Moab

Days 53 - 56 (September 15, 2021 - September 18, 2021)

For a few days we stayed in Castle Valley, just outside of Moab. Kim and Lori offered to let us stay in the vacation yurt they built there, which was a little haven in an amazing place.

It even had a quite the view from the composting toilet.

We had lovely evenings at the yurt...

Appetizing on chips with Monisha's new favorite salsa:

Feasting on burgers and wine on the porch:

Reading and drinking seltzers at happy hour: 

We also played Innovation and card + dice games, made hot cocoa, and of course watched some more Downton Abbey!

Our first full day in the area, we explored Canyonlands, an awesome and much less crowded counterpart to Arches (which seems to be full most days). Mesa Arch is one of the most famous structures in Canyonlands. We had seen pictures of it, and were amazed by how much cooler it is in real life! For some reason seeing a stunning view through an arch is much more striking than the sum of its parts. Anyway, here are some pictures we took that don't do it justice ;)


Another highlight of Canyonlands was the end of the Grand Viewpoint Trail. For one, there was a pretty awesome view. 



Even more excitingly, there was a crack we had a lot of fun attempting to chimney climb. It was actually quite doable except for the very last part of climbing out onto the top of the rock. Neither of us could succeed at this bit, because our bodies didn't quite fit...


Our last Canyonlands hike was to Upheaval Dome, a formation that could either be a salt dome or an eroded impact crater, they don't know which. The hike goes to two different viewpoints, and we had fun forging our way to yet one more a little further along. We also did a lot of running up and down rock formations, which was both challenging and exhilarating.


Moab was hot. So we found several ways to cool off! The first day we arrived, we waded into the river at Sandy Beach.

Another afternoon, we got smoothies at a food truck.


One of the days, Monisha decided she was saturated by hiking to beautiful places and seeing amazing things. The idea of a relaxed day that involved water sounded great. So, we bought a variety pack of Bon & Viv hard seltzers, packed snacks and pb&j sandwiches, rented tubes, and went tubing down the Colorado River! It was perfect. We both agreed it was the ideal way to spent the day.




And after our tubing ride, one of the employees gave us a jar of peach jalapeno jam she made herself! Which, we found our later, is truly delicious.

Moab has this cool little square of a bunch of food trucks, and that evening we liked the idea of continuing our relaxed day vibes. So we got a couple of very good pizzas from another food truck.



Thank you (again!) Kim and Lori, for inviting us to use your Castle Valley yurt. It really enhanced our stay in the area!

Comments

  1. Kevin SpenceSeptember 23, 2021 at 8:45 PM

    Fantastic! Isn't Castle Valley amazing?!?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kevin SpenceSeptember 23, 2021 at 9:01 PM

    'Can't wait to see where you're headed next! And I'm so glad you're blogging the trip and posting pictures!' Says Kevin

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Day in Bend

Image
Days 3 - 4 (July 27 - 28, 2021)  As mentioned in our last post, the next stop on our trip was a trip to Bend, Oregon. We were kind of scoping it out as a potential future place to live. We stayed in an Airbnb with a wonderful host named Lawana. She made us feel very at home. We drank tea together, enjoyed some of her delicious homemade apple butter, and cuddled with her golden retriever Hana.  The third day of our trip was spent wandering around Bend. We took a walk along the river trail, stopped by Sparrow Bakery (per Courtney, Owen, and Freya's recommendation) for lunch, an oat latte, and a cardamom roll, and had a delicious Thai dinner. The next morning, Monisha woke up early and went on a morning run along the Deschutes River. After breakfast, we packed up the car and drove to the Portland airport to pick up Bryce and Lexie! It was quite a squeeze to fit everyone, and all our luggage and groceries into our already full car. But we managed it, and all drove together to the Washi
Read more

The Hyalites of Missoula and Bozeman

Image
Day 35 (August 28, 2021) We drove back into Missoula and headed to the farmers market. We stocked up on a bunch of fresh veggies, and then wandered through the downtown streets. There was quite a bit of activity as we passed a flea market, what looked like a small music festival getting set up, a family festival with all sorts of fun booths, and a second farmers market! After a quick bite to eat from a Japanese food stand at the second farmers market, we headed out to get some WiFi. We considered heading to a cafe, but then realized that Missoula has a fantastic public library. The building is modern, and filled with many lovely spaces to hang out and use their free internet. We found a sunny spot on the third floor and wrote our last blog post. That evening we found another awesome free campsite out by some dirt bike/atv trails. Using our freshly purchased vegetables we spent some extra time making a pasta sauce with eggplant, tomatoes, red wine, Tuscan herbs, and cream. We paired our
Read more

Canyons and Axes

Image
Day 63 (September 25, 2021) Last night we realized that we were actually camped closer to Zion than Bryce Canyon, so we decided to head there first. Zion is one of the busiest national parks, and it's advisable to get there early to find parking and enjoy slightly less crowded trails. We did not manage to pull off an early arrival to the park, and pulled into the visitor center lot around 10:30am. At that point parking was completely full inside Zion, so we had to drive out to the nearby town of Springdale and walk around 1.5 miles back.  Once we were back at the visitor center, we waited for a shuttle to take us to our chosen trailhead: Angel's Landing. Nolan had originally wanted to do the less crowded hike to Observation Point, but that trail was closed due to a massive rock fall. So Angel's Landing it was! For those who haven't heard of it, Angel's Landing is one of the most famous hikes in the world. The trail starts with a short flat section before beginning t
Read more