Rhody Goes West: Salt Lake City

D and I stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah for one night between our travels in Moab and our drive up to Yellowstone National Park.

We had plans to see the city, but after it started to rain, we just decided to grab some food and spend the night in the hotel room, catching up on some much needed rest.

Salt Lake Temple at Night - Salt Lake City, Utah

The next morning, we had a few hours before we needed to head out to Yellowstone, so with the blue sky and no clouds, we packed up our things, checked out of the hotel, and saw the downtown area right around where we were staying.  

We walked around until we found a cute little side street and grabbed some breakfast at a delicious little restaurant.  Being the huge genealogy buff that I am, I begged D to go with me to the Family History Library, which unknown to me, was right behind the hotel we were staying at!  I have future plans to travel back to Salt Lake City to spend more than a couple of hours completing my family research, but being able to go inside the library and find some new information was good enough for me for this short trip.  

Me at the Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Utah

Me at the Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Utah

We ended up spending about an hour longer than D wanted to at the library, but he knew that this stop was important to me, so he was more than happy to accommodate.  After the library, we walked across the street to see Temple Square. The Mormon headquarters are in Salt Lake City, and Temple Square is the place in Utah to go if you are interested in Mormon history.  While it's not necessarily a religion that I have interest in, their temple's architecture is something like no other, so we wanted to check that out.

Salt Lake Temple - Salt Lake City, Utah

The Salt Lake Temple isn't open to the public, but even if it were, there was a wedding going on (on a Tuesday!) so we wouldn't have been able to see the inside, but the exterior is absolutely gorgeous.  

There wasn't much else for us to do in Temple Square, since we didn't have much interest in learning about the religion or listening to the lectures, so we wrapped up our time in Salt Lake City with some lunch at one of Guy Fieri's stops on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives places called Pat's In Your Face BBQ. It was delicious, and was perfect to hold us over for our drive North through Idaho to West Yellowstone, Montana.  

Welcome to Idaho!

This gave us two more states on our trip, Idaho and Montana. With Wyoming being the only one left to hit on our vacation, we were more than ready to get to Yellowstone.

What's the most number of states that you have hit up in a single vacation?  

Rhody Goes West: Moab - Part 5

Our last day in Moab, and it wasn't even a full day.  To make the most of it, we packed up our things in the hotel room, and got on the road, with plans to stop in Canyonlands National Park one last time before leaving the area.  

The drive in was beautiful, once again, and the sun was shining down on the grass perfectly, making it an amazing shade of gold.  

We were originally only going to go to the Grand View Point Overlook, but as we were driving by the parking lot to Mesa Arch, we noticed that it was completely empty. Finding the parking lot to a major feature of a National Park empty is a big thing, so we pulled in and walked the trail to the arch to find peace and quiet, with not a single person around.  We took full advantage of this with taking pictures of the sun hitting the arch perfectly and pictures of us in front of the camera using the timer setting.  

After spending about fifteen or twenty minutes there, we started hearing a tour group coming, so we finished up our pictures and we started our walk back to the car to head over to the Overlook.  

When we got there, we were amazed at the view that we had.  Since the park is separated by the canyon, there is a gorgeous view of the canyon and then off into the distance, you can sort of see the start of The Needles section of the park.  

There is a trail that goes along the cliffs of the canyon, which comes out to about a mile in each direction.  As you round the cliff edge along side of the canyon, you are greeted with the most spectacular views that change with every turn that you made around the cliffs.  Going in the morning was definitely the best decision, too, because the light that was shining off the side of the canyon and into the empty riverbed showed the rocks' beautiful red color.  

The experience was amazing, but before we knew it, it was time to head out of the park and make our drive up to Salt Lake City, where we would return our rental car and spend the night before starting our drive to Yellowstone National Park.  

I know that this is the fifth post about Moab, but it's the last post. Some of you may be tired of seeing the same landscape for the last few days, but it's just absolutely captivating, and I wanted to share it with you in case you didn't know how amazing it actually is.

I hope that my posts about Moab, Utah have put this gem on your radar, and that you add this to your vacation destinations.  Plus, it's pretty well located, and you could get there from flying into Salt Lake City or Las Vegas, which would be a whole other story too.

Are you looking forward to my posts about Yellowstone? Do you have your vacation to Moab planned yet?

Rhody Goes West: Moab - Part 4

Once we were stocked back up on energy bars and bottles of water and Gatorade, we went back into Arches National Park to close out the afternoon and watch our last sunset in Moab, Utah.

 Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Once we entered the park again, our first stop on our way to our sunset destination was Balanced Rock.  While this attraction is located at the base of the road that leads into the Windows section of Arches, we hadn't stopped here to check it out yet.  It's right on the corner of the two roads, so there isn't much of a hike to get to it, but there is a pathway that allows for you to walk around the rock structure, so we did that and took some pictures.  It was getting pretty busy in this area, as the park was hosting an organized meteor shower viewing at that location that night at sundown, so we only spent enough time there to grab some photos.

Balanced Rock - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Balanced Rock - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

D and I at Balanced Rock - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

After our quick view of Balanced Rock, we drove East to the trail to Delicate Arch.  When researching Arches National Park, one of the most popular answers for "best sunset" was Delicate Arch.  What I didn't see in my research, however, was the "Strenuous" tag that accompanied the explanation of the hike to the arch.

Far-away shot of the hike to Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

That hike was hard. And that may be an understatement.

I think that the hardest part of the hike was that we were doing it at an elevation of 4500 feet!  In order to understand how much of a difference this made for us, you must know what the highest point in the state of Rhode Island is.  The highest point is 812 feet above sea level.  Yes, you read that right - 812.  That means that we were averaging more than five times the elevation that we are used to.  That makes a big difference in our breathing, and boy could I feel it when we were making that hike.  The climb itself over the 1.5 mile trail is 800 feet, and while you're probably thinking that 800 feet over 1.5 miles isn't too terrible, just remember that those 800 feet are only divided into two spots, so you're doing 400 feet over 1/4 mile, and the rest is downhill or flat.

It was brutal, especially because the sun was at our backs the entire time, we were walking up a rock face in full sunlight, and it was hovering around 90 degrees.  And the last leg of the hike is a winding cliff trail that goes along the edge of a large boulder. The pathway is no bigger than three or four feet wide, which is scary, because the drop would be straight down about 300 feet.

Narrow cliff ledge part of the hike to Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

But, I will tell you, that once I rounded that last turn at the top, seeing this straight ahead of me was so rewarding.

Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

After taking our turns in getting the obligatory pictures under the arch, I talked D into leaving and not watching the sunset from up here as planned. I thought it was best that we not attempt that hike back down after dark, especially considering how steep it was and how many people were up there, crowding the space.

Me under Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

D under Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

D and I under Delicate Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Instead, I suggested that we find a spot up at the North part of the park to watch the sunset.  On our drive back up towards Devil's Garden to fill up our now empty water bottles, the sun was quickly setting. I found a pull-off on the side of the road, and we climbed up a boulder and sat down to watch a sunset that was even prettier than the night before.  We had this spot all to ourselves, and it was perfect. We had the most beautiful view of the sunset, plus we didn't have to share it with anyone else.

Gorgeous sunset by Devil's Garden - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

An added bonus? There was a lightning storm along the horizon, just left of the sun setting, which was really cool to see.

This was such a great end to an action packed and busy day. But, we still had a few more hours left the next day in Moab, so I have just one more post about Canyonlands National Park before I get to our time in Yellowstone National Park.

Rhody Goes West: Moab - Part 3

After our thirty-mile drive over from Arches National Park to Canyonlands National Park, D and I grabbed our Subway sandwiches out of the cooler and walked out to the Green River View Overlook, which is about 6 miles from the entrance to the park.  The overlook ended up being only a walking path with a barrier between you and the cliff, so we walked a little off to the right to one of the boulders that was alongside the barrier and sat down to eat our lunch.  Looking out over the canyon was beautiful, and it was really neat to be able to see the Green River from where we were eating lunch.

View from Green River Overlook - Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah

We didn’t stay too long here because there was a hike that we were planning to make, so we finished up our lunch, and hopped back in the car, only to realize that we probably should have filled up the gas tank before leaving Moab.  The closest gas station to Canyonlands was about 20 miles away, and with less than ¼ tank, we figured that it was probably not a good idea to drive the additional 25 miles to the other overlook as planned without having much gas in the tank. 

This leads me to a point about Moab – I didn’t realize how far apart things were when I was doing research for the trip.  While Arches National Park is about five miles from the center of Moab, Canyonlands is not.  In fact, Canyonlands is actually divided in the middle by a canyon – go figure, right?  So there are two different sections to the park.  The one that we focused on was called Islands in the Sky, whereas the other one is called The Needles.  The Needles section has more long and difficult hiking trails and biking paths, whereas the Islands in the Sky section is more driving and smaller hikes.  When I was researching the parks, I didn’t realize that the two different sections of Canyonlands were separated by a canyon and therefore did not connect unless you were to travel by boat or raft on the Green River.  And to my surprise, the entrance to Islands in the Sky and The Needles are over 100 miles apart!  Unfortunately, this meant that we ended up having to choose one over the other and ended up visiting only Islands in the Sky since it was closer and we didn’t have very much time.  When we go back in the future, which we plan to do, we will definitely be planning on spending almost all of our time in The Needles section. 

Prairie land along the roadways in Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah

Ok, back to what I was saying before – we were running low on gas, and we didn’t think that putting the extra miles in would be worth it right then, especially since we were planning to come back the next morning before heading out of town.  So, on our way out of the park, we stopped at the short hike that leads you over to the canyon on the East side of the park, where Mesa Arch is.  When we got to the parking lot, we noticed that there were a lot of cars there, and when we got to the arch, there were tons of people there.  We didn’t end up spending as much time here as we had wished to because of how many people were there, but it was really beautiful, and looking through the arch across the canyon was a very cool thing to see.

Me sitting under Mesa Arch - Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah

Canyon overlook from Mesa Arch - Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah

On our drive back to town to get gas, we decided to head back to the hotel to restock on water and snacks, and then head back into the park to check out some of the other areas that we hadn’t seen yet, and to watch the last sunset we would see in Moab. 

Have any of you ever been to Canyonlands? What are your favorite parts, and which section did you like better, Islands in the Sky or The Needles?  Any suggestions on good hikes in The Needles section for when we go back?

Rhody Goes West: Moab - Part 2

On our only full day in Moab, Utah, we woke up early ready to tackle the day’s worth of driving and hiking that I had planned for us.  After grabbing breakfast in the hotel, we started out our day in Arches National Park, arriving back in the Windows section of the park at 8am.

D and I at the entrance to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah

With so much to do that day, we wanted to get an early start, but that ended up working out better than expected, because we hadn’t quite adjusted to Mountain Time yet, so 8am actually felt like 10am!  Instead of going over to the arches that we saw the night prior during the sunset, we went over to the West side of that area to where Double Arch is located.

Double Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Inside of Double Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Selfie of D and I at Double Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Double Arch was incredible, and we were actually able to time it so that we were the only ones there with the exception of the first and last ten minutes of arriving and leaving, and we spent well over an hour climbing the rocks and taking pictures of how beautiful the red stones looked against the blue sky.  Having this arch all to ourselves was so peaceful, and really allowed us to capture some of our favorite pictures from the trip, since no one else was in the way of the scenery. 

D climbed up to the conjoined part of Double Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

D at the bottom of Double Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

After spending much more time at Double Arch than anticipated, we drove North to Devil’s Garden, which is where the campground is and a trail that has about nine different arches along it.  I had originally only planned for us to see Landscape Arch, but after coming across it, I wasn’t all that impressed. The pictures that you see online of Landscape Arch are much different than those that you take in person. And yes, I know that quality of camera and being selective of the pictures that the park uses for advertisements make a big difference, but I’m talking about the arch not looking anything like what it did in person.

Landscape Arch in Devil's Garden - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

I was kind of disappointed, so we didn’t end up spending much time there, and instead, we hiked further into the trails to see some of the other arches.  We ended up stopping at Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, both of which were beautiful. 

Navajo Arch in Devil's Garden - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

One of the best parts about being in this section of the park was that if you wandered off of the paths a little bit you found yourself in the middle of nowhere and you didn’t have to worry about being around a bunch of other tourists.  If you haven’t picked up on it by now, D and I don’t really like being in a big group of people, so avoiding tourists while on vacation is something we really try to do. 

Scenic Overlook near Navajo Arch - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

While we were at the Navajo Arch, we decided to go off trail a little bit and ended up climbing up some boulders, which brought us out onto a ledge that gave us a 180 degree view across the park. It was absolutely stunning, and having it all to ourselves made it even more spectacular. 

Panoramic view of the West side of Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

With that view in our minds, it was just about lunchtime, so went back to the car to head out towards Canyonlands National Park, where we planned to eat lunch overlooking one of the canyons. 

How awesome are these pictures? Doesn’t this make you want to check out the area? It definitely makes me want to go back, that’s for sure!

Rhody Goes West: Moab - Part 1

As I already told you yesterday, D and I just returned from a much-needed vacation.  Our trip out West was based around D’s cousin’s Bar Mitzvah, but we wanted to take this opportunity to do some sight-seeing since neither of us have ever been out to that area of the country. 

For the first part of our vacation, we flew into Salt Lake City the Saturday before the Bar Mitzvah. Within an hour of landing, we had grabbed our suitcase and car and were on the road to our first stop, Moab, Utah.

Welcome to Utah!

In case you aren't familiar with Moab, it is a small city that survives on tourism and driving, is about four hours South-East of SLC.  Moab itself is very small, having a population of about 8,000, but because of it’s proximity and home to a few very popular National Parks, Moab gets about one million visitors per calendar year.  D and I were two of those million visitors.

The drive down to Moab was beautiful. The topography is nothing like we have here on the East Coast, and it reminded me of all the Western movies that you watch on television.  It was so mesmerizing, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of what everything looked like. Plus, the weather we had was perfect. The sky was so blue, and the colors of the grass, brush and rocks were gorgeous.

We were only spending two full days in Moab, so we had a packed schedule with trying to fit in both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.  With our flight arriving in SLC in the early afternoon, we were able to drive into Moab, check into our hotel, and then grab some dinner before heading into Arches, which was only a five mile drive from the hotel we stayed at. 

For dinner, we checked out a Mexican restaurant right on the main strip Downtown, called Miguel’s Baja Grill, and it was delicious. D ordered the fish tacos, which has been the best seller on their menu for thirteen years, and they were delicious.  The fish was flaky and tender, and the sauces that came with the tacos were really flavorful.  I ordered the chicken tacos, which were also very good, but the fish tacos definitely won the competition.

After dinner, we drove the four miles from the restaurant to Arches National Park to check out the sunset.  We drove into the Windows section of the park to see the North and South Arches, and the Turret Arch, and to watch the sunset across the horizon and above the red cliffs. 

The North Arch

D standing in the North Arch

You’ll notice that we’re in normal clothes in some of the pictures, so I just wanted to explain that we didn’t think we would actually be climbing up rocks, or walking the hikes in that area because of the time we entered the park, so we didn’t think anything of it after dinner.  However, we did enjoy the sunset and climbing up into the arches.

Sunset on the horizon - Balanced Rock on the far right

Turret Arch along the sunset with the moon in the center

Once the sunset had ended, we exited the park so that we could get some rest and try to adjust to the two-hour time difference that comes with traveling from East Coast Time to Mountain Time. After all, we had a long day of sightseeing ahead of us!

Have you ever stayed in Moab? What was your favorite place to eat?