Days 4 & 5

Yesterday I lost track of time and what day it was. That’s the best feeling ever! We spent 7 hours in the car. It was a super scenic drive out of Estes Park down into Moab!We arrived at the campground around 3pm and spent a couple hours decompressing from the drive. We set up and then decided to drive down the street to Arches National Park to scope out the trailhead to Delicate Arch and see the overall beauty the park had to offer.Last night we were in bed dead asleep by 8:30/9pm. We had to get up super early today so we could make a sunrise hike to the Delicate Arch!

We had an insane morning. We woke up at 3:15, left our camper around 3:45 and were on trail by 4:30. We were the only people in the lot that early which meant we got to head up the trail with nobody to kinda guide us. This wasn’t our first night hike but it was kinda scary because the trail is marked with cairns on a giant flat slickrock. Basically, you just go up and follow the cairns and let me tell ya, that was hard to do in the dark with a failing headlamp! Luckily Turkey’s was super bright (thank you LuxPro! Fantastic!)

The walk up was pretty strenuous but short (and worth it!) Less than 5 minutes of finding our way to the top, another guy walked up and said “I see I’m not the only crazy one!” We laughed and the three of us sat together for about 10 minutes as other people slowly started to come up. Overall there were probably 15-20 of us waiting for the sunrise.Wow, was it worth it! And then, because ridiculous things have to happen to me and I can’t make this crap up…I was reaching for my pullover and going to load some things back up in my pack and my Nalgene…rolled off the cliff. In front of everyone. In the dead silence. Facepalm.

It was slow motion. “Sh*t sh*t sh*t!” I pointed and violently whispered to Turkey. He tried to stop it but that little Nalgene was on a mission: roll as loudly and obnoxiously as possible, fly off a ledge and explode on the canyon floor.

Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, woosh, BAM! It echoed, taunting me.

Oh god, I didn’t look up or make eye contact with anyone again after that! I was so embarrassed! I practice Leave No Trace religiously, so before I even said anything Turkey said, “I’ll go down and get it, don’t worry.” He’s my hero!He sure did walk back down and go off trail to fetch my poor, shattered Nalgene I’ve had with me for a long time. Goodbye old friend.

When we left Arches, we drove to Canyonlands. After today, I believe Canyonlands has become one of my favorite National Parks! The drive in was absolutely stunning. I am drawn so much to the west and the desert and this park easily made it’s way into my heart. After we left Canyonlands we had lunch at a little cafe called Moab Giants. It’s a cheesy little dinosaur themed walk through park with a bunch of outdoor dinosaur statues and a museum. It was right up our alley, but not for $22 a ticket! Oh well, we got the gist! However, I got a Caprese sandwich and now every other sandwich is ruined for me. It was SO good.

Then we needed frozen yogurt because it’s 100 degrees outside. We haven’t eaten out much on this trip, only 3 times since Sunday. We either grill, use the crockpot or pick up something from a gas station to tide us over until we land at a campground.

Tonight we will do some laundry and try to get cozy early again. We are exhausted from today! Tomorrow we plan on hitting a grocery store and making another 7 hour drive south to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. I am ready for a cold Fat Tuesday slushee and am currently trying to convince Turkey to let me play on Fremont Street for an hour or two!

We’re getting very close to our California destination where we will be for 5 days. No driving, just some tent and backcountry camping. I am very excited for the days to come. We have so much time left on this vacation! It’s been wonderful and relaxing so far. We are knocking some stuff off of our “to see” list, and having the best time.

We just really, really miss our pups. And our families too 😜

Til tomorrow!

J