Moab/Canyonlands

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The trip started out in Park City at Stein Erickson lodge which was fun and in the snow. We then moved on to Moab where we had a blast. The pictures in this album have captions that explain most of it but here's a short rundown. We started out on a full day river run down the Colorado. It was fairly mild but wild enough we all got very wet. There is another section we want to run with the family someday that is quite a bit more wild. We ate that night at the Red Cliffs Ranch (Formerly White's Ranch) where John Wayne made a lot of his movies. Here are some movies, old and new, that were shot in this area. However in the John Wayne movies, it wasn't the Colorado River in Utah, it was always the Rio Grande. Sometimes one side was Texas and the other Mexico...sometimes the other way around.

The second day we did Elephant Hill, eating lunch at Devil's Kitchen then on to the Joint Trail to Chessler Park. Over the Silver Stairs & back over Elephant hill and back to Moab. On the way down Elephant hill, a couple that had rented a Jeep *just* to do the trail got part way up the hill and went back down. The woman said it was nuts.

The third day we hiked the Negro Bill canyon to Morning Glory Bridge It was a 5 mile round trip hike along a stream in the bottom of a canyon. The bridge is at the end of a box canyon and is spectacular. We arrived just as a family was repelling down the cliff into the canyon off the bridge. There is a spring (great drinking water) that comes out of the wall just below the bridge and there is a pool of crystal clear water right below the bridge. Definitely worth the hike. After the hike we got on a jet boat and went down the river into Canyonlands under Dead Horse Point. We got out on a big sand bar where we had a steak BBQ along side the river at sunset. Fantastic.

The next day we did some shopping in Moab then hit the top of Dead Horse Point. The jet boat pilot told us about some great dinosaur tracks just across the highway and North a little bit from the Moab Airport where there is a 2 mile dirt road and a 500 yard hike to the best dinosaur prints I've ever seen. Benjamin definitely needs to stop here the next trip to Utah. We topped it off that evening with a dinner at The Roof in SLC then back home where, bless their hearts, Brett and Katie were waiting with dinner for us (they didn't know we just ate). What a great trip! Be sure to see the pictures.