Year Two - Days Eighty-One thru Eighty-Nine

The next day, we left Albuquerque and headed to Moab, UT.  The landscape was so different and beautiful – not like anything I had ever seen.  Moab was a small town, basically centered around the tourism industry that had developed from the location so close to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, with lots of beautiful and wild terrain to explore in between.

Sam and I drove to Arches National Park the next day while Jim was working on paperwork.  We hiked around within the park at several points, climbing rocks and checking out some huge natural arches that made us feel really small!  We didn’t make it all the way through the park, so we decided to come back another day with Jim to see the rest.

Another day, we went on a trip to rock crawl on an Unimog tour – our guide had a custom built vehicle that would hold about a dozen people to go extreme four-wheeling.  What a trip!  We climbed up and over rocks that looked impossible to climb before I took this tour!  Going up some of the climbs, there was nothing visible but sky because we were climbing straight up! It was an amazing ride, and our tour guide was the bomb!  We spent about three hours touring, and we were worn out when it was done – true tourists!  LOL

The next day, we went on a boat tour of the Colorado River, checking out some of the gorgeous landscape from a different point of view.  On the bus ride to the boat, we stopped to check out some interesting petroglyphs on the canyon walls right along the river.  These are some well-known petroglyphs, and we have seen several references to them on different television shows.

Along the river, the tour guide pointed out several locations where movie scenes had been shot, including the famous cliff scene in “Thelma and Louise.”  He took us to a spot where we disembarked for a walk to a beautiful grotto.  Once a year, he said there is a local concert given there for charity, and they transport a baby grand piano, among other things, into the location.  All by boat, and then hand carried in – wow!

We also stopped for another walk to check out some petrified wood that had been found in one area.  I also caught a sagebrush lizard checking us out.

The next day, we rented our own Jeep to go four wheeling and tour a different part of the area.  We opted for a drive that would take us to high overlooks with views of the river, and then we drove down into the canyons and followed an old cowboy trail up to the top, which ended up in Canyonlands National Park.  Along the way, we stopped at an overlook where they filmed the last scene in “Thelma and Louise.”  Our boat guide tour had pointed it out, saying that he and lots of folks in the area were watching the filming, and watched a few cars being driven off the cliff and landing facedown on the rocks below. 

We stopped at one area and walked around to check out the terrain, coming across a natural bridge with come great views!

We ended up in Canyonlands National Park, so we stopped for a cool view.

We spent a day doing a day hike to a canyon called Negro Bill Canyon, which ran along a stream and ended up at some cool rock formations and natural bridges.  Since this was not on National Park property, Buster got to go with us, and he had a blast!  It was a seven mile hike round trip, but Buster was a trooper!  I will have to say, though, he spent the whole day on the bed the next day – LOL!