Moab May 2011

Photo by Alison

                               
We love camping with Alison and her family. This time we met up with her the end of May in Moab. It is about 5 hours for both of us so it is the perfect middle ground not to mention there is just something magical about Moab. Alison brought along Kristen and Kristen’s son Drake. I also got to finally meet Alison’s husband Ron.


The kids and I arrived Thursday May 26th just in time to set up camp and enjoy the sunset.

First on the kids agenda Friday was to visit Millcreek. As far as they are concerned they would only visit Millcreek and swim the entire time if the trip planning was left up to them. 

Alison has an awesome new camera and on her agenda was taking pictures of Delicate Arch while the sunset. We left the trail head at 7:30 joining us was Ryan. He was in town for the art festival we were supposed to go to but never made it to. We made it to the arch in about 40 minutes but were blown away by the number of people that had the same idea!

Photo by Ron

Alison was pretty disappointed as she wanted a picture of the arch, sun setting and NO people in it. Still it was a nice hike and we brought good beer to enjoy while the sunset. As the time approached there were people standing under the arch having their pictures taken. Funny thing happened as the first light from the sun setting was cast on the arch people started yelling MOVE and the place cleared out. Except one photographer that had to be foreign and just didn’t understand. Soon he got the “picture” and moved out of the way.  Who would have thought with all those people Alison could have gotten the picture she wanted. 

Saturday we were off to find another watering hole. Supposedly there is a waterfall up Professors Creek. We hiked for HOURS and never found it. Of course we were moving at a kids pace but it was kind of disappointing to hike for that long and not achieve our goal. 

By the time we got back to camp the wind was blowing so hard it had ripped up Alison’s sun shade and threw it into the tree. It was crazy windy all night. By the time we woke up Sunday morning everything was covered with fine red sand! Spencer gave up sleeping in his tent and crawled into the car. Even though we had set the sun shade back up the wind grabbed it again, this time tearing a whole in Alison’s tent. Ron and Alison had to wrangle it in the middle of the night, tearing it down to hopefully be repaired later.  We were supposed to mountain bike the next day but the wind was relentless. All of us packed up and headed to our respective homes.
 

Outlaws of Giles, UT

Petroglyph Panel in Capitol Reef

Since we had planned on leaving Monday

and not Sunday I decided to take the long

way home I-70 to SR-24 through Hanksville

on to Torrey where we continued onto

SR-12 to Boulder City. We stopped at any

whim we had and took pictures along the

Panorama Point

Deer on side of road

way and out the window as we drove.

Utah is incredibly scenic and I am

ever amazed at the next view around

the corner. This was my first time

driving this section of Utah and now I

have added a dozen more places I would like to visit to my already

over-sized to do list.

About a year ago I read an article on a restaurant in Boulder City called Hells Backbone Grill. The food pictured in the magazine looked amazing and the reviews were great. I have wanted to eat there ever since reading that article. We found a campsite at Deer Creek Campground on Burr Trail just out of town and stayed the night eating a humble dinner of fried hot dogs mixed with chili and cheese.

We would have rented a hotel room for the night but EVERYTHING along the drive was full.  It was still very cold and windy. We decided it was best to pitch only one tent and all sleep in the tent to stay warm. 

Sarah and I were tired of being grimy and dirty. Thankfully there was a stream near our campsite. We walked along the banks until we found the perfect spot to take a quick VERY cold bath. BRRRR

 

After setting up camp, eating dinner and taking a bath we took a little drive and explored further down the Burr Trail. We would like to go back sometime and explore further. 

In the morning we ate at Hells Backbone and it was delicious! Service was great and the atmosphere was fantastic.

 View as we left Boulder

Continuing on the camera car tour we connected to US-89 to SR-9 through Zion home.





By the time we made it to Mt. Carmel we were hungry and stopped at Thunderbird Restaurant for lunch.

As we neared the east entrance to Zion we new would be home very soon and after two long days in the car we were anxious to get home. Well..... close to the tunnel poor Spencer had to go the bathroom. After waiting in line for at least 20 minutes he simply could not wait any longer. He jumped out and ran to the outhouse. Sure enough about 5 min after he left the car the line moved. When I made it the ranger he would not let me wait or turn around and go to the end of the car line. He made me drive all the way through the tunnel without Spencer. I had to turn around on the other side wait again, come through to pick him up and wait again! GOOD LORD!!! That took and hour and 30 minutes. I have cursed this ranger but I won't tell you what it is. However it is a good one and it won't hit him until a little later in life.