the best pulled pork sandwiches and s'mores you ever tasted.

Pack Creek Camp Ground is AWESOME!  It has flush toilets and hot showers, washers and dryers and free Wi Fi. It made it a lot easier to deal with the rain showers, and the cold. Also the Management is super lenient they told us Check-Out was whenever we left. 

Day 4

We woke up and the sun was shining!!!! Time to clean up and get ready to go home.  We still had some exploring to do with the intent of heading home around 3 pm.  The kids kept themselves busy making new friends and building an arch of their own. While cleaning up and making breakfast, I put all of our dirty laundry to wash. After breakfast I folded and bagged it all.  It only cost $1.50 for the wash and 50 cents for the dry but to me it is priceless not having piles of laundry to hall in, that is all covered in red sand. 

Elyssa and Vahn

Next We headed to Powerhouse Lane. It is also on Millcreek Rd. From here you have a super short dirt road that leads to a trail head. At the trail head there are warnings about keeping your dogs leashed and out of the beaver ponds because the beavers would attack the dogs, then warnings about poison ivy etc....  We were there because on the little creek below, there are swimming holes! Once again I didn't take photos but Justin did. It is the coolest spot for hanging out in the water. The kids were exploring and climbing and wading. 

After that it was lunch time at the Rotary Park again. Then we filled the truck with gas hitched up the trailer and headed home. We made great time. Only had a couple of rainstorms on the way, and drove into Salt Lake in time to see the storms and a beautiful rainbow.

It was a great weekend despite the storms and rain. I think I only whined once, and Justin laughed at me. 

Today I am so sore I can barely walk. Seriously! I am not exaggerating. I think the bottoms of my feet are bruised as well. 

But we are home and we brought lots of pictures and memories with us!