Moab Final

 Oh look!, Just found this picture. THAT over there in the right hand side,  is the arch that we hiked forever to get to on the Negro Bill Hike.
Totally anticlimactic.

 When Barry and I were first married, Barry came to Moab and went Mountain biking with his friends here at Sand Flats. He has no memory of it. He got heat exhaustion and was really sick. We read the sign and saw that there was mountain lions there, plus we didn't have any mountain bikes with us ....so we left. :D

 Sand Flats. Doesn't look like a place I would like to bike.......

 Fun hike in Canyonlands to a beautiful arch.

 There was QUITE the drop-off on the other side of the arch. Lauren was surprised by it.

 Owen missed it all. He decided it was a good time for a cat nap.

Ellie never wants to stand by the edge with me. She always looks so worried. Scaredy Cat!

 The kid's and Barry climbed up to the top of this one. Aztec Butte. You can see them up there somewhere. Well at least, I could with my binoculars. There was an old aztec grainery up there and some amazing views ...so I'm told. I sat in the car with the younguns.

 See those cool roads down there. Don't ya just want to go and explore?!? I was so happy we got to.

 It was super hazy, so I didn't see much point in try to get any pictures.

 except close ups of my cute kids.

 They grow up much too fast.

 Goodbye Moab! We will DEFINITIVELY meet again!

Come with us next time. :D

Moab 4

 Some landscapes all taken from the moving car ... ;D

Balanced Rock. A bit cooler than OUR balanced rock in Idaho.


On our third day we hiked Negro Bill Canyon. It was a fun hike. If you didn't have any young kids and nothing else to do all day. Emma was super tired and had 25 meltdowns. Barry and I took turns carrying her the WHOLE way. It was about 5 miles.

 James on his constant quest for fish. He did spot a few minnows.

 There were soo many catcus in this spot. Lauren said it looked like they were having a Party. We saw several catcus partys along the way.

 This tree was absolutely gorgeous. I love it when the leaves are just tiny and sooo green against the red rock. I took like 50 pictures of this tree, and none of them look anything close to how beautiful it was.

 I didn't even take a picture of the arch at the end of the hike. It was pretty anti-climatic. We headed back to the car and had lunch. Then we drove over to a park in Moab that I had read about it. It was a great remedy for tired kids.

 There was all sorts of musical instruments the kids could try playing.

1. 

 There was a creek with a cool bridge over it. It lead over to a small community of houses built with straw-bales. Barry and Owen walked over to check them out while the kid's played on the playground.


We went to some Wetlands one evening.

 We spotted a rabbit and a few deer...

IT was disappointing.

We decided to take a scenic drive up Potash Road. The River was beautiful and we went on a little quest to find some dinosaur tracks and hieroglyphics.

 We thought it would be a short walk to the tracks, so Barry just carried Owen ....it wasn't.

 Seriosuly AWESOME.

 Hieroglyphs. Not so awesome.
I'm not so sure I believe in them. Maybe, just maybe, they are authentic.

 We saw this camping spot along the way. Now, if I had my choice of camping spots.......


While taking a scenic drive up Potash Road, we got to the huge Potash Plant, and just kept driving.
We found some great rocks on the side of the road, and I acquired a rather large one for my flower bed. :D
Unfortunately, it took quite a bit of my feet room on the floor of the car for the rest of the trip. Fortunately (I guess) it was a rather delicate rock and it dissolved into beautiful red sand pretty easily. So as the trip progressed, it got smaller and smaller, and I got my leg room back. And a nice pile of beautiful red sand in the car.
At the end of the paved road it turned to dirt and there was a little sign that said we were entering Canyonland's National Park. What?!? We were in a totally different place than before. IT was awesome! We were in the bottom of the canyon's. We had spent the previous day up on all those high cliffs lookinig down into the canyons and the beautiful views, and now we were actually DOWN THERE.

We let the kids explore a bit and hunt for lizards ......and rattlesnake and scorpions.

not sure WHY my camera, finally decided to get the TRUE color of the rock around us. But this is IT. All the other photos are dark or washed out, but the color of the dirt and rock in MOAB is magnificent. :D

IT was a fun little adventure, and a HUGE bonus for me, because I really wanted to go down in the canyon's but I didn't read anything about how or where to access them. So it was extra great that we just stumbled along the road. :D