Moab...Day 5...

On Tuesday we woke up to find that it had finally stopped snowing.  We packed up to load the car to start the long drive back to Salt Lake City.  Since we had time, we decided to stop off at Arches National Park so that we could finally see Delicate Arch.  Well, guess what???

Yeah, no Delicate Arch for us.

The park was closed and the ranger told us that she was hoping it would open around 1:00 pm.  We would be halfway to Salt Lake by then.  We laughed.  I wanted to cry, but what is that going to do.  Of course we were going to miss out on seeing the most well known arch in all of Utah.  The one that is on the license plates of Utah.  Of course we were.  

We continued on our way and decided to stop off at Sego Canyon, an area that we learned about the day prior while at the brewery.  Sego Canyon is known for having petroglyphs.  It was one of the quietest places I have ever been.  We were the only people out there and it was dead quiet.  

Sego Canyon wall art

Sego Canyon

This set of wall art was my favorite

A little more across the street on private property.

The drive back to Salt Lake City was absolutely beautiful.  We apparently missed a turn somewhere and stayed on I-70 longer than we needed to.  Alas, it was beautiful and only about 25 minutes out of the way.  Once we got to Salt Lake, we stopped off at Temple Square for a little bit of Mormon history.  As it turns out, non-Mormons are not allowed inside the Temple.  We learned this after we tried to get inside the beautiful ornate doors.  In our defense, we visit beautiful chapels in Europe all the time!  The Mormon lady that stopped us was super nice and told us about all the things non-Mormons can see.  We got the airport and enjoyed some drinks before our short flight home.  I somehow was able to sleep the entire flight.  We arrived home to more snow and Ken kindly drove me to the hospital the following morning.  It was a great little getaway to a new place!

Moab...Day 4...

We woke up to quite a bit of snow.  We hopped in the car and drove to Arches hoping to be able to see Delicate Arch in the snow. 

The three gossips in Arches National Park

We made it about a mile from Delicate Arch and had to turn around because the visibility was terrible.  We figured we would come back later when the snow stopped.  Yeah, sure.

We decided to instead go for a run on a greenway path around Moab.  We bundled up and hit the road.

Lots of beautiful snow

A snowy-running date for two!

The snow against the red rocks is really something to see.

Beautiful

We ended up running all the way to Arches National Park so that we could get a picture with the sign.  Sure, it would have been easier to stop for a picture while in the car, but we thought this would be more fun.

Jackson's at Arches National Park

We ran 10 miles and afterwards we went for a delicious lunch in downtown.  The joke was on us about going back to Arches, because it never stopped snowing.  It ended up snowing a foot!

Hitting up the brewery in the snow!

We talked with some locals at the brewery and they told us that it never snows this much in Moab.  I guess they usually only get about six inches of snow all year.  Well, that record was certainly broken while we were there!  We enjoyed chatting with them and they also gave us some tips of this to do the following day.  We we got back to our VRBO, we ordered pizza and hit the hot tub for a little wine and relaxation.  It was so much fun.

Snow, snow, and more snow!

I had no idea how much fun the hot tub would be in the snow.

We definitely enjoyed our final night in Moab!

Moab...Day 3...

We woke up on Sunday and I finished off a little homework before we headed out for the day. We grabbed some breakfast from our favorite little cafe, Love Muffin, and started the drive to Dead Horse State Park.  We were excited to get to do a hike that would take us to Dead Horse Point.

Blue skies and views for days.  This was just outside of the visitors' center.

We did a six mile hike that took us all the way to Dead Horse Point.  It was an easy hike, we just dealt with a little bit of mud and left over snow.

Ken checking out one of the steep drop offs.

I stayed pretty far from the edge, since I am terrified of heights.  

The views reminded me so much of the Grand Canyon.

Ken with one of the monuments.  I loved the monuments.  I find them so interesting.

Dead Horse Point.  It was so beautiful.  I love how the Colorado River loops around.

Best friends, exploring a new area together.

So excited and intrigued by this area.

As we were taking photos, it started to snow.  Just moments later, the view was completely covered by clouds.  We felt very lucky to have arrived when we did to see the view of the river.

Once we arrived back at the visitors' center, the beautiful view we saw was no more.

Please see the first picture from the day!  What a difference a few hours can make.

We arrived back at our VRBO and decided to hop in the hot tub to enjoy a little wine while it snowed.  We had big plans to get out and get dinner, but we were having so much fun in the hot tub with the snow and some wine, that we skipped going out to dinner.  We laughed, listened to music, and had so much fun.

Having so much fun in the hot tub.  So. Much. Fun.

Ken eventually walked down the street and got us some take out for dinner.  I never imagined sitting in the hot tub in the snow could be so much fun.  It was definitely one of my favorite nights to date.  Just picturing the snow piling up on my head is enough to make me laugh!

Moab...Day 1 and 2:

With Presidents' Day falling around Ken's birthday, we decided that we would take a quick little trip this year.  We debated about going to Sedona, but since we have been there a few times, we opted for Moab, Utah.  We did not really know much about Utah, but knew we could visit a few National Parks in Moab. 

We woke up on Friday and went to the airport for our 9:00 am flight.  Snow was in the forecast for Kansas City and luckily, we took off 15 minutes before the snow started.  We flew into Salt Lake City and got a rental car and started our four hour drive to Moab.  Since I had just worked four shifts in a row, I naturally fell asleep on the drive.  I have no idea why, but I cannot keep my eyes open in the car anymore.  This started on our Norway trip and seems to have continued. 

We saw some beautiful scenery on the drive and we finally arrived in Moab.  We checked into our VRBO and went out for a walk in downtown Moab.  Moab is pretty sleepy this time of year, but we did find the local brewery.  We enjoyed some drinks and ended up calling it an early evening since we were both pretty tired.

We woke up on Saturday and started our drive to Canyonlands National Park.  It had snowed overnight and the ground was covered with snow.  The roads were fine, so we continued on with our plans.  We made the turn onto the road that would ultimately take us into to Canyonlands and it was completely covered.  We debated about turning around, but decided to continue on and we were glad that we did.

The road leading to Canyonlands

So much snow.  

Sure, most people would turn around, but not us.  Side note:  my drivers license fell out of my pocket when I got out of the car to get take this picture.  Obviously, I did not realize until later.  My poor license is alone and scared on some random road in Utah.

The drive was a little sketchy for a bit, but after getting to the other side of the canyon the snow cleared and it was beautiful.  I really had no idea how beautiful Utah would be.

The red rocks against the snow made for a beautiful contrast of color.

Almost to Canyonlands

The pair of monuments were my favorite

We really felt like fortunate to get to see snow in the high desert.

Once we arrived to Canyonlands, we found the trail head for the hike we were doing in the needles to Chesler Park.  We parted and hit the trail.  

The needles

We saw some pretty amazing scenery.  I will let the pictures do most of the talking.  It was beautiful!

We went back and forth from being cold and then hot and then cold again!

The trail went between two these two steep walls

We reached a section of trail that was completely covered with ice on an uphill with a steep drop off.  We both barely made it up the section, only to find another section that was even steeper.  I tried to get up it, but there was no way we would be able to make it.  We decided to turn around as neither of us felt like sliding off to our deaths.  There may have been a little drama with us getting back down the first steep section.  We were bummed about having to turn around, but it was kind of out of our hands.

So much snow and hidden ice

Keri Arch

We left Canyolands and drove back to Moab.  We decided to go ahead and stop at Arches National Park for a bit since we still had a little daylight.  Arches was different than I was expecting.  I was kind of expecting arches to be everywhere, kind of like palm trees.  Nonetheless, it was beautiful.

Balanced Rock

Balanced Rock selfie

I loved the mountains behind the red rocks

Double Arch

The windows

We hiked the primitive trail to get to the windows and had the entire back side to ourselves.

The moon through one of the windows

The three gossips

We left Arches and went to the brewery for dinner.  We sat in the bar area and invited another couple to sit with us since the place was packed and we had a table for four.  We chatted with them the whole time, which was nice since Ken and I had been together all day.  

We walked home in the snow, excited about the next time.  So far, Moab had captured our hearts.