RonFNSwanson

FBD- diggin holes and planting trees with my homie

Hell yeah Fargo :nana:

I thought I was done, but we had one last family day Friday at Solitude. And I’ll never forget it. My son rode Moonbeam a few times (his biggest lift of the season) and one time going up said “dad I want to do the jumps”. So we did :lol:



He was so pumped after the first set, and I was for him. We went down and did it again. Can’t wait for next season!

DAY 1

There is a dirt road my coworker told me about that will take you to the back entrance of Arches, giving some unique views (and skipping the timed entry :nana:). It is easy to follow and doesn't really need any crazy rig to get through. Just a little bumpy in spots.





After the dirt road you will enter the park around Devil's Garden and the Skyline Arch Trail. That was a quick one (.2 of a mile) so we did that first then walked a couple of miles through Devil's Garden. I think the whole thing is 8 miles. We made it to Landscape Arch and turned around.









I think this one is called Pine Tree Arch, looks like it will be losing a little more rock in a few thousand years, watch out!






After that hike we were getting hungry and decided to head to the hotel, of course taking our time on the scenic route. There is a viewpoint of Delicate Arch from below, a nice little appetizer, but we definitely wanted the main course.





DAY 2

We started out on the Delicate Arch Trail (3 miles total). Great weather, low 70s, overcast, with a nice breeze. This was such a cool hike, with tons of different rock formations and beautiful landscape views. The first part is a fairly standard trail, then you get to the open rock section where you can sort of make your own path. That one is decently steep, all uphill, so carrying a 35 lb child on my back, I had to take a few breaks.











And here we have the Utah license plate, live and in color. The last part of the hike is absolutely perfect, {SPOLIER ALERT} the arch is hidden by a cliff that gets smaller and smaller and slowly reveals it. It is a shame I will only get to experience it for the first time only once. But such is life.

The breeze turned wild by the time we made it up, probably blowing 40-50 mph. It was great to experience some of the conditions that helped form these arches.

The other thing that stood out to me is how massive the arch actually is. I think pictures make it look small because those cliffs you see are incredibly far away.




We stayed and admired the views for 30 mins or so then headed back down.






Our next stop was Sand Dune Arch. This was a great spot; barely any walk, a couple of slots, nice soft sand my kids loved to play in, and of course... beautiful rocks.





We had time for one more hike before heading out to our next adventure and headed down the Broken Arch Trail (2 miles). Got a great surprise with this family of mule deer feet from the trail at one point. My youngest was too loud and spooked them, but they didn't run too far and I was still able to have a photo shoot.





And there's just something special about the serenity this arch brings, I think it was my favorite.








We drove to the Double Arch Trail, but didn't walk it. Might be my only regret after seeing some pics online of it up close. But the far shots do make me happy. Next time, I suppose.



Looks like an elephant, right?



Pothole Arch on the drive out.



After leaving the park for the day, we drove along the Colorado River. Absolutely beautiful, but I didn't get any pictures, you'll just have to take my word for it. There were tons of people rock climbing on all the cliffs.

We were heading to see the Potash Ponds, which are privately owned for business and definitely not a tourist attraction, but it was a really cool dirt road and a fun experience to get there. After seeing up close (and from high up at Dead Horse Point) I have determined that the cool pictures you see online are taken by drone. Bummer.






A lost bull we passed by, looking like he's seen better days. We passed a lot of cattle on the way to DHP the next day, so if he was with them he was about 5 miles away and 2000 ft below them. Poor bastard.






The road does make a huge ring all the way to DHP, but we turned around shortly past the ponds and headed in for the night.

SBD-

Read the koozie carefully

He’s a special breed

FBD-

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sounds like Utah has a lot of solid optiosn.

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I've been here almost a year, haven't run out of things to do. I think your 3-4 will be packed to the brim :cheers:

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Although the driving would eat into our free time, would splitting a trip between Moab and Park City/SLC be worthwhile potentially?

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In my opinion, hell yeah. Be on the lookout for my Moab review thread in a few days and you can see if it looks like something you would be interested in.

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My body is pretty cooked but I’ve still got about ten or so days left in the tank.

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Nice. How is Bachelor holding up?

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Also, I didn’t go 80 miles an hour. 49 sure. 80, not a chance.

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:lol:

You probably recorded some of your drive home. You can edit that out if you want.

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We haven't even entered the "hmm let me google some stuff to do there" phase if that tells you how early we are in this process lol.

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Well if you are looking for next year, I'd say that is no problem at all :lol:

Spring is a great time to visit, the mountains are turning green right now, and snow is still on the peaks. The weather is great, highs in the 60s-70s and lows in the 40s. There are millions of flowering trees all around the area, which are in bloom and beautiful. Most notably the state capitol. There is a whole ring of cherry blossoms around the building. Probably on the back end for that, so I would plan for 2nd to 3rd week of April. But the weather doesn't turn desert-y until mid-May, so there is a chance of rain/snow at that time as well.

There are plenty of beautiful mountain drives to take even if you are not big into hiking. Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, American Fork, Ogden Canyon. BC and AF have passes that will take you to the Heber Valley/Park City, but are closed for winter. Still a great scenic drive to the top and back down. The rivers will be raging from snowmelt, and it's a good time to see some waterfalls. Lisa falls is a cool one that's only a 1/4 mile or so hike. (Just did it this weekend). There are probably other non-hike ones, but I don't know off the top of my head.

Salt Lake does have some great restaurants, Park City as well. It is certainly not known for its nightlife, however. We do get good musical acts and comedians, maybe you could plan around that.

Moab is only about 3.5 hours south. Easy to get to and a beautiful drive. The town has hotels and restaurants, so you don't need to rough it. There are a ton of things to do even if you don't want to walk much. Arches NP is pretty driver friendly, with lots of pullouts to take pictures of the cool stuff. And some 1/2 mile or less hikes. We went 2 weekends ago, I am going to make a review once I process my camera shots. I would definitely encourage you to make the trip if you like red rocks.

Bryce Canyon NP is another good one that doesn't require a lot of hiking to appreciate. It's about the same distance, but SW of the city instead of SE.

I wouldn't waste your time going to Evanston :lol:

If you want to go to Wyoming just to say you did... Yellowstone and Grand Tetons are much better choices, but about 5 hours away. The town of Jackson Hole is pretty similar vibes to Moab, touristy but nice. Obviously more mountain themed than desert.

Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

4BD- dudes night!