Moab

It is finally the time to show the world some pictures from our very fun trip to southern Utah. We spent about four days down there and figured that we hiked about 30 miles throughout our stay.

Our first hike was in Arches National Park--the Devil's Garden trail. Brandon got a kick out of that name and for THE REST OF THE TRIP pointed to random things and said "Oh, that there's the Devil's Toilet...that's the Devil's Nordic Track...that's the Devil's missing baby...the Devil's Eyeball" etc. I realized that I myself am fairly pathetic because I laughed out loud about 80% of the time. One of the reasons we work is that I laugh at his jokes without being prompted.

Here are some of the images from that hike:

If you ever do that hike, we totally recommend doing the Primitive Loop...there's some really neat scenery that you miss if you stick to the main trail.
Above is Double O...one of my favorite arches in the entire park. Of course, pictures don't do it justice.
This is when Brandon almost died. I managed to snap this picture before racing over to him and pulling him to safety. Just kidding.
This is Partition Arch.

We spent our first night in a campground typically reserved for RV's. I'm a sucker for these campgrounds because the have hot showers and flush toilets. The particular one we stayed at also had a hot tub, which was an AWESOME way to remind ourselves that yes, we were on vacation and yes, it was time to relax.

Here's me getting breakfast ready that next morning:
While it is a pretty nerdy picture, I show it because you can see our bathing suits and towels on the table...we put them there the night before to dry out. Unfortunately, it was soooo cold that night that they were covered with a nice healthy layer of ice on them in the morning.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed down to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. If you haven't been...GO. It is beautiful. We wanted to get there first thing in the morning to snatch a campsite since you can't reserve them ahead of time. Luckily, it wasn't a problem. This is my favorite picture of Brandon looking like an ape:
He actually had just finished setting up the tent...and I didn't even have to help. He's the dear of the year.

Later that day, we did a really neat hike...I don't remember the name, but it was a loop hike that takes you up one canyon and then out another.
As the afternoon progressed, it became quite cold and snowy. Here's us huddling in a little sandstone cubby-hole, trying to stay warm from the wind. It didn't really work. We decided that the best thing was just to keep moving. It is kind of a cute picture though, eh?
We took about a billion pictures at this particular spot...where the trail took us up a ridge that separated the two canyons. The landscape down there is just so enchanting. We couldn't get enough.

I noticed that this is Brandon's pose in every photo. I think he is just always thinking, "Are you finished? You just took a photo that looks exactly like this two seconds ago." This is one exception, though:
Apparently all trail markers resemble poop. That is the difference between boys and girls my friends.

That night was exceptionally cold. When you are camping and it is freezing there isn't much you can do except for sit in your sleeping bag in the tent or sit in the car, out of the wind. We did a little of both. Anyways...when we woke up in the morning, there were several inches of snow on the ground. Yikes!
The snow didn't dampen our plans too much though. That is mainly because when you are out in the middle of no where, there really isn't a Plan B. We had already paid for our camp site for the upcoming night and knew that we would either be cold in Canyonlands or cold in Moab. Pick your poison, I suppose. So we chose to stay where we were, do the hike we had planned, and just put on extra clothes.

The hike we did that day, Chesler Park, was beautiful. Perhaps one of my favorites ever. BUT, I'm getting bored posting. Which means you are probably bored reading this. So...I'm going to take a break. We are having the Mormon missionaries over for dinner and I need to get some stuff ready. Peace out folks...we'll be back!