For Spring Break, we wanted to go somewhere warm, but we wanted to split that time with Idaho. Because we didn't know we would be able to see my family again before the summer time and when we move.
We wanted to have a spontaneous trip, with no planning ahead of time, so we decided to head south... and chose to go to Moab!
We didn't want to have to rely on restaurants and buying food for the whole time... or a hotel. So.... we (being the adventurous buckaroo's that we are...) put a bunch of blankets and pillows in the back, a whole lot of water bottles, power bars, jerky, craisens, fruit leathers and cadbury eggs. (i know, right? delicious.)
We arrived around 8pm, and it was dark. We drove up to Arches National Park, and up the canyon for a bit and found a nice parking spot and made the back of our Murano into a bed. We used our flashlight to play Skip-Bo and Monopoly Deal. We went on a midnight hike around a close-by rock structure (it was hard to tell in at night, being so dark) but in the morning we found out that it was called "Balanced Rock".
The next morning, we got up and looked out the window and there were cars everywhere and the trails were already buzzing with people! So... we sneakily got dressed in the back of our car, and headed out to see some trails! only AFTER we had gotten filled up on some power bars and snacks, and filled up our camel-back type backpacks.
We had quite the large amounts of energy on our first hike. But it was stinkin COLLLLLD. (probably 40ish degrees) with light rain and a tonnnn of wind. but we had SUCH a blast.
We were quitttte stoked to take silly pictures.
We FINALLLY after a long hard hike got to our first arch. MASSSSIVE!!! ouR first hike of the morning was a 2.5 mile round trip hike.
next: we drove a little ways up the canyon... (15 minutes) and went to another long hike (6 miles round trip) with about 8 arches total along the hike. (:
SUCH beautiful views over the red rock cliffs.
Double-O Arch.
in case anyone didn't know... i'm freakin strong.
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We're climbing into all sorts of crevaces and such for our breaks. Eating our snacks, feuling our energy (:
There were some random tree's here and there... this was pine tree arch (i think thats what it was called... something of the sort)
Love my monkey man.
We slept awesome the first night, the second night was harrrrrrd. It was so freaking cold in our car, and our blankets were barely keeping us warm enough! AND i had to pee ALLLL night long. I was too scared to get out of the car in the dark in the middle of the night in the middle of no where... so every 20 minutes the cold or my bladder would wake me up. I was sooooo excited when sterling woke up, and we drove to the visitors center to use the bathrooms, and brush our teeth. (: We went to Mcdonalds for some breakfast... Sterling had 2 Sausage McMuffins, 2 Hashbrowns and a Breakfast burrito to get a jump start on our long day of hiking- and I had a huge Muscle Milk Protein Shake, and a Mcdonalds Parfait, and a PowerBar. haha We were READY!
Our first hike of the day was to the Windows Arches (2 of them) and to the Double Arch (my 2nd favorite arch) It was probably a 2 mile total round trip with all of them.
I think the reason they call it the window's arches is because it looks like a window to such a beautiful view of all the beautiful red around us.
so for this picture (BELOW)...
so since it was just the two of us... we mostly had to put our camera on a rock somewhere and set the timer on it.. the nearest spot for our camera that was able to get the full view of this arch.. was pretty far away.. but sterling made the brave attempt.. he set it, and had 10 seconds to run. He made it to me BARRRELLYY but as he was turning to face the camera/ stopping himself from the dead sprint... he slipped on the sand/ dirt on the rock and fell RIGHT as the camera flashed. haha i was trying so hard not to laugh. ok.. i laughed really hard (: love the attempt. and i like this picture.
Right before we were taking this picture, I called sterling out on something that happened to be QUITE smelly...
let's just say, he didn't deny it.
so this picture, I was letting him know how I felt about that particular smell.
...i truly don't know what's happening in this picture.
but the pile of rocks was inspiring.
needed to take a little time out of my day for yoga. (pfffff... right)
Sterling's "Buddah Pose"
'
Made the trek over to Double Arch. This picture you could BARRRELY see the double arch. the first one is above where we are standing, you can see part of it in the top right corner.
My ultimate favorite of the whole trip was the butt-kicking workout hike (4.3 mile round trip) to the
amazing beautiful Delicate Arch
(Favorite picture below)
love this handsome boy
no.... THIS is my favorite picture... how creative are we!??
and this was taken with the timer on the camera.. with the camera balancing on a rock!
Sterling wanted to try and get a picture of the Delicate Arch in the reflection of my sunglasses.
Artsy Fartsy Ster-fry (:
After we went to Delicate Arch, we went to do the 6 mile hike... the long way. a total of 7.5 miles round trip.
We kept bumping into the same group of people on EVERY single trail that whole day... so we did this whole one with them. It was way nice to have people to take pics for us, and we would take some in return for them!!
The hike required me to embrace my inner-primate...
and scale those walls like a spider monkey (:
Private Arch was wayyyy scary. Climbing up to on top of it. .
it was probably a 3 foot wide slick rock climb to the top of that thing... i didn't allow myself to look anywhere but my feet... we were so high up there, i was scared we'd fall off. (: but we were ok (:
Its hard to see us, but we're at the edge of this cliff overlooking the valley.
Yup.. we did the hard trail.. and almost DIED. we were SOOO excited when we reached the end and started the trek all the way back to the parking lot. haha. i never thought i'd be so excited to only be half-way done with a trail. haha.
These were our friends from centerville that we kept running into on every trail that day... (really... we knew they were stalking us.. ) They told us that we were the coolest married couple they know..
well... duh. (:
They were way fun to talk to, and kept us talking and looking for photo-ops! *fuh-chink!!*
On our last night there, we met up with mi Madre and Rich winter. My mom was running in the half-marathon the next morning, so we went out for a little carb load at an italian restaurant. woop woop!
While we were there a couple people asked us if we all planned to wear blue... we really didn't!!! but they said that we all looked cute together... wellll thanks (:
We thought that it was cute that my mom wanted to resemble an oompa loompa for her race. (spray on tan/ teeth whitening to the max) (: bwaaaha. at least she could rock it.
and THAT ladies and Gents... was our fantabulous trip to the southern hemisphere of the land of utah. though, it never was hot.. and stayed below 60.. it was the best spring break of ever and ever.
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