Day 27 – Glenwood Springs, CO to Hays, Kansas

We awoke and had the complimentary continental breakfast at our wonderful hotel in the lobby with the roaring fireplace. Stepping out of the room you could tell we were in a mountain town. Crisp, cold, clean mountain air filled the lungs and chilled us down right away. The spread at the breakfast was really great. Breakfast ended at 9:30 am, so we were sure to arrive at 9:25 - just in time to not be turned away. I had coffee, biscuits and gravy, cereal, a hardboiled egg, and a cinnamon roll; all were delicious. Lauren had OJ, Oatmeal and some of my cinnamon roll. Also, she tried a hardboiled egg, but was too full to finish, so I finished that off as well. We were planning to swing by a coffee shop that we had spotted the night before (when we picked up our takeout dinner), but we took a wrong turn and were on the freeway in a flash. Rather than backtracking, we decided we would stop for coffee in Vail and walk around the village just to stretch our legs. I had been to Vail once before while in college.
We drove into the snow-covered Rockies and found ourselves in Vail in no time. We grabbed coffee at the first place we came to and then strolled around. People were all milling around in their ski/snowboard gear; all heading to the lifts to go up onto the mountain for the day. There were a lot of interesting outfits. We saw a guy in leopard print snowboard pants and a flannel shirt, no jacket despite the fact it was freezing out. We saw a girl with crazy animal-fur leg warmers for boots and a cape; a bus driver even shouted out to ask if she was some kind of deranged super hero. And then we saw several rich women in their luxurious fur coats. Vail is a crazy mountain town. We finished off our coffees and were back on the road climbing, climbing, climbing to the peak on I-70, which was just over 11,000 feet, before descending down into Denver. Neither of us are familiar with Denver at all; but Lauren was driving and I was navigating. I saw Larimer Square on the map and said I had heard about that before, so we settled on that as our destination.
Larimer Square seemed like the old downtown section of town. Lots of little cafes and boutiques and shops were sprinkled about, just like any other city. We found free parking and walked a few blocks before deciding that one of the first places we saw seemed like the best option. It was called The Market.

They had huge really delicious sandwiches and a plethora of fresh baked items to choose from. Lauren had the club sandwich and I had the Thanksgiving sandwich special. This included mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey and a smothering of gravy. It was faaaaantastic! We both enjoyed our sandwiches; I finished mine, Lauren finished only half of hers-they were huge. This didn’t stop us from grabbing some baked goods as we headed out the door to continue our journey. I got a blueberry poundcake and Lauren got a sticky bun. I had high expectations, as the smells were incredible, and the sandwiches were faaaantastic.
We continued our drive east into the night. If you’ve driven in Kansas, than you know how boring the drive is. The road is almost completely straight; the driver/wheel interaction is almost non-existent. There are also no hills, so by straight, I guess I also mean flat. We made it as far as Hays, Kansas before we decided to call it a day. Both of us were tired and hungry and needed to find a hotel. Hays seemed like it would be the biggest city in the area, so we thought it was our best bet for hotel options.
There were certainly more than a few options, and after driving around to a few to check prices, we checked in. Clint is really the person to send in for this task. I went in to two hotels; both of them quoted me outrageous rates (one was over $100). I mean, this is Kansas! No offense, but c’mon! Clint just has that southern charm; he chats with the front desk clerk and talks down the rate. At the third or fourth hotel, despite what we thought was a high rate, we just booked the room. Our choice was the Hays Day’s Inn.
After checking in and driving to our room, we caught a glimpse of the kind of area we were in. The Day’s Inn sign was directly above their friendly greeting for all out-of-towners like us.

In case you can't tell, it reads, "Welcome Hunters." Could this be the reason that the rates are so high in this flat, freeway stop of a town? What are people hunting out here, one might wonder? Well, wonder no longer my friend, because the gracious staff at the Day’s Inn left a laminated note in each room. A picture of this note is posted below.


We ate our Chinese food leftovers and settled in for the night in our mature hotel room. Our expectations for the saved desserts were not met: the pastry on the sticky bun was more bread-like than buttery or flaky, and the poundcake was a bit soggy.
Tomorrow would be another long drive day, and we went to bed with plans for the day open.

Road Trip Day 26 – Canyonlands Natl Park to Arches National Park to Glenwood Springs, CO

We woke up super early (by our standards), before 8 am, and had coffee. We packed up our gear and were on the road before 8:30 am. We jammed it into Moab where we stopped for breakfast. We had bagel breakfast sandwiches and shared a fresh fruit smoothie. We then walked over to a competing coffee shop/café and realized that this one was way better than the one we had just eaten at- oh well!; next time we will know. This didn’t stop us from buying some sweets for the road. I got a chocolate chip cookie, and Lauren got a cranberry breakfast bar. Both were delicious. Especially the cookie. Lauren actually said this cookie was better than Cowboy Cookies in SLO, which apparently is a big deal. We stopped by there in SLO last time we were there so I could try them, but they were closed, so I have no basis for comparison. Lauren described this cookie from ‘Wake & Bake Café’ as "dark chocolate melty chips, the cookie is both crunchy and chewy, about 4 inches across in circumference, about a half inch thick, all in all, exactly the way a cookie should be" that was Lauren’s quote while eating it. Anyhow, I'm excited to try Cowboy next time in SLO to get Lauren’s comparative analysis again. We then jumped back in the car for the quick 5 mile ride to Arches National Park.

That's the thing about Moab, it's surrounded literally by stunning national parks and just beautiful areas in general. So it’s a surprise that the town is so weak. The café we were at was cool, so it does have potential. But it's just an ugly town and it appears to be only set up for tourism in the summers. We got into Arches at about 11 and b-lined it straight to the ‘Delicate Arch’ Hike. This was a 3 mile hike round-trip. The hike up was pretty cool; a little climbing over slick rock with some views of stunning canyon country.

Also, they had this crazy green colored rock. Not sure what causes the green color, see pictures.

I would be interested to find out why it's green and what causes the color variation.
Once you reach the Arch the hike becomes worth it. Delicate Arch is spectacular.

Don’t know what else to say about it. It was really incredible. Only a few other people were up there. They were just sitting there staring at the arch. We took a few photos and then left.

We took our time on the way down and took a small, labeled detour to some petroglyphs; roped off so you couldn’t get near them, but still impressive. Petroglyphs are really awesome to see in person, I highly recommend it.

And as far as I can tell, we as a people don’t know much about them. There are a lot of guesses as to what they mean, but for us they are just cool to see and fun/interesting to look at. We headed back to the car, and on our way out of Arches, took some roadside pictures (which I hate doing). But the area was so beautiful that I found myself yanking the car onto the shoulder to get a quick picture multiple times. I vowed not to do this once out of the park and I have not done it as promised.
We stopped by the Arches visitor center and got more postcards that we promise to send out, but still haven’t done…. We’re slow at that unfortunately. We were soon back in the car and headed towards Colorado. Once on the I-70 we almost immediately saw a group of Pronghorn Antelope grazing in a field-much to Lauren’s delight. This was one animal she was dying to see in Yellowstone, but never saw. Dream fulfilled! Now if only we can see a Moose in Kansas, and a pack of Wolves in Oklahoma we’ll be all set.

Note the lack of color on the CO sign...

We arrived in Glenwood Springs just before dark. Glenwood Springs, CO is on the western side of the Rockies and is a really beautiful little town. We checked a few hotel prices and I was able to talk down a lady on the price of a room. She said she liked my cologne and asked what it was; I said it was 4 days of campfire and not showering in Utah. I think she thought I was crazy and wished she hadn’t given us a lower rate, but the damage was done and we had a nice discount on a nice room. Lauren and I were happy to have talked down the price as it seemed Colorado was much more expensive than Utah. We again did some research for food options online and settled on Chinese. Lauren is disappointed that no one seems to use Yelp, and spent a long time perusing the options. It seems we should be gun shy after our Provo experience with Asian cuisine, but this turned out to be really good. Unfortunately, no Harry Potter was on tonight;  we watched Conan and then passed out. We're hoping to make it into Kansas tomorrow; as we hit the drive hard, drive fast portion of our trip into Arkansas.

Road Trip Day 25 – Canyonlands National Park – Hanging out & a trail run for Clint

We slept in and paid another nights' camping fees. We just wanted to lounge today and worry about hitting the road the next day. We had a nice leisurely paced breakfast with plenty of hot coffee, and Lauren made her always delicious Juevos Rancheros! After a delicious meal we just kind of lounged in the sun and read our books. It was a nice day to relax, and it was equally nice that the wind was not blowing, that the sun was shining, and the temperature was really comfortable. We hung out well into the afternoon before walking down a trailhead near our campsite.
We only hiked down maybe a mile and just sat on some rocks and checked out the pothole formations on the slick rock that were full of water. Can’t really compare them to tide pools, because nothing compares to the ocean, but they are kind of like tide pools in the desert.

They even can contain a teeney tiny species of shrimp that we were able to see in one, and in another we found a ton of snails. At one point Utah was actually under the ocean, way way way back in time. This was responsible for some of the types of rocks that they have.
After our leisurely stroll, we made our way back to the campground and I went out for a quick trail run on the slick rock trail we had hike a few days earlier. It was a really fun trail to run. Ran it just before sun set, so all of the cliff sides and canyons were starting to light up bright oranges and reds from the early evening red sun. After the trail run, I headed back to camp and we made dinner: grilled cheese sandwiches and Pozole soup. We had a fire and ate beside it. It seemed a little colder tonight than the first night; but still not bad. I ate dinner sitting by the fire in my shorts that I had run in; so obviously not frigid if I could bare it in shorts. After dinner we retired to the tent with plans of leaving the following morning. We wanted to get an early start we could do a hike in Arches that I really wanted to do, before getting on the road towards Colorado.

Road Trip Day 24 – Canyonlands National Park – Chesler Park/Joint Trail Hike

We woke up early, as our tent faced East that way we would get the morning sun and could be immediately warmed up. Another item on the checklist. We had a breakfast full of coffee and oatmeal and then made our way to the trail head. For this was to be a long hike. 11 miles roundtrip. We were both excited at the fact that we slept relatively well and didn’t freeze. We paid for another nights camping. We were planning to pay day by day and let the cold dictate our decision. If it got to cold, we were outta there. We drove down a dirtroad, a pretty easy one that most cars can make, to the trail head. At the trailhead you could either hike, or there was a 4 wheel drive road. Canyonlands has a ton of 4 wheel drive only roads that you can drive on. This would be awesome to do sometime. I do prefer hiking to 4 wheel road driving though, so we chose to hike. I should say that the needles district and the maze district are crawling with 4 wheel drive only roads and you can get backcountry permits and just drive all over the place and camp as well. Also both sections are a backpackers paradise. However with it being november and the park was relatively empty we didn’t need to backpack to escape crowds, so we could just camp at the campgrounds so we could have a fire, b/c there are no fires allowed in the backcountry and enjoy the solitude of a national park with empty trails. The hike was incredible. It was also incredibly windy. Some sections were windier than others, and we were able to escape the wind entirely in several sections, but it was definitely a very windy day. The sun was out however, and the temperature was really pretty warm; which was really nice. We hiked through so many different types of rock formations, look at pictures, I don’t know the names of all the different types. Several canyon overlooks. But primarily we hiked right in between the formations.





Then across a big valley floor that was surrounded with incredible rock formations in every direction. Really awesome!


We got to a point that was relatively out of the wind and in the sun simultaneously so we took the opportunity to eat our packed lunches.

Salami sandwich that we shared, PB&J sandwich that we shared and some m&m’s for snacks. We then jumped off our rocks we were perched on and headed down the trail.

Here is where the trail really changed and got the most awesomest in my opinion.

We were lead down deep into the narrows, with rock walls a few hundred feet tall rising above us on both sides.

The trail was just over shoulder width apart the entire time in here. Sand bottom and just light coming down from above into the narrow little trailway.


We were both really enjoying the trail down here, but were soon back out into the open country.


We then headed back towards the car for the long second half of the hike.



By the end of the day we were both completely exhausted and windblown when we hit the car just before sundown. We made our way back down the dirtroad as the sun was setting and the red rock formations all around us took their turn glowing in the setting sun. we got back and I quickly whipped up a fire while we cooked would be a delicious spaghetti dinner.

The wind was still wicked at this point, so we retreated to the car to eat our dinner. Sounds awful, but we had a good time and were soon in the tent and passed out after cleaning up. We were both really tired from the day and not sure what we would do the next. We knew we didn’t want to wake up early and drive anywhere, so we settled on a total relaxation day of hanging out.

Road Trip Day 23 – Moab, UT to Canyonlands National Park

We awoke and excitedly got on the road headed back south towards the Needles section of Canyonlands. Canyonlands, much like Zion, does not have a road that goes all the way through it. It is broken down into roughly three sections, Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. All are supposed to be great, but The Needles was recommended and is a lot more accessible, especially from the direction we were coming from, than the maze was. Island in the Sky is supposed to be awesome, and is in all honesty a little closer to Moab, but The Needles sounded like something we couldn’t pass up so we headed there. Just before entering the park we stopped at Newspaper Rock, a panel full of Petroglyphs.


  This was awesome to see. It was behind chain linked fence and had signs everywhere for the penalties of vandalism and graffiti. This made us both appreciate even more what we had been able to see and do down in Bluff, where we didn’t have to view the ancient art from behind barricaded fences with warnings of being prosecuted if we were dumb enough to add our own graffiti. The panel was amazing; again look at pictures.

We quickly hopped back in the car and were in Canyonlands in a matter of minutes.

After checking in at the ranger station and being assured that we would not have any problem gaining a campsite, and that we would be able to pick out any one we liked we were given some hiking recommendations and on our way to select our site. With only about 2 or 3 other cars in the entire campground we made our way through each and every campsite to check out the conditions were to our liking. We based our decision upon a rigorous checklist. Wind blockage capabilities, View, Hammock spot, flat tent area, water spigot distance from tent area, bathroom distance from tent site, and finally proximity to other neighbors.



We found one to our liking that checked off the most points from our criteria list and quickly set up camp and took a nap in the hammock with our beautiful view.

The needles gets its name from the rock formation that are very present in the area. Small spires jutting up towards the sky in concentrated areas out of large former plateau like rock formations. Check pictures. After a nice afternoon nap we went down to check out a slick rock trail loop that had been pointed out by the ranger. This was a really cool loop with 4 viewpoints for different canyons and other points overlooking different types of rock formations.





A short 2.5 mile hike, just long enough to stretch our legs and get back to prepare dinner and get a fire going before dark.





We made a great dish of macaroni and cheese with sausage and tomato, and arugula. This is quickly becoming our favorite car camping meal. It was delicious. The fire was warm. And much to our surprise the low forecasted temperature felt quite warm and manageable after all. We were both legitimately excited to be camping again and out of a hotel. And definitely excited to be out of Moab. No offense to anyone from Moab. I’m definitely up to check it out again with anyone that knows the ins. We hung out by the fire as we ate and then put it out and climbed into the tent to do some reading before nodding off.

Road Trip Day 22 – Bluff, UT to Moab, UT

We left our hotel that we had stayed at for 4 nights; with full days of adventure in between. We stopped at a small café just down the road from the hotel, since we were in downtown Bluff before everything had closed we had more than 1 option this morning. At the moment I can’t recall the name of the café, I’ll add it once I check my billing summary on my debit card. We both really loved this place. The food was great, and the owner was awesome. This café also housed a lot of art work and jewelry and crafts from local artists in the area. I had pancakes made from blue corn flour, which is a local ingredient, and Lauren had oatmeal. Both were made with fresh local ingredients, which was a great change of pace from the backpacker meals and salami sandwiches we had been living on. We talked with the owner for a while about the café and everything she was selling and our trip, she was really cool and we enjoyed getting to talk to someone new on the trip.
We soon found ourselves beyond the city limits of Bluff and headed towards Moab. It was a relatively short drive, only a few hours. The drive was pretty cool, we saw some really look rock formations just off of the highway and also Wilson Arch, which is just off the highway almost at the turn for The Needles section of Canyonlands. Because the weather forecast was so cold for the nights and it had been so cold at nighttime in Bluff, we thought we would check out Moab and potentially just do day trips with Moab as our base camp for a few days. Much to our dismay, we both hated Moab. I’m sure in the summer time the place is rocking, as it is a mountain biking mecca, but it just seemed like a dead dumpy town. Because we had taken our time getting there it was starting to get late in the day and we didn’t want to make any rushed decisions, so we b lined it straight for the Moab Brewery. We figured the decision making process would be easier after a local beer. The brewery was not the coolest we’ve been to, just didn’t have any character unfortunately. The beer was ok, not great, but not bad either. We had some food, which was good. I had chicken wings and Lauren had a greek salad, which she really enjoyed a lot.
We then ended up in a hotel that neither of us was that excited about. We were able to get a good deal as it was technically the off season for them. But we decided then and there that we couldn’t spend several days, even 1 day, in Moab, or we would both be unhappy with the way we were spending our money. We figured we would try camping in Canyonlands. If it was too cold then we would reevaluate and go from there, but Moab wasn’t going to do it for us. We then did some research online and found a pizza place that had some good reviews and delivered. Paragon Pizza. When in Moab, I would say check it out; it was good and the delivery person was nice. We ate pizza and watched back to back Harry Potter movies on TV; we had to start refreshing our memory since the new Harry Potter movie was coming out in just about a week and we wanted to be ready! So we were fed and excited to have a plan. Moab was definitely disappointing; I think more so for me than fo Lauren.
The only excitement we had was reading the comments that people post on this blog. So, thanks everyone!

Day 21 – Bluff, UT – Hike to ‘The Citadel’

We both woke to another morning of excitement. We were headed back towards where we had gone the first day of our adventures in Bluff, over by the Moonhouse. Back over the Mogi Dugway. We quickly were back off the main highways and on the BLM backroads headed for some vague landmark to again look for a somewhat hidden trail marked by Cairns only, hopefully leading us to another ruin site known as The Citadel.

We headed down a wash looking everywhere for the specific landmarks of the trail again and this time we were constantly second guessing ourselves as I think we were scared we might get off trail again and miss out on this ruin.

However, luckily for us we soon found a distinctive trail with heavy footprint traffic and more cairns. It was again a beautiful day in Southeast Utah, the sun was shining and the temperature was great for hiking, somewhere in the mid to high 50s. We soon found our selves out of the wash and on the rim of a huge canyon.

We continued on the canyon rim and could coon see where the ruin laid ahead. We had to make our way down some tricky slick rock canyon parts to access the land bridge which led out to the ruin site. The view was spectacular. The land bridge led in an arc out towards the site and had several hundred feet drops on both sides of us.

The land bridge led out to a large rock mass that was literally surrounded by canyon on all sides. At the very top you could see above the entire canyon rim for hundreds of miles in all directions. We saw a few other hikers on this day at the site. It was a Saturday and we realized that other people do in fact know of these places, obviously. Which we knew the entire time, but when you literally don’t see anybody where you are for days and days, you start to think that maybe only a limited few know of some of these places. And it feels incredible when you are the only ones there. It didn’t take away from what we saw today by any means, but I think it did feel a bit different to see others out in the middle of nowhere Utah backcountry, looking at ruins.

We quickly got out to the site and were excited to check out the ruin. Didn’t see any pottery fragments today, but the ruin was very interesting nonetheless.

This ruin seemed more modern than the others we had viewed. Let the pictures tell you maybe.. this seemed to be made of a brick style wall, built into the side of the cliff. It was built of rock and mud, but the style was reminiscent of the way a brick building is constructed.

There was a way to climb up to the top of the rock that overhung the dwelling, so of course I had to climb up to the top to catch the view.

The view as awesome, and definitely worth the effort. You could now see over the canyon rim in all directions. From the dwelling, you could not. It appears that the dwelling was meant to be hidden and that the inhabitants could then climb up above to see what was going on around them in all directions, possibly to see if an enemy was approaching. There was a small, shin high, arcing wall built at the top, seemed like it was built, so you could lie at the top and watch for enemies without being spotted yourself. This was a really fun hike and an amazing canyon that we were able to check out. We made our way back to the car but because we were hiking into the late afternoon/early evening sun, we were being blinded and soon found ourselves off of our trail. We ended up on a road and after consulting the map realized that we were just barely off of our trail and that if we followed this road out to the main road we came in on we would only be about a quarter mile from where we had left the car. Luckily, this was the case and not just our guess at where we were. We made it back to the car and headed back to town.
We were tired of our backpacking meals and eating in our hotel room, so we headed straight into downtown Bluff to the only open restaurant-the Twin Rocks Café. I had the nights special, Meatloaf, and Lauren again had the homemade chicken noodle soup and a salad. We were now well fed and ready for some rest, as we were unfortunately going to be leaving Bluff the next morning.
It’s strange leaving some of the places we have stayed. You’re torn in both your excitement for the next place and what lies ahead, yet also a bit disappointed to leave because you are having such an amazing time, as we both were in Bluff. The BLM lands and roads that take you through the country is amazing. It was super fun to get to do some legitimate off-road driving and just see the beautiful canyons that you are surrounded by. As well as the seemingly never ending exploring that you could do in that part of the country. Sad to leave, but super excited to check out Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Moab; which was all on the agenda for the next week of our trip. I should also add that this extra week was a bonus as Lauren and I both thought that Thanksgiving fell on the 18^th for some reason. After talking to my mom about Thanksgiving plans and when we would arrive, we were both dumbfounded to learn that Thanksgiving fell on the 25^th… anyhow, another week to explore Southern Utah was OK by us!