Arches & Canyonlands

Oh my, what a treat it has been to spend days in the beautiful high desert. 

The redish orange canyons and incredible arches formed over hundreds of years, tell you stories through their unique twist, turns and layers. 

We've spent three days now in Moab crusing from site to site and hiking to a few beautifully remote locations. 

Some of the best spots have been our day hikes to delicate arch, landscape arch and my favorite Mesa arch in Canyonlands. 

Yesterday we met an awesome couple Don and Carol from Washington state. The newly retired, former restaurant owners have a beautiful home just outside of Moab. Don is an excellent chef  and treated us to a home cooked meal last night. 

Tomorrow we'll be headed to Mesa Verde in Colorado! 

Stay tuned! 

Double Arch

Delicate Arch

Navajo Arch

Landscape Arch

Mesa Arch

Jumbo Raven

GrandView @ Canyonlands

Prehistoric Petroglyphs in the desert.  

With Don and Carol in Moab. 

See you soon friends! 

Zion and Bryce Canyon

After leaving the Grand Canyon we headed north to Zion National Park. 

We stayed just outside of the park in Springdale at the Pioneer lodge.

 From the outside the hotel looks dated, but the rooms are totally renovated and it's one of the cleanest and friendliest places we've stayed! 

On our first full day in the park we hiked the famous "Angels Landing" trail. We hiked up the few hundred feet of twist, turns and cliffs that will make your jaw drop. In some places there are chains to hold on to, but mostly it's just a matter of being sure footed and careful. 

The view was amazing and totally worth the 2 hours to the top. We met a nice local couple while at the summit we shared stories while eating lunch and chasing of bandit chipmunks. 

From Zion we headed north east towards Bryce Canyon National Park. I had seen pictures of Bryce, but it was even more incredible in person. After stopping at the vistor center we drove out to the Navajo loop trail head, which connects with the Queens Garden trail. 

The view from the top is stunning, but If your going to make the trek out to the canyon, I highly recommend doing the entire loop trail that takes you down into the canyon where you can stand among the beautiful carved hoodoos. 

We are currently in Park City,Utah. It snowed our first day here and we are enjoying the sites and relaxing for a bit before we get back on the road. 

Zion

Bryce Canyon 

Grand Canyon

We spent a few days this week at the Grand Canyon. We arrived late Tuesday evening and stayed at The Grand hotel just outside of the south rim of the canyon. 

We enjoyed walking the rim and visiting the different historical buildings around the park. 

We stopped at the Hopi house, the Kolb brothers art studio and visited the famous mules that hike the canyon. 

My absolute favorite thing we did was vist the Desert View Watchtower on the southeast side of the canyon. The tower is one of many structures designed by architect Mary Colter in 1932. I love how she designed the building to look like a Native American ruin with mixed media and commissioned Hopi artwork, which covers the walls. 

 Sunset on the Colorado River.