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.

Gunlock

Gunlock over flow is one of the kids favorite swim holes but it only happens in the spring. We had so much fun last year playing in the pools and waterfalls that form that we went back again twice this year. First with Rod on May 16th. It was too cold to swim. Spencer is our photographer for this trip.



We went the second time when Alison was passing through on her way to California with her kids. Great place to spend the afternoon. Thanks Alison for the pictures!

Snow Canyon Overlook

Some views are worth seeing more than once. In May a friend took me on a hike up to look out over Snow Canyon. The desert bloom is so incredible… just a continuation of what we saw on Mother’s Day. I took lots of photos of the flowers but sadly the photos just don’t turn out good.  

On our way to the top we stopped at Winter Quarter’s Arch. 

The hike was wonderful and the views at the top were fabulous! 

In fact I enjoyed the hike so much that when the opportunity came to hike it again in June with St. George Hiking group and I took Spencer with me.   

They took a completely different route to the top that was sandy the entire way up! That was one butt busting hike! 

Gila Trail

Went on another short hike with a friend, this time on the Gila Trail above Snow Canyon. On this trail are some cool petroglyphs and gorgeous blooming cactus.

Mother's Day

Being a single mother usually Mother’s Day comes and goes without any big fan fair. It is really hard for kids to buy mother’s day presents with mom present. However this year the kids went grocery shopping with a separate cart while I did the regular shopping, they borrowed my debit card to pay for it while I stayed back and could not see what they bought. Last night they spent the night outside and stayed awake until 2AM laughing and carrying on, out of self-defense I finally put ear plugs in. I was pretty sure in the morning they would forget about breakfast and sleep in. At 8:30AM I was rudely awaken by a remote control car hitting my bedroom door at full speed. SCARED the sheeet out of me! 

They had cooked bacon, scrambled eggs, vanilla pudding with peanut M&M's, and hazelnut coffee topped with whip cream and chocolate chips. I received two mother’s day cards. One from my son that was very heart felt, simple and tugged at the heart strings. The other card as I opened it was an adorable puppy with a flower in its mouth that read "Happy Mother's Day from the dog....you know the short, hairy kid, with a tail." We have no dog; this was from the clever kid that THINKS she is going to get a dog. This girl throws a hint every chance she can get that she wants a dog even on mother’s day! 

After eating my breakfast in bed we grabbed our water bags, grabbed a bite to eat from Harmon's and went for a hike. It is the first hike we have been on that neither of the kids complained the ENTIRE hike!!!!! WOW what an amazing present for me. 3:30 hour hike not ONE complaint. BEST MOTHERS DAY EVER!!! I didn't plan any of it; they did it on their own. Absolutely gorgeous hike up Hell Hole Canyon, with lots of flowers that we took pictures of.