Fiery Furnace & the Hogle Zoo

We tried to get an early start today to head back to Arches to hike the Fiery Furnace “trail”. There isn’t exactly a trail, but more of a “explore where ever you want in this area, just don’t step on the living soil” kind of place.  It took us a bit to get onto the main “trail” to see some people to let us know we weren’t terribly lost.  Once we got oriented it was really exciting.  I think we only ended up hiking about 3 miles in this area, but we took our time and explored every dead end and crevasse we could find.  We were rewarded with some awesome arches, tunnels and neat boulders to scramble over, under, and through.  The kids were excited to do a different type of hiking and James was beside himself with a seeming endless possibilities to practice his climbing skills;)  Audrey even ended up doing this whole trail herself, which she was very proud of.  This was a nice time to force her to walk the whole way because many of the spots I could barely squeeze through myself, let alone without someone on my back.  

We spent the afternoon relaxing (finally!) at our condo and enjoying the pool on this beautiful day.  While at the pool, the bubble Audrey was using to help her swim finally disintegrated and she was forced to go without any help.  She has been able to swim a bit by herself this winter, but not for safely swimming with the kids in the pool.  She did so well on her own, so I guess we now have four independent swimmers! We spent the rest of the night getting packed up and ready to head to the last leg of our trip, Salt Lake City!

PB&J Count: 46 still… we are hoping taking two days off will help for the final push AND we bought too many groceries and had to make quesadillas for lunch since it is Cinco de Mayo;)

This morning we got an early start and were all a little sad to say goodbye to Moab, we hope to return some day for more adventure.  We made the long journey to Salt Lake City and our first stop was the Hogle Zoo. This actually turned out to be the perfect stop since the zoo wasn’t too large and we got to see some cool animals and exhibits.  It was a gorgeous day in the mid 80s with a light breeze. After the zoo we had an awesome meal that came lightning fast at Ruth’s Diner.  

PB&J Count: 52

Hummer Tour and Canyonlands

We started today with a Hummer tour of the Hell’s Revenge 4X4 trail at Sand Flats Recreation Area. We wanted to do something that we couldn’t do just anywhere, so this fit the bill! Our guide described it as a grown-ups playground and I have to say, that is pretty accurate.  On this trip we all learned “real” four wheeling as well as the real purpose of Jeeps, Hummers, and Land Cruisers.  It was awesome and the kids kept saying it was better than a roller coaster.  Some of the grades we went up over were close to 60 degrees!  We had a wonderful driver and would love to do it again sometime.  After the tour we had a picnic lunch literally along the side on the road next to the Colorado River. We stumbled upon some Petroglyphs as well as an impressive stretch of road/rock that seems to be very popular for rock climbers. It was a gorgeous day and the kids lost count at 40 rock climbers, it was great lunch time entertainment. 

After lunch we headed for Canyonlands National Park, the Island in the Sky section.  We were hoping to make it down to the Needles section too, but it is just too far of a drive and we were running out of time. The Island in the Sky is a high section of land that is surrounded on three sides by canyons formed by the Green and Colorado Rivers.  It was pretty spectacular to see and a short hike got us to a panoramic view of the area.  Our visit was short, only a half day and a few hikes, but totally worth the drive!  

PB&J Count: Still at 46, we had a cheese plate lunch today after grocery shopping and not wanting to hear any more whining…