It Didn't Look Like Prince Tuesday

After leaving Boulder, we made our way northeast to Capitol Reef National Park. I didn't take many photos there; it's a very small park with red rocks, an old Mormon schoolhouse from the early 1900's and an old farmstead. We were excited to head to Moab for the more popular Arches National Park. It was fabulous. Tons of doable hikes to tons of arches, both big and small. The first photo I took at dusk after we had climbed a long walkway up to the top. I think it was called North Window. The next photo is called Pine Tree Arch. The bushes are blocking it, but there's a little pine tree growing right in the middle.

Moab is about as urban as southern Utah gets. My kids were happy to be able to eat at 'normal' restaurants and stay at a 'normal' hotel. On our second day, I woke up and looked out the window from our third floor room onto a junkyard next door. Actually, I think it was owned by the local rafting business, but there were a few old school buses and various junk inside the chained link fence. It wasn't much of a view. As I'm peering out the window, I see a trolley that looks like it hasn't traveled anywhere since the 1980's. You normally don't see old trolleys sitting around, so it caught my eye. As I'm trying to read what it says on the side of it, I notice some movement on the trolley's roof. Was it an animal, you ask? No, I see two arms stretching up out of a sleeping bag and a young man in only boxers emerge from the bag! He sits up, looks around, and then pops down the hatch that was on top of the trolley. Now, I'm intrigued. I continue to play the role of peeping tom and see some movement in the trolley and then the guy gets out fully clothed and strolls down the street with a junkyard dog at his heels. I'm guessing he worked for the rafting company and he just lives in the trolley? Anyway, it was an unusual sight next door to a Hampton Inn.

Our next park was Canyonlands. Geographically, it is a vast national park (527 square miles) and has five different districts, some requiring four wheel drive vehicles or just backpacking to reach. You have to leave the park to access each different district. We visited Island in the Sky and Needles. Both gorgeous. It rained on us while we were at Island, but the clouds and the elevation made it magical. The last photo for today is taken under the Mesa Arch looking out onto a canyon. It's my favorite picture from the entire trip.