Adventuring in Moab, Utah

So....it has been almost a year since I posted to this blog and recently I realized that I miss having a living documentary of our travels and life. I love reading my posts from prior years and seeing not only what was going through my head during those days, but also having a way to remember the amazing places and experiences and various details that I would have otherwise forgotten. So I think I'll start blogging every now and then to cover some of our travels and lives, at least that's the intention for now, I'll see how it goes :)

First up, our trip to Moab, Utah last May! Andrew was living in Denver at the time and Ryan and I decided to meet him and his friend Sabine to check out Arches National Park and Canyonlands. Utah has always been on my bucket list because its scenery seemed so surreal in a desert-y way I had never experienced.

Ryan and I flew into Salt Lake City and rented a fantastic camper van. It was a Dodge minivan that was basically a rolling camp site. It had a fold out full size bed inside with pillows and sheets and in the back it had a sink, portable propane stove, all of the kitchen and cooking utensils you could ever need, a cooler, foldable table and chairs, etc. It was a fun and convenient way to go "camping" since we barely had to bring anything with us from CA. I would highly recommend renting a camper van when you are flying to a camping destination.

We ended up finding a campsite in the Sand Flats recreation area in the town of Moab. It had pre-set campsites with a fire pit, picnic table, and outhouse. There was no running water so we had to fill up big water jugs in town (and we basically didn't shower for 4 days, which Ryan was less than thrilled about)



Driving from salt lake city to Moab in the camper van


The inside bed of the van, it folded over the seats into a full size bed


The back of the van - with the sink and cooking area


Andrew and Sabine en route to Moab


Andrew setting up his tent at the camp site

On the first full day in the area, we did a short hike up to Delicate Arch which is probably one of the most photographed places in Arches National park. It was an easy and beautiful introduction to the area and the surrounding views.





Moab is known for getting excruciatingly hot in the summer, so even though we were there in late May, the temperatures were still around 90-100 degrees during the heat of the day. Luckily on the second day, we had booked a rafting trip on the Colorado River so we were able to escape the heat for a bit. It turned out to be a fairly tame, lazy river type of trip, until we got to the last set of "rapids" and our "intern" and very unexperienced guide decided to steer us directly into a massive wave, which she wasn't supposed to do. Our boat almost flipped over and the wave completely soaked us, but thankfully none of us were hurt and it was actually super fun. I recently found the stock photos that were taken of our group as we hit this wave, holy cow!! I have no idea how we didn't fall out, yikes!

The wave about to crash



Aftermath!


The rest of the ride was really calm!


After a fun day on the water we headed back to camp and made a feast for dinner!

On the second to last day in the area, we did another hike in the Devils Playground hiking area, a beautiful but HOT place to explore the otherworldly scenery and strange rock formations.









On the last day, on our way back to Salt Lake City, we took a short detour to Canyonlands National Park and we were surprised at the amazing canyon views. I wish we had spent more time at this park, it looked amazing. I couldn't get over the views... I can't believe places like this exist on planet earth, it looks like it should be Mars!



Overall, a fantastic trip to Utah. Beautiful scenery that you won't find anywhere else on earth. Some day, I would love to check out Zion and Bryce national parks on the other side of Utah.

Here is a parting video that shows the scenery on our drive into Arches National Park on one of the days:

Recommendations:
Eat: at your campground! We also liked "Love Muffin" cafe in the town of Moab for breakfast
Stay: Sand Flats recreation area, the campsites are first come, first serve, so make sure you get there very early to get a spot
Play: too many places to list, this whole area is one big playground!