The Barking Lot: Moab Utah

I loaded the car Friday night, May 1st, with the tent, sleeping bag, a couple of crates, two ice chests full of food, and a suitcase packed for a 10 day adventure to Moab Utah; it took 1 ½ days to make the just over 1000 miles to Moab. The drive over was uneventful; I made it to Ogden Utah the first night.

After leaving I-15 and heading east on I-90 I drove through a beautiful mountain pass with a raging creek running along the interstate that opened up to the most beautiful valley.

I have not seen the Grand Canyon yet but this is what I would imagine it would look like.

I arrived in Moab just after noon and found the campgrounds. I set up the tent

and unloaded the car. After having a little lunch I headed to Arches National Park.

I only have 1 ½ days to explore all the beauty of this area before the NADAC judging clinic starts on Tuesday.

WOW!! Arches National Park is breath-taking. My pictures can not do the massive red rock formations

and the magnificent arches justice.

It is truly amazing what nature can create. I loved all the arches but the

Fiery Furnace was my favorite rock formation.

Here is just a small sampling of the 145 pictures I took.

We ended the evening with a storm blowing in.

It rained really hard Sunday night and I was worried about it being too nasty to go exploring Monday but I woke up in the morning to a beautiful day.

I went back in to Arches National Park arriving just after sunrise to do a couple of hikes before it gets warm. I did a couple of miles at

Delicate Arch and then a few miles to see several arches in

Devils Garden.

I arrived back at the car by 10am and it was still very cool and the dogs were great. I understand why the dogs can not be on the trails at the national parks but I still do not like it. After finishing my explorations of Arches National Park I headed to Canyonlands National Park.

Canyonlands is much bigger then Arches and I only visited Island in the Sky.

There were some hikes available in Canyonlands but nothing that interested me.

There were a few times in Canyonlands that the heights got to me.

I really wanted to enjoy the beauty from the view points but getting too close to the edge was not an option.

At the very end of road there was a picnic area and a picnic table has just opened up so I decided to stop there for lunch and let the dogs hang out. I very nice couple

traveling from Chicago asked if they could share the table with me and we had a very nice visit over lunch. I enjoyed my exploration of Canyonlands

and wished I had time to explore some of the other areas; next time.

I ended my Monday travels with a visit to Dead Horse State Park.

With this being a State Park and not a National Park the dogs were allowed on the trails.

We spent several hours here exploring the trails and meeting people.

We met two great couples one that had just arrived from England on holiday and other from Vancouver Canada. The man from Canada had bought a motorcycle from Maine and was driving it home. His girlfriend flew to Denver where he picked her up and they were making a small vacation out of the last part of the trip back home.