Utah, The Beehive State

After 2 days of driving and 1100 miles, I reached the promised land, Moab. My bf drove through Moab when she last drove cross country and loved it, all but guarenteeing that I would too. The construction - resurfacing of Main St - took away from the ambiance, but all in all, Moab was a great little town. What I really came to Moab for though were the parks - Arches and Canyonlands. It was still unbelieveably hot (over 100 degrees for 10+ days) but I learned to get up early to explore, drive during mid day and then explore again in the late afternoon.

The first 2 pictures are from Arches - Park Avenue and Delicate Arch. The third picture is from Island in the Sky at Canyonlands.

After 2 nights in Moab, I packed it up and heading to the southwest corner of the state and Zion NP. There was quite a contrast from the first two National Parks, much due to the fact that is was the Friday of 4th of July weekend. I still managed to find some solitude. I admit that I did have a small breakdown in the campground there. The wind was blowing and rain was coming soon. I was hurrying to set up my tent and things weren't going my way, mainly the ground was so hard that I couldn't easily get the stakes into the ground. I found a rock to bang the stakes in, but it was still difficult and I ended up with a big bruise on my palm. I was sitting on the ground, rock in one hand, stake in the other completely frusterated when all of a sudden a deer strolled on through my campsite. After taking a moment to enjoy nature, it suddenly dawned on me that I had hand weights in my car. Note to self: they proved to be wonderful at pounding tent stakes in - remember that for future (car) camping trips.

(OK, so for whatever reason - I can't get more pictures into this post. Gonna try again later.)

The first picture is from the mouth of The Narrows - the canyon where at parts the walls are only 20 or 30 feet apart. My brother told my mom he would like to do an overnight backpacking trip through the Narrows and before you could say Zion, she is already planning a family vacation there next June! Did I ever mention I love my mom!

The second is on top of the Watchman - a quick hike I did Saturday morning before I left.

**And a quick note, yes I did this trip alone. It wasn't the most ideal situation, but I didn't know anyone that could take 2 weeks off to travel with me. I visited places I have been wanting to see for a long time and I knew that if I bailed on the trip because I had no one to go with me, I'd regret it.