Day Six/Seven

I got up early Saturday morning to go back to Arches. We didn't see Delicate Arch (the most "famous" arch in the park) when we went on Wednesday and I knew I wanted to before we left. I decided to get up and go early by myself to see the sunrise. I had everything set out Friday night so I could creep out without bothering anybody. My clock in the car-

Delicate Arch is best viewed at sunset because of where it is on a hill so it's shaded in the morning.   I figured sunrise couldn't be too shabby. :) There are a couple of ways to see it.  The first being a 3 mile round trip hike, some bring over the slick rock  rock face. The other is a further away view point from across the canyon. It's only a 1/2 mile round trip. Being that it was pretty dark and I was by myself, I chose the second option. The pictures weren't as great as if I had gone at sunset, but it was still amazing (I kept fighting going at sunset because I knew it would be packed with people in the shot and I'm not a fan of that).   I was all alone at the viewpoint as the sun came up.

As you can see in the pictures, more and more people started showing up at the base of the arch the later it got (yep, those tiny things to the left are people). It was such a neat experience and I'm so glad I went. I took the drive out of the park slow and easy with the windows down and the cool 80 degree air coming in.  I got to see allot of things leaving that we didn't see coming in on Wednesday morning.

I got back to the condo of sleeping boys a little after 7. I grabbed some breakfast, showered, woke everybody up so we could finish packing up and get on the road.  We left Moab at little before 9:00.  Right outside of town, there is a place to stop called Hole in the Rock.  

A man named Albert carved out a hole in a rock for a house for himself and his wife.  After he died, she continued the work until she passed away.  We took the 12 minute tour.  It was so kitschy and fun.  They still had all the original furniture and everything in it.  It was musty smelling and such, but we got a kick out of going. They also have a petting zoo and some other very random things, but it was a fun little stop. 

We got back on the car and headed to our last destination, Four Corners.  It took about 2 1/2 hours and is in the middle of nowhere.  I'm glad we went, but it is definitely one of those been there, done that, check it off the list things.  We stayed for about 20 minutes. Enough to or take pictures and use the bathroom (pit toilets, ugh).  

Back on the road to head home.  We drove and drove. The trip home always seems longer, right?!?!?  

We drove until 12:45 (our bodies said 11:45) and stayed the night in Lubbock, so Sunday's drive wouldn't be horribly long.  The hotel bed was a welcome sight and we all slept pretty hard. We slept later Sunday morning than we had all week.  It 5 hours to get home and we were ready to be there. :) We had a wonderful trip and lots of sweet memories were made.   

Day Five

To wrap up our time in Moab, we did a rafting trip on the Colorado River. It was SO much fun. When I booked it I decided on a half day trip because I didn't know what it would be like or if the boys would really even enjoy it. We went to the Moab Adventure store in town and then got on a bus for the 45 minute ride to where we got in the river. It started out as a slow float. Each boat had a guide and our guide's name was Stewart. He was a super nice kid. The scenery was beautiful with the big red rocks beside the river. Stewart gave us instructions on paddling, we all introduced ourselves, etc. After a while of slowly floating, I was thinking that the boys weren't going to like it because there wasn't really anything going on BESIDES floating (think tubing in the lazy river, but in a raft with gorgeous views. I was fine with it. 😀). They told us in the safety talk that they would let whoever wanted to to get in the river and swim, just to ask your guide first to make sure it was a safe place in the river. We had another family with us and there was a boy about Hudson's age named Robert and they became fast friends. The water was pretty chilly because Robert and Hudson would both swim and then get back in the boat shivering and it was high 80's or low 90's outside. After a while of floating and swimming, we got ready to go through our first "rapid". On this trip there were two category 1 rapids and two category 2 rapids. We went through the category 1's first and they were fun. We had to paddle the whole time which was a little hard to do because of the up and down, but we laughed and squealed when we got splashed because of the cold water.  The kids loved them.  The category 2's were REALLY fun and we all loved it. Of course they were bigger than the 1's, but nothing scary. They were a blast. The second category 2 knocked Brian and the lady behind him off the side into the middle of the boat. It was a little wild, but we had the best time. We got out and Reed said "That was awesome. It was probably my favorite thing we've done."  We ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours on the river (we went about 7 miles). On the 20 minute bus ride back into town, both boys fell asleep.  It wore them out pretty good. It's well worth it if you plan on coming to Moab. I didn't take any pictures because everything you take on the raft could get wet, so I didn't want to chance it with my phone or camera. There is a guy who stands on the shore right at the end and takes pictures of all the rafters from all the different companies. Then you can go to the frozen yogurt shop in Moab (not even kidding) where he has a small office to look at/purchase/buy pictures. 

We grabbed some lunch and came home from the river and changed out of our wet clothes. After hanging out for a bit, we went to look at some of the Indian writings on the cliffs. We noticed the signs on the way to Canyonlands yesterday but couldn't see anything. There are just sign beside the road with a little pull out.

We got out walked around for a bit looking at them. 

The sheer height of these cliffs are amazing to me. Moab is just a beautiful place. 

Brian and I both agree this is one of the best places we've stayed. The town is big enough to have what we need, but not huge and fancy shmancy. It's just a fun town with great scenery. We highly recommend it! 

Day Four

Canyonlands National Park was on the agenda for today.  

Let's begin with what quickly became one of the worst mornings I've had in a very long time. We started out this morning on time and ready to get to the park before the heat hit, so we left the house a little before 7:00.  It was supposed to be about a 40 minute drive.  We put the park in the navigation system and started out.  The navigation told us to turn left on a certain road, so we did... There was no large sign stating  "CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK" with a big arrow, so that should have been our clue to NOT take this road.  Oh well.  We drove for about 15 minutes or so on a beautiful road with the river on one side and a wall of rock on the other.  Great scenery. 

We ended up at what looked like an industrial plant (which we later discovered was a salt plant.  That's neither here nor there, but know you know anyway).  The navigation told us to turn on a road which had signs that it was a private road and to keep out.  We continued straight instead of turning and the navigation quickly recalculated and showed we could continue and get to the park in about the same amount of time, so we kept on going.  The pavement ran out and we continued on Potash Road that looked like this...

We were in the bottom of a canyon and the scenery was gorgeous.  

This is where Brian started saying phrases like "It's an adventure!" 😒 We came upon a sign that said the next 5 miles were owned by Moab Salt but could be used by the public as long as we stayed on the road.  Okay then.  Navigation still showed us going to the park, so we soldiered on.  The road was REALLY bumpy.  Like rediculously bumpy. It was funny in the beginning, but started to become a little more annoying and eventually I started to feel a little nauseous. Ugh. At this point, we had been driving on this road for a while.  Still looked like this... Hadn't met a single car or seen a soul. 

We did go around one corner that was sharp and dropped steeply off into the canyon.  I almost came out of my seat.  Once we got by it, I made Brian turn around and take a picture.

Brian hopped out to take some more pictures because it really was very pretty. (I'm thinking he made another comment around this time about how nothing really good happened at Mesa Verde and that yesterday's story was the crazy long hike at Arches and this 'adventure' would be today's story.) That man cracks me up! 

After bumping around for about an hour and a half (and meeting one motorcycle and one truck), this is where the really bad stuff started. We had driven into this canyon and there was just a steep canyon wall in front of us.  I was wondering how the heck we were going to get up on the top, because there was no road... But yet the navigation showed one. Evidently, there was a road called Shafer Trail Road that went from the bottom to the top in a series of switchbacks. Let me tell you a little about this road, friends.  It was a gravel road, not wide enough for two cars to fit and the drop off was RIGHT at the side of the road.  We started up and I began to freak out (as in sitting quietly with my eyes straight ahead not saying a word as not to scare the boys).  Remember the curve that scared me a few pictures back? It was NOTHING.  We spent the next 20ish minutes (seemed like FOREVER) going up the Worst. Road. Ever. The boys sat in the back, oblivious and talking about Pokemon and video games.  Brian did a GREAT job driving- he was calm and collected as always. I sat with my eyes closed, white knuckling it while I prayed. Hard. God took care of us and we didn't meet any more cars and made it to the top.  I could tell the road started to get wider and we were on more of a plateau.  That's when the tears came.  I started bawling and Hudson said "Why is Mom crying?" 😀 We made it to the visitors center and Brian took the boys to the bathroom while I got myself together. 

We started out into the park and our first stop was the Shafer Canyon Overview.  Brian got these pictures of the road.

I was emotionally wrung out after we got out of that canyon.  After I stopped crying I was still a little shaky and it took me a while to feel somewhat normal.  Brian said I should google Shafer Trail Road, so I did.  And of course the first thing to come up is from dangerousroads.com.  Here's what they have to say about it. 

"Shafer Trail Road-Shafer Canyon Road is a 18 miles dangerous dirt track located in Moab, a city in Grand County, in eastern Utah, in the western United States. It requires extreme caution at the best of times for vehicles and mountain bikes, but especially so in inclement weather and at night. 

This road has humbled many egos. It’s not for the sissies and shouldn’t be attempted by novice drivers. The road is in dreadful condition and requires strong nerves to negotiate it. It’s certainly breathtaking and it has a fearsome reputation. It still remains an adrenaline-pumping journey and is definitely not for the faint of lungs, heart, or legs. Words can’t describe the road and pictures don’t do it justice. This is a great trail for someone who is looking for an off road experience, but doesn’t have access a highly modified rock crawler. Virtually any four-wheel drive vehicle will succeed in navigating this well maintained road. Highlights of this trip include well marked Indian petroglyphs and amazing natural stone arches. You’ll also have an opportunity to tackle the Schafer Switchbacks, a breathtaking climb with expansive views of the surrounding canyon-lands."

So there ya go. There are videos on YouTube of people driving Shafer Trail Road because they are whackadoodle CRAZY. 

Moving on... Canyonlands isn't a huge park (at least the part we went to), so we went on ahead with our schedule because I knew we'd be done in early afternoon.  Our next stop- Mesa Arch.  It was a short trail that led you to an arch the had the canyon behind it.  Beautiful!

This was Upheaval Dome, a meteorite crater.  It was a longer hike but the boys really liked it. 

Resting at the top.

Our last stop was Grand View Overlook, a panorama of the canyon.

We had to get our sign picture on the way out since we came in the "back way".😳

Both boys went to sleep on the way back to town (which turns out was MUCH shorter when you use paved roads and follow signs!😀)

We are beat and looking forward to a nice relaxing evening on the couch.