Utah

April 21 (Sun) Saint Charles, IL - Moab, UT

Travel Day

Long travel day. Started with limo pick-up at 9:45am. Flew to Denver and had an extra long layover due to storms. Then flew to Moab, UT. and drove to out cottage arriving 7:00pm. Uneventful. Long.

A couple of pics of Moab's tiny airport.

Dinner at Zax

We went back into Moab for dinner. Nothing special. A pizza place with a good salad bar.

Lodging - Airbnb - Bob's Place

Two nights. This is the first time we have used Airbnb for lodging. This was a small cottage on the same property as the owner, who we met when we arrived. Living room, stocked full kitchen, bedroom, tiny bathroom. This was a nice place and way more personality than a hotel room. Although, was expecting a little better view, it was a nice place to stay. Would stay again, Rating: 3.5

April 22 (Mon)

Weather Perfect. Sunny, 70s, low humidity, cool breeze.

This is our first time here and we were blown away by the scenery.

Because I had broken my wrist pretty bad a few weeks ago, we had to alter our plans with not quite as planned. So, we did a mix of scenic driving and some shorter hikes. Which, actually turned out just fine. Today we visited Arches NP with many stops for pictures and quite a few short hikes throughout the day.

Arches National Park

On the web site we were warned that the park can be very crowded with very long lines getting into the park and parking lots at the trail heads full from 8am to 4pm. Our experience today was much better than that. It took about 30 minutes to get into the park but, even the visitor center wasn't that packed...walked right up and talked to a ranger. The parking lots were busy at the trail heads but never had a problem finding a parking spot.

We did avoid the busiest trail (Delicate Arch)because of crowds and my inability to scramble with a busted wrist. But, other than that, the hikes had some people on them but not at all as bad as was expected. Often we had sections of trail to ourselves along the way.

As you will see by the pictures below, we covered a ton of ground and saw just about the whole park.

Park Avenue, La Sal Mountains, Court House Tower, Petrified Dunes Overlooks

Various turn outs on our way to Balanced Rock. Did a short hike at the court house tower overlook.

Balanced Rock

We took a short hike to the base of Balanced Rock. Looks a little like ET from the right angle, don't you think?

Double Arch

We took a short hike to the double Arches. Awesome Arches! Look for Kathryn in a couple of the last photos (pink top).

Windows Arches

Hiked to both the North and South Window Arches. Very cool.

Garden of Eden and Panorama View Outlooks

Lower and Upper Delicate Arches View Points

Took a hike to to view the most famous arch from two view points across a valley. We decided not to do the typical hiker to the Arch because, a we saw from a distance, it is just a steadsy stream of people. And, with a bum wrist I could not do the scrambling required toward the end anyway. This turned out great anyway as we got to do so manyt other short hikes and time at all the outlooks along the way/

Salt Valley and Fiery Furnace View Points

Skyline Arch

Hiked to the base of the arch. Had the trail and the arch all to ourselves!

Devils Garden Hike and Court House Wash Outlook

Hiked this trail about halfway as it was getting later in the day.

               Windows Arches                                          Skyline Arches

An incredible first day in Utah!! Took a lot of short hikes, stopped at a ton of lookouts and enjoyed the amazing views traversing the entire park.

Dinner at Pasta Jay's

Steve goes to Moab quite a lot and his favorite restaurant is Pasta Jay's so we decided to try it. Service, atmosphere and especially the food was quite good. Kathryn had Eggplant Parmegiana and i had Portobello Cannelloni. Will be back on our next visit to Moab.

April 23 (Tue)

Weather: Perfect (again). Sunny, 70s, low humidity, cool breeze.

Canyonlands National Park - Island In The Sky District

Today we headed to Canyonlands NP which is also close to Moab. We have been told the Needles district is nicer than the Island in the Sky district but, it would have been much futher in the wrong direction of where we were headed after visiting this park so, we decided to save a couple hours of driving and visit Island in the Sky. Turn out, as the pictures will testify, still a very impressive park.

Shafer Canyon Outlook

Mesa Arch Hike

Short hike to Mesa Arch. This was an awesome arch and wasn't crowded so we were able to get some nice pictures with nobody in the frame.

Candle Stick Canyon, Buck Canyon, Orange Cliffs Over Looks

We stopped for lunch (sandwiches and fruit) at the Orange Cliffs Overlook. The view was spectacular but, unfortunately, it was kind of buggy with nats so did not stay too long.

Grand View Point Trail

Hiked the trail. It was an easy and excellent hike on a flat ridge with Canyons on either side.

                 Orange Cliffs                                       Grand View Point

After leaving Caonyonlands we headed to Torrey which is about half way across Utah. Moab to Torrey is about 160 miles and took 2 1/2 hours. The scenary was great the whole drive.

Dinner at Rim Rock Restaurant

We had dinner at nearby Rim Rock restaurant. Seated by the windows with a nice view. Kathryn had Trout and I had a Burger. Food was good and the view was great.

Lodging - Airbnb - Torrey Pines

Three nights. This was a small cabin on the same property as the owner. (20 acres). Kitchen, down stairs bedroom (2 twins), upstairs bedroom (king) with balcony, and a bathroom. This was a very nice place place to stay. In addition to the balcony, there was a wrap around deck. The views were great, and the place was quite and isolated. Even did some dark sky star gazing late at night. Definately stay here again. Rating: 4 it was a nice place to stay. Would stay again, Rating: 3.5

April 24 (Wed)

Weather: Perfect (again). Sunny, 70s, low humidity, cool breeze.

Capitol Reef National Park

Park Entrance, Orientation Pullout, Chimney Rock, Panorama Point,

Headed to Capitol Reef. Crowds very light (as expected compared to Arches). Took some pictures at the park entrance and a couple of pullouts with a brief hike at Chimney Rock. Panorama Point was great for some pictures. Of course, then stopped at the Visitor Center.

Grand Wash Hike

Our main activity for the day was hiking the Grand Wash. This was a relatively long hike. Flat and easy (the way I like it!). It meanders through a wash (careful not to be there if rain is treatening) with amazing views around every turn. You have walls on each side of you as you walk the wash. For me, it was one of my most enjoyable hikes of recent memory. Easy, flat, cool breeze, perfect temperature and outstanding views the entire way. As you can see from the pictures, only a few other hikers on the trail, nice!

When we got back to the trail head we had lunch in the picnic area.

Town of Fruita, Bifford House

The small historic town of Fruita is within the park. It was settled by mormons and still has some buildings and farm land as it was in the 1800s. Bifford House, School House, Blacksmith shop and some Petroglyphs. We stopped for a short time and had ice cream, unfortunately, their famous pies were all sold out already.

Dinner at Rim Rock BBQ and Spaghetti bar

This was next door to the bigger restaurant. Thought they served BBQ by the name. We both had a bbq brisquette sandwich which was OK.

April 25 (Thu)

Weather: Perfect - to start. Sunny, 70s, low humidity, cool breeze during the day but, it clouded up in the late afternoon which impacted our plans for some nice sunset pictures and dark sky star gazing.

Slick Rock Divide Outlook

Capitol Gorge Hike

Back to the Cabin

Kathryn had an important call to take at 3:00 so we headed back to the cabin for a good signal and quite place.

I hung out on the deck!

Dinner at Rim Rock Restaurant

Back to the Rim Rock (Torrey is tiny and not many choices) for an early dinner. Seated by the windows again. Kathryn and I both had the Trout. Very good.

Panarama Point and Sunset hike

We went back to the park to capture some sunset pictures of the cliffs from (wait for it.... Sunset Point) for our last evening in Utah. Unfortunately, some cloudy/rainy weather finally caught up to us this evening. Views and the short hike were still really nice, we just did not to get the fiery sunset on the cliffs which the location is named after.

                 Capital Gorge                                        Sunset Hike                                         Sunset Hike

April 26 (Fri)

Weather: Perfect (again). Sunny, 70s, low humidity, cool breeze for our drive back to the airport.

Forecast for tomorrow in Chicago..... 3 - 5 inches! arg.

Another long travel day. Got started at 7:00am and drove about 150 miles back to the Moab airport. Flew to Denver...easy so far. Had a quick bite for lunch and boared for Chicago. After about 45 minutes with a brake problem they deplaned us and continued to work on the brake. About a 3 hour delay and we were headed to Chicago. Took the limo back home and arrived about 9:30. Home sweet Home.

Summary

This was our first trip to Utah and it was great. We were a little limited by my broken wrist but, still got in good hikes and amazing views.

Utah's geology gave us incredible views at every turn, Utah Rating: 5

Travel was tedious and took up pretty much all of two days... oh well.

Airbnb lodging was great. Will pursue this option a lot on future trips, Rating: 4

Arches National Park. Rating: 5

Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky district). Rating: 5

Capitol Reef National Park. Of the three, this was my favorite park. Rating: 5

I can't wait to visit Bryce and Zion NPs in the future.

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