The Final Chapter; Moab Arches National Park

On our last days of the trip we traveled to Moab.  I had made a hotel reservation because I knew that we would want to change and be clean.  So glad I did. It really makes you appreciate how soft beds are.  We went to the farmers market, swimming, got pizza and chilled in our SOFT beds.  Each time we go camping we do really learn more about how to do it.  It was a fun trip and very interesting to see how the rock formed, and the history.  I also love hiking. Its a great form of exercise.  We plan on being a very active family all of our lives.  One day we will take our kids there and do the rappelling part as well. 

Moab Diner. We have made a decision that we will eat local when we travel.

Having fun in the pool

It took several tries to get this right.

Good looking at Arches National Park

We saw this Chinese guy kissing the wall several times....so we had to remember it somehow.

Bad idea to ask some European guy to take your pic. He couldnt figure it out. Didnt quite get the whole arch in there

That is the arch

Saw some people taking a pic of this tree. Jamir thought it was special and wanted one too ;)

The famous arch

And we are very far away from it. We got lazy and didnt want to walk in the hot sun to it.

Basically the whole park looks like this...with all the rock formations. 

To sum it up, it was an awesome trip. I'm sad its over. But we will have many more adventures and now are more experienced campers!

Part Five; Stuck in-between Bryce and Moab

So we had planned on spending the night around Goblin Valley but we had a little detour...right about 20 miles outside of Escalante our tire blew. We had been off roading around Spooky Gulch (below) and got a small leak caused by one of the rocks. Nice. Incidentally, our tire overheated and blew. We drove back to Escalante and decided to camp at the same site again instead of continuing to the next town. Thankgoodness we did because the next town didn't have the tire that we needed anyway.  We slept (and took showers!) and replaced the tire in the morning. This time with one meant for off roading. We were able to continue on to Goblin Valley.  It all worked out anyway because it was sooo hot there anyway and we were able to stay in a nicer campsite. 

Spooky Gulch.  Narrow canyons that continue for 1/2 mile.  Normally it isn't that muddy, but since it had just rained our shoes got covered!  

Jamir wanted a pic of Hector (our truck) after the off roading. It is covered with red mud.

Second campsite. It was a nice place with a reservoir next to it. Heard some very loud geese in the morning!

Showers behind us. I cannot express how happy I was about them.

Where the tire blew

Taking pics as we drive to Goblin Valley. I really like how light looks on the lens.

Where we pulled over to fix the flat.  Jamir wanted this for documenting purposes.  Btw, everywhere else is a very soft shoulder. We were lucky it blew here.

Almost hit this cow on the way there. And it had to run away when I got the camera out.

Goblins! These are formed by erosion, ice, wind you name it. Really cool rock formations.  It was too hot so we just took a pic from above.

You can tell from the pic, but these rocks are very large. Way taller than people.

Part Four; Bryce Canyon

On Wednesday we left Zion National Park and headed to Bryce Canyon.  We found a campsite with showers in the petrified forest. Lucky us! We were able to see the amphitheater of Bryce and go on a gorgeous hike to Calf Creek Falls. It is this waterfall in the middle of a desert.  Very cool. When we got back to our campsite I took a shower and was sooo happy! In the morning we hiked the petrified forest hike before heading to Spooky Gulch (more on that later).

Mile long tunnel built in early 1900s. It was dark!

Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon

On the way to Calf Creek.  The rock formations were awesome!

We made it! If it were hotter (we hiked in the evening) I would have jumped in the pool

Can you tell we have been camping?

Morning hike to petrified forest

Petrified wood.  It is so many colors.  

Part Three; Zion National Park Last Day

We decided to cut our time at Zion Park short because of the flooding caused by the rain. Jamir was really sad that we wouldn't be able to rappel.  I was too, since we had spent time and money practicing before we left, but we were still able to enjoy the beautiful hikes around the park. We started with the river walk, and then took a short hike to the "weeping rock" and finished with the Emerald Pools.  It was perfect weather since the rain had cooled everything down.

Parking lot. This to show how much it rained. It only rains 12 inches a year...pretty sure we got 10 of them because it rained all night and day.

Along the River Walk.

Standing in the river. I didn't want to get cold.

This is the beginning of "The Narrows" Also a hike, but we couldn't do bc it was flooded.

The mountain behind us is Angel's Landing. Can't get the full rock in the pic

Weeping Rock. Water slowly dripped from this rock so there are plants growing on it called "hanging gardens"

To the Emerald Pools

Found a tarantula!

Higher Emerald Pools. This waterfall is really tall, but I couldn't get it all in the pic

Lower Emerald Pools

Jamir really wanting to do some rock climbing

Hottie! This is how we took showers.

Jamir surprised me and made these donuts. Inside are peaches. Sooo tasty after hiking all day.

And our neighbor campers gave us another tent (the green one). They also gave us the cooler to the right , pillows and food!  Really nice European people. I think they saw us sleeping in our car and felt sorry for us ;) We had a tent....it was just wet that night.