Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Moab

This past weekend, a group of us went camping in Moab, UT.  We went to Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.
In Marcie on our way (Michelle, Brett, Luke, Me, and Weston)
We firstly hiked the Delicate Arch.  As we were going into the park, the lady we paid was like it's a hot one out there--in fact, if you're heading to Delicate Arch, it is the hottest hike out there right now... and she was right.  It reached 110 degrees outside!  Crazy!
The thing on our licenses plate
Me, Weston, Michelle, Brett, and Luke
The lady taking the picture was like take a crazy one--Brett and Luke didn't actually move though
Michelle & I 
That night we camped.  There was a burn ban though (sad but probably necessary since half of Utah is burning) so we had to cook on a little camping stove.  Michelle and I kept setting our stuff in piles of ants--not pleasant.
Camp in the morning... it was too dark by night to take any pictures
The next morning, we woke earlier (sort of) and packed up.  Then we went to hike in the Devil's Garden area.  It was a really fun hike with so many different arches to see.  My favorite was probably the Landscape Arch--which looked like it will soon fall over.
Our shadows--we were up high
Michelle and I 
Hiking along the rock (red rock--my favorite!)
Our group in front of Landscape Arch
Double O Arch which was also pretty cool
The Dark Angel (I think?)
After hiking that morning, we had a few other hikes planned.  However, since it was like a million degrees outside (okay, more like a hundred), we decided to ditch hiking, get lunch (in air conditioning), and go swimming at Left Hand (a little swimming hole).  To get there, we had to do a short hike (like half a mile) so I went in my sneakers... not my best plan.  When we had to cross water, I decided to go barefooted (really not my best decision).  It was like a terrible battle between walking on scorching sand or gravely rocks.  Eventually, we just decided to give up and get our shoes wet.  Because of this, I am going to have Moab sand in my shoes FOREVER!
Michelle and I at Left Hand 
This is the hole--I jumped off the cliff (not the biggest one because I'm a wimp but the smaller one which was probably a good ten or fifteen feet up)
Afterwards, we went to Dead Horse Point.  We didn't have much time so we didn't really get to hike in that park.  But we did go to the look out point... it was pretty awesome!
Dead Horse Point--the Colorado River was HUGE
All of us at Dead Horse (the lady taking the picture was not happy about it)
Another view!
After Moab, we decided to go to Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant.  It was super cheesy, promoted Mormon rumors, and was totally worth going an hour our of the way (not sarcasm--it was worth it).  I think we all enjoyed it.  The only picture of it is on my camera, though, which is currently misplaced.  So I will post the good enough picture later.  After the pageant (at like midnight), this is what we looked like:
Me, Luke, and Brett got lucky and got the back/time to sleep (Weston took one for the team and drove home)
Overall, it was a fun trip!  I want to go back to explore Canyonlands but maybe I'll wait until it cools off a bit slash I recover my sleep from the past two weekends (I went camping the weekend before also)!