San Rafael and Green River

Ryan and I decided a while back to take a trip to Zion National Park. the weekend of October 12.

Well the government really put the kibosh on that one.  We headed to the San Rafael Swell near Green River, Utah instead.  *Note: Utah opened it's national parks that Friday, but it was a little too late at that point.

We stayed at Robbers Roost Motel, and ate at the dinky restaurants in Green River.  We bought a watermelon from a stand near a gas station.  It so happens that Green River is known for their watermelons.  It was really good!  We used Ryan's pocket knife to cut off the top and ate from the melon like a bowl, finishing it by Sunday.  We had dry bison burgers at the "Tamarisk" restaurant a few blocks from our motel.

The highlight of the trip was canyoneering in Little Wild Horse Canyon.

We had to take off our socks and shoes at a few places and wade through some pools of muddy water.  It was a long canyon and actually looped through a second one.  I really enjoyed it.  It was challenging, but it was also fun so that you forgot you were working hard.

We stopped at Goblin Valley State Park and walked around the "Goblins" for a while.  This was about a week before the now infamous video of those guys pushing over a rock formation came out.  I will say, some of those rocks look like they are about to fall, but it also looked like those guys had to put a lot of effort into pushing that one over.  Anyway...

We hiked "Crack Canyon" on Sunday and drove back to Salt Lake Sunday.  It was a really long drive back because we took a detour though now-open Capital Reef National Park.  By the time we got there we were parked-out and just bought our magnet at the gift shop and headed on.

We stopped in Bicknell to attempt and sweet-talk a few piece of pie out of a diner/motel that is closed on Sundays, but we couldn't find any employees.

By the time we got to the city we were starving as it was 8pm.  We stopped in Provo, but everything but Applebees-type joints were closed.  We ended up at the Belgian Waffle and Omelette Inn - the 24 breakfast joint right by our apartment.  It was really good and hit the spot.

The pictures of Ryan haven't been uploaded to the computer yet, but here are a few of me:

uh oh...

Almost knee deep in cold muddy water

Goblin Valley

Not so Bland in Blanding

On Thursday after work I headed down to Blanding in southern Utah to reunite with Ryan. He is down there for the whole month of September on a clinic rotation. Thursday was the day after our 3 year anniversary, so at least we got to see each other within 24 hours of the day :)

The drive is about 5 hours. It took me a little longer because of lots of construction and a little rain along the way. The drive was so scenic, sweeping views of mountains, plateaus, mono lines, mesas, buttes, spires... Rock changing from gray to brown to orange and red. 

I was so happy to pull into the driveway of Ryan's home for the month. It's a 70s style brick home with a garden kept by the neighbors who live in the basement-turned-apartment. Ryan had dinner ready which was great because I was starving. 

We didn't do much else that night, but got up early to head to some petroglyphs and then onto Monument Valley. We stopped for breakfast at a coffee shop in Bluff. This is the landscape I've wanted to see in person ever since enjoying Wile E. Coyote chase the roadrunner all around the buttes and mesas of the southwest. We put the Fit to the test, and thankfully it made it all around the unimproved road through Monument Valley. 

Goosenecks State Park also had a really neat lookout into one of the worlds "best examples of an entrenched meander" according to the sign. It was one of my favorite lookouts.   

We had some ice cream that evening and watched a thunderstorm for a while before starting one of the puzzles in the apartment. 

Saturdays plans were changed a little due to Friday nights rain closing some trails. We headed to the House on Fire ruins which has us repeatedly crossing a stream using stepping stones we threw in ourselves. 

Ryan even took his socks off at one point in anticipation of me going ankle deep in water. He was going to give me his socks to change into. Fortunately it wasn't necessary and we both made it across each time. 

We drove through natural bridges monument and enjoyed more scenery before heading back in. 

We made popcorn and brought it with us to watch another storm. Afterwards we finished the 500 piece puzzle (one piece missing of course) and went to bed. 

Sunday morning after breakfast I followed Ryan in my car to Arches National Park. Time flew as we hiked around a bit looking at all the rock formations.

Soon it was time to head out of the park for lunch. We had some soup and wraps at a small cafe in Moab before we parted ways and I began the (now an hour shorter) drive home. I got a few new reviews done for TripAdvisor and some neat pictures of our adventures. 

It was a really nice weekend, hard to see it end!

Coffee shop breakfast

Arches national park

Over 500 pieces!

Thunder storm

House on fire

Arches