Dietz Summer Road Trip

We absolutely love MOAB. So much so that John bought a bumper sticker for the truck. Moab is the hot spot between Arches and Canyonlands and we loved everything about it. We woke up this morning early to try to get onboard a rafting trip from one of the many Outdoor/Adventure Companies. We were recommend Canyon Voyages by our Campground host lady. We eere also given a discount card to save $6. We were able to get on the half day-AM tour, which took you down 13 miles or so of the Colorado River. It was a beautiful morning, the weather was just perfect. To get to our put in for the raft/kayak trip we drove about 40 minutes along “River Road”, which according to our guide was voted the 2nd most scenic drive in America. It is a stretch of road that runs along the Colorado River in Utah, which great bike paths, Reserved land, and beautiful red cliff backdrops. Also along this road/area John Wayne shot a film or two (“El Dorado” specifically) and something about the Marlboro Man. He was from here, or his parents, either way there was a reference to the cigarette smoking cowboy.

There were 11 of us on the trip and we had a raft and a little 2 person kayak/canoe thing. Last summer we went rafting on the Nantahala, in the Smokeys and loved it. We have been looking forward to doing it again, but neither of us have ever really kayaked or been in a canoe together before. Today was the perfect day to try! We got to get out and swim a little in the river. There were 4 rapids total, the first 2 were in the raft and the second 2, the more exciting, we were in the “ducky” as they called it. So much fun and we survived and have the pictures to prove it!

Of course there was a “Moab Action Shot” company out on the river that took your official pictures. We went later that night and bought them, and some frozen yogurt because the guy runs the Picture business out of the back of his “Mo-Yo” Frozen Yogurt shop, obviously.

After the trip was over the drive you back to the store where you get a free sticker (yay!) and 10% off one item (John got a pair of Chaco flip-flops). We changed into dry clothes and looked on Trip Advisor for a place for lunch. We found something called El Charro Loco, located in a strip mall behind a Chinese Food place. We walked in around 1pm and there was no one in there. They have to turn the music on for us. But we were starving so it was going to work. We ordered Fajitas and Chicken Enchiladas and boy were they good. We discovered that you just have to go west to get better tasting Mexican food.

After lunch we were tired and in a food induced coma so we headed back to our campground and relaxed for a little bit. Around 4:30pm we started to wake ourselves up and wanted to check out Arches in the evening because 1) it was way too hot during the afternoon and 2) we wanted to see the arches at dusk. It was a really quick drive to Arches, the visitor center was packed. The road to get in was packed. You can tell this is a popular destination.

We wanted to drive to just a few spots and save our hike for Delicate Arch. Driving though the park was gorgeous, the rocks looked like giants compared to us. You twist and turn through them until we came to our first stop. We stopped at Balancing Rock, Windows, and Double Arch. All very quick little stops not far off from the pull off point. The pictures are in that order:

A little further drive will take you to Wolf Creek which is the trailhead for Delicate Arch. It is about a 3 mile round trip hike to the base of Delicate Arch. We wanted to get there at dusk because the skies here at night are a beautiful purple-blueish color. The hike was rated “Difficult” by the Park Administration. You do have to climb straight up the open face of a smoothed rock. So yeah it was a little difficult, but once you got there is was so worth it. We just sat there enjoyed being there and waited as the sun started to go down. It started to get really windy and dust started to fly. Thunder and Lightening had us head back to the car a little earlier than we planned but we did get a view of the sunset (somewhat) as we walked down. Delicate Arch was crowded, and it seemed like a lot of foreign tourists there. But then you blocked everything else out and just looked at it, it was amazing. By the time we left the park it was about 9pm. We were hungry and tired!

We went into Moab and got Pizza at a place called “Pasta Jay’s”. We ate it before it even had a chance to cool. Back to the campground and feel right asleep since we had no noisy neighbors tonight!