Day 56: Arches National Park day 3

Took our time getting up this morning and cooked some bacon and eggs.  Too many days of eating cereal and yogurt makes me a little grumpy.  After breakfast we headed out to do the hike to Delicate Arch.  The hike was pretty cool up a bare rock face, but the wind was something else.  Strong enough that you could lean into it without falling over.  Not enough to keep us away from the Arch though which was spectacular.

After hiking out we headed back to camp to take naps and explore some of the area around Devils Garden Campground which was super pretty.  As supper time approached the weather started to take a serious turn for the worse so, to avoid having to sit in our tents for hours, we reinforced the wind and rain protection of the canopy with a couple tarps.  This proved to be a good move because later the weather got seriously bad.   It also meant that instead of eating cold cereal we could come together and tag team the preparation of some turkey melts while drinking beer and whiskey.  They turned out ooey-gooey delicious.  We capped off the night sitting under the light of the lantern and listening to music.  I'd be lying if I said we weren't a little bummed out that the weather kept us cooped up, but the good company made it much easier to handle and we had fun despite the rain.
As we were laying down to go to bed the wind was picking up pretty fiercely.  The wind was blowing our large canopy tent so hard it was bowing the walls in a good 2 feet.  Despite the extreme conditions it held up well.  Erika was not so lucky in our backpacking tent.  Not expecting 40-50 mph winds I had neglected to stick heavy rocks on top of the stakes and in the middle of the night I heard someone yell "Breeeeeetttttt!!"  After snapping out of my haze I asked what was the matter "My tent blew over!!".  I scrambled out of bed to find Erika holding up one of the poles by hand to keep the roof off her LOLOL.  I told her to grab her pad and come put it in between our cots.  Luckily the rain had abated for a few minutes so we didn't get wet.  The sound of the pounding wind continued the entire night, but we managed to get some sleep anyway.  At some point in the middle of the night I had to get up for a bathroom break and, just like in Joshua Tree, woke up to what was probably the most spectacular night sky of the entire trip.  One of Arches old taglines was "Half the park is after dark" because the night skies are so brilliant.  I can definitely see why and will be returning to Arches to get my fill of it. Its a sight to behold.

View from our campsite!!!!

Day 55: Arches National Park day 2

Woke up to a seriously overcast morning and two sickly girls.  Not a good way to get all amped up to go ride four-wheelers.  On top of that, this was our best chance to ride weather-wise because they were calling for storms the next day.  Well, the ladies had their morning coffee and Pepto and decided to be troopers so we left out around 8 AM.  We ended up getting to the trailhead around 10 AM complete with one Yamaha Side by Side and a CanAM four wheeler.  By this time "bubblyguts" had settled down and we were ready to ride.  And ride we did!!

Stephanie, having ridden four wheelers when she was younger, tore off on that thing like Evel Knievel and flooring the Razor 1000 felt like the thing was going to take off flying into the air. There were steep rock climbs, berms, speed bumps, sheer cliffs and overlooks of Canyonlands National Park that were absolutely beautiful. 
We made our way through the 30 miles of trail toward a section called "Chicken Corner"  Its called Chicken Corner because a lot of people turn around there instead of driving just feet away from a sheer 1500 ft drop.  Do you think we were chickens?  HELL NO.  We pressed on....albeit with white knuckles.  Near the end we stopped to take some pics after our conquest.

On the way back, being much more comfortable with the vehicles and terrain we were MUCH more friendly with the gas pedals.  In short, we freakin had a blast.   On the way out we stopped by a spot they refer to as the Wind Caves to check them out.

Around 4 we reluctantly headed back to the trailhead where the ATV's were to be picked up.  We had been looking forward to this day for a long time and it did not let us down.  The overcast day actually ended up making the riding conditions nice and cool and helped keep the dust at bay. 
Such a long day of riding had us hungry so we went to Moab Brewery for a well-deserved beer and bite to eat.  We returned to camp and called it a night shorly thereafter.

Day 54: Arches National Park day 1

The drive from Escalante to Moab was one of the most beautiful stretches of road we've ever seen.  The rock formations along this road are constantly changing and morphing.  It is really something to see. 

We also stopped by Capitol Reef National Park, but didn't stay long...just to grab a few pics!!!!

We arrived around 2 PM, went to the grocery store and ran some errands and then headed to Arches to meet the first familiar face we'd seen in almost two months.  My sister! =)  She drove down from Boise, where she's currently a travel nurse, to stay with us for three nights in Arches National Park.  This would also be her first time camping in a National Park so we were super excited to get to share that experience with her.  
When we got to camp we quickly set up camp because the forecast was calling for rain and it had already started drizzling.  After getting set up, we sat under the canopy and caught up with a couple beers.  Around sunset the rain stopped and we were able to cook a nice dinner of grilled chicken, asparagus, and greek pasta salad.  It was delicious, but unfortunately the ladies got sick later that night.  Steph, in particular, had to make multiple trips to the bathroom that night but I didn't get sick at all.  This was a bummer considering we were about to spend an entire day ATVing the next day.  Those plans seemed to be in jeopardy.

Day 53: Escalante BLM Camping

We left Bryce around 10AM to go out to Grand Staircase Escalante.  We were up in the air about where we were going to stay for the night.  The plan was to try our hand at BLM camping.  BLM is the Bureau of Land Management which is an entity out west that I really wish we had in the south.  Basically its massive swaths of wilderness open to public use.  You can stay anywhere you want to with no permit.  
As we arrived in Escalante we went to the visitor's center to get the skinny on the BLM situation.  We were kind of let down after talking to the ranger because she said there wasn't much to be found out where we were looking to stay.....but months ago we had gone so far as to scope out Google Earth for some spots along the main highway so we were determined.  
We headed on down the road to try and snag a site.  After about 15 minutes  of driving we spotted a little dirt road off to the side and decided to go for it.  As we made our way through the rutty red dirt we saw some empty campsites and knew that we were in the right place.  We passed on a couple that looked so-so when we found a left turn leading to what would end up being one of the top 5 campsites of our entire trip.  We pitched our tent right on the side of a bluff overlooking miles of wild rock wilderness.  Not a soul in sight.  Absolutely awesome.

Unfortunately the high of finding such a beautiful site was quickly replaced by a low when I walked back to the van to find Stephanie frantically trying to fix the roof rack, which she somehow managed to totally screw up.  My heart sank some because here we are in the middle of the desert, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and we cannot move the van like this.  To make matters worse we had been fighting all day because of a silly matter earlier that morning. This did not make for a great outcome.  We pretty much blew up on each other right there in the middle of the desert.  So, we had to unpack the whole roof rack (which I hate doing anyway,) pull it off of the car and out of the blistering hot sun and fix it.  Fortunately the guy at REI had warned me of this happening so I had an idea of what was going on.  We got it fixed in short order and then decided to resolve our issues because honestly, we really didn't want to be fighting......we wanted to be enjoying the desert.  So that's what we did!!!

We spent the rest of the day laying around camp and exploring the surrounding area.  That night we watched a beautiful sunset and had some delicious boiled hotdogs lol.  As we sat around by the light of the lantern that night a cute little packrat darted in and out of the shadows, never staying still for more than a second, looking for food.  At one point he even jumped over my foot.  That night I slept out of the tent under the stars for the first time while Steph got to have the tent all to herself.  Tomorrow we leave for Arches National Park in Moab, UT where we will have a very special visitor.

Day 52: Bryce Canyon

We woke up in an unbelievably great mood this morning.  Surprising considering the absolutely brutal day we had the day before along with waking up shivering cold in the middle of the night because we underestimated how chilly it would be.  I guess we were still floating on the awesome experience of the last few days.  We took our time around camp and also took some time to straighten out the disaster that our van had become along the way.  After eating and chores we took off to do a day hike on the Queens Garden Trail.  An easy 4 miles after the terrain we just took on.  
The rock formations, called Hoodoos, in Bryce were really out of this world.  The layer of the Colorado Plateau that makes up Bryce is not present in the Grand Canyon, so while similar in some ways, it was at the same time very new.

After the hike we went back to camp to lounge around camp, drink wine and work on the blog. That night we opened a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon we had been saving from Halter Ranch and cooked a tomato onion butter sauce.  Eating by the light of my grandfathers old Coleman lantern from the 50's was a little slice of heaven.  After dinner we sat by a nice warm campfire and enjoyed the stars.