Photos - Moab Utah - May 23 to May 28 - 2010

We are finally at a campground that has WIFI so I'm going to try to catch us up on photos as many of you have requested.  It looks like the last photos that I posted were from May 22 so I'll get us get caught up with our days around Moab, Utah. 

May 23 - Landscape Arch in Arches National Park where we hiked into.

May 25 - Matt hiked into Delicate Arch and this is a shot through the arch to view the LaSal Mountains in the background.

May 25 - Sun flair as the sun was setting over Delicate Arch in Arches National Park

May 25 - The view of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park that became the unofficial emblem of Utah.

May 25 - We drove from Canyonlands National Park back to Moab via the Shaffer Road - A little intimidating looking down from the top!!!!

We shared the Shaffer trail with this little guy as he munched on the wildflowers.

May 25 - Matt sitting on the edge (as usual) at a viewpoint along the Shaffer Canyon road.

 

May 26 - We took a ranger led walk through the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park - Here Matt scrambles up the face to get ready to stuff himself into the window of the rock.

May 26 - Yep, this is the window (opening) that he is stuffing himself into.

May 26 - Fiery Furnace - We finally found our way back into the maze of rocks on our own

May 27 - Our drive down to the 4 corners to photograph some of the ruins - This one is known as Flame House.

May 28 - Another wonderful ruin - This one know as Fallen Roof

May 27 - We visited National Bridges National Monument.

May 22, 2010 - Moab & Canyonlands National Park - Needles District (Utah)

We got a leisurely start on Saturday and left the RV about 10am to drive the 74 miles Southwest to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.  It took us about an hour and a half to get there.  On our way there, we passed the Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument (click on the name for more info).  It was an amazing collection of petroglyphs just right off the road into Canyonlands' Needles District.

Don't forget you can click on this photo (or any other photo) to get a larger view of it to actually read the sign.

Would you look at how many toes they had back then???  ha ha!!!

We then continued the drive into the Needles District at Canyonlands National Park.  The park itself is divided into three districts, Island in the Sky (all of our previous visits), Needles (today's visit) and the Maze (no roads available into this district so we won't see it this trip) by the Colorado and Green rivers.  We stopped by the visitors center for a short film and then on to have a picnic lunch at the picnic area near Pothole Point.  After lunch, we drove a short distance to the Slickrock Trail and hiked the 2.4 mile loop all over slickrock.  It took us to several viewpoints and was a really neat trail with it constantly going up and down over the slickrock.  I think I should mention that it has been incredibly windy here with winds gusting to around 50 mph.  We were glad the wind was out our faces instead of our backs as we viewed out over the overlooks!  We were still struggling to stand upright at times though...

We then drove back along the main park road to do the short .6 mile walk around Pothole Point.  Needless to say, we haven't had any rain since we've been here so this hike is better left for when there is actually water in the potholes.  Off we went to explore the .6 mile Cave Spring trail.  This one was really neat due to the cowboy artifacts left behind in one of the alcoves.  A couple of small ladders and we climbed to the top of the hill for a great 360' view of the area.  Our last stop in the park was to do a very short .3 mile walk to the Roadside Ruin.  It is a very intact grainary located in a cliff.  Its estimated date is again 1200 AD. 

We made the 1.5 hour trip back to Moab and had a nice quiet dinner at the RV.

May 21, 2010 - Moab, Utah

We spent Friday doing lots of errands and enjoying being back in civilization.  We started out by trying to get the truck some TLC.  As we are just about to begin our BIG drive up North, we decided that he needed some maintenance work.  He got his oil changed and an appointment to have his tires rotated and brakes checked for Saturday.  After the truck was properly fed (lubed ???) we headed out for our own breakfast at the Moab Diner.  We then strolled around Moab's downtown area and did some shopping at the gear store and the grocery store.

We spent the afternoon at the Arches National Park Visitor Center and then headed back to the RV for rest and relaxation.  Sometimes its kind of nice to have a relaxing day without doing much sightseeing. 

May 20, 2010 - Moab & Canyonlands National Park (Utah)

We started the day out with a relaxing morning in the RV (no sunrise photos for Matt this morning).  Matt spent the time by doing some more RV repairs and some touch up paint on the trailer tongue.  It is amazing that being down in Padre in the salt air for only 1 month has caused so much rust to magically appear.  I spent the morning hiding from all the cottonwood stuff that is floating and making it look like snow on the ground, ugh...  I hate allergies.  After a quick lunch at Wendy's (it is good to be back in a town with fast food!).

We headed back the 30+ miles to Canyonlands National Park for the day and evening. It seems that today is the day for exploring ancient dwellings.  We started out with a 2.1 mile mile out to the Aztec Butte.  It was a 500 foot climb to the top of the steep butte.  The climb up the butte was all on slickrock and on at least one occasion, Matt had to take my pack so I could make it up the steep section.  It was well worth the climb to see 3 ancient grainaries that are estimated to be construction in 1200 AD.  I'll have photos of it later on.

The second hike was to a site that is not normally on the map.  It is considered an archaeological site that is only available if you ask for it by name.  The hike is not well marked so we had to constantly watch the trail markers when they existed.  The first part of the hike was fairly easy, but to actually get into the site was a bit of challenge.  We had to hike down about a 1000 feet and then back up through boulders and loose rock to the alcove hanging in the middle of the sheer rock. The hike definitely made us think of how hearty the Ancient Puebloans must have been.  However, the site and solitude were well worth it.

What a peaceful, quiet place - The size and grandeur of the alcove seems at home with the simplicity of the structure - What a perfect balance

We ended the evening by doing a sunset shot of Green River Overlook and eating our picnic dinner on a site near the overlook. 

May 19, 2010 - Dead Horse Point State Park & Moab (Utah)

Today was our last day in Dead Horse Point State Park and we have to be ready to leave by noon.  Matt started out by doing his normal sunrise shoot.

We spent the morning hiking around to all of the overlook areas in the park.  We started out at our campground and hiked the 4+ miles down to the neck and then back up to the Visitors Center and then back to our campground. 

Matt enjoying the view of the Shafer Canyon overlook.

We came back to the RV and in 30 minutes had it all packed up and ready to do the 32 mile drive into Moab.  We got settled into our camground, Slickrock.  We barely have enough room to slide out as the sites are so narrow.  We are starting to understand the difference in the ratings in all our campground books and we see why this one is rated lower than the ones we have been staying at.  It could be really nice as there are lots of cottonwood trees all over, but they tried to squeeze in too many sites.  I doubt we will return to this campground in the future.

After getting settled in, we decided to visit the metropolis of Moab.  We're not sure if its just really busy here or if we are just used to the quiet of the parks, but its been a bit overwhelming!!  Lots of RV's, Jeeps, bikes, people, etc.  We visited several bike stores and a couple of gear stores.  I'm not the proud owner of a new smaller backpack that should hopefully help me out hiking a bit.  Matt found a new attachment for his pack that he had been looking for also.

We enjoyed a great burger dinner at the Moab Brewery where we both enjoyed some of their homemade root bear.  Back to the RV for a peaceful evening and a few catch up items.

New Layout of Moab....

Just a quick post of a layout I did of our Moab trip last fall with Ted and Beth. This is a picture of "Park Avenue" in Arches National Park. The layout was completed with the help of Cheryl Embry's Bohemian Garden kit (Here is link to her blog http://cheryl-creations.blogspot.com/).

I'll post probably tomorrow with pictures from last week's Missouri trip.

New layout of "the guys"

Well, since the weather has been so bad here I've been stuck inside and have been getting some scrapping done.

I've been working on the following layout to try to get a little more current with my scrapping and also to answer the Creative Team Call at Weeds and Wildflowers {www.weedsandwildflowersdesign.com}. They were wonderful enough to send me a free sampling of their Going West Kit and I loved how the colors corresponded to the the guys' bike jerseys. This is from our last weekend trip to Moab (See Kodak Site for lots more pictures).

Here is the layout:



















I've also had a layout and a card published based on sketches by Di Hickman and Lucy Chesna. Here is a link to Di's blog to check them out.
http://dihickman.blogspot.com/

Moab pictures!!

We just returned from a long weekend in Moab where Matt mountain biked and I hiked. Here's a pic of the guys riding the Porcupine Rim trail.