As we flew to Utah to see a friend married, we decided to make the stay long enough to really get a good taste of what it was all about. Graham grew up visiting the state, but hadn't been since he was in the MTC in 2006 and I had been in 2014, but for less than 48 hours. High time that we visited together, I guess you could say.
Flash forward. We flew in later Tuesday than expected, so we rushed around to get our rental car, throw our bags in the back and find a restaurant in downtown. Surprisingly early, we arrived at the City Creek mall, I think at least, for supper at Tuscano's. 3 old Missionaries who served in Douglas right before I got married and who hung out with the youth frequently came with. We had good company, but I can't deny that the food was everyone's fav part. This was amy first time at a Brazilian steakhouse, it simple was fantastic. The skewers of beef, chicken, pork and turkey came to us left and right. My mouth still waters at the the thought of the pork tenderloin- the best bite from my trip. As we left and parted ways from the RMs what do you know, but we accidentally ran into the Groom we flew in to see! Sunny Love! We chit chatted for a bit then left for our friend's house. We crashed shortly upon arriving.
The next morning we woke up early to follow the itinerary I had created the week before. We knew we wanted to visit Southern Utah, but it was a matter or determining between East or West. Everywhere who knew the area was subject to my poll, but at the end Graham had been over to Zion Nat'l Park (aka the West) so South East it would be! Moab was our final destination, a city famed for housing 2 national parks and 1 state park.
It's so interesting visiting new places. You can research all you like, finding bits of advice for the best views or bites in town, but it simply can't compare to being in the area. So, forgive me for sounding like a total doofus, but as I researched I kind of missed the whole 'this is located in a desert' thing. As we went south the lushness of the surroundings turned into clay and rock. Maybe deep down I knew something about that being true, however I straight up missed the memo when preparing our mini-trip. We were shocked that throughout the 3.5 hour drive we only saw 1 small town and approximately 0 gas stations beside the highway. We pulled over in Price (Steph are you reading this? I took a picture just for you!) and grabbed 2 one- liters of Fuze and a bag of chips. After what felt like forever, we entered the outskirts of Moab at lunchtime and went straight to Canyonlands Nat'l Park. We drove up steep terrain, our little Corolla barely making it, and entered. As soon as we showed up we were ready to eat! Only problem, there wasn't even a single snack for sale. The visitors center held nothing, nada, zilch! Frustrated we filled up our empty bottles with water, grateful they were larger drinks than we normally would have bought, since the front was the only place to actually get water. Seriously, by now you people know this kind of thing only happens to me.
Despite everything, the views were incredible. We saw the Mesa Arch, several glorious canyons and hiked a great deal (more than I would have liked, y'all know me;). It was a change to get used to the sweltering, overpowering heat. Our lips were instantly chapped and the urge for cold water was strong. The water bottle accompanied us on every trek, don't worry. For the most part it wasn't utterly horrible, until we came to our last stop. Graham decided we needed to get to the last possible point of the hike. Halfway I had to sit down, another migraine was kicking in (3rd that week) and the water was lukewarm and only 3/4 full. Graham persisted, and I knew it was something I wanted to say I had done, so we pushed on. Eventually we passed someone who said, "The view is so much better at the end!" Interest piqued even more, we walked through to the end, without a hint of a shade. As we rounded the last curb so excited to see the view it was...... A canyon with a boulder. "Well I guess it wasn't really worth it to come all this way after all," Graham said as I mentally ninja kicked him. We took a commemorative jumping photo of me to celebrate, by the 3rd try (Graham kept taking the photo a millisecond too late) I gave up, my energy levels were way down. We quickly paced back as my head throbbed, all the while we guzzled the last of the water. We got in the car and cranked the AC up. There are times when I thank the Lord for allowing me to live with modern conveniences, and you can bet your britches that was one of those times.
We left that park to get to the adjoining Dead Point Point State Park. As we entered and found a small restaurant inside we cheered. We were so famished that I would not have been surprised if our stomachs formed into palms to fist-pump with us. We ordered sandwiches, chips, bagels, chocolate- everything on the menu practically; we would take anything to fill up. The viewpoint was really marvelous, aided by a salt retention pond (or something along those lines) which sparkled blue in the background. From here we would have to hike to see remaining viewpoints, which would be a 4 MILE round trip effort. Look people, I'm weak, not to mention I just hiked about 3 miles and nearly didn't make it. But we decided to anyways (because we're dumb). As we began the stretch I decided that I would power through it, and just hope Graham was following. I think I did this because I knew if I let myself shirk I would never make it. He yelled out for me to slow down, and I yelled back for him to catch up. As we walked my migraine returned. (FYI, don't worry Grandma, I think the heat in combination with so much exercise, a little dehydration and little calories was the driving factor. Not a normal thing. I never have so many in a row, who knows what's up there.) We reached the 1 mile point and I just knew I couldn't last for 3 more miles. I simply did not have the strength with the sun bearing down on me. Graham was a little sad, but he understood and ultimately decided it was time to turn around. In my opinion, there wasn't anything special to look at that we had passed anyways, and I certainly didn't need to walk without reward. We turned back and walked another mile back to our car.
We drove 70 minutes to get to our hotel (not good planning on our part) and passed a gas station! UGH! We were so focused on the destination we completely overlooked it, whoops. There was an extremely popular restaurant called Tamarin that we stopped at in our city of Green River. If you ever find yourself in this tiny town, go to this place. They have a gorgeous view of the actual green river and serve complimentary fresh homemade loaves of bread with honey butter- delightful!
After we ran into a couple missionary, and they talked exclusively about my accent, we left to look for our hotel. Because of the summer season and the proximity to Moab (even though it was more than an hour away) most things had been filled up, even campsites, so we were stuck with the online booking. Graham was shocked at the low quality of our hotel, we even tried to switch to the Motel 6 (if that tells you anything) but were unable. So we slept in a roach motel and Travelocity sent us a $50 voucher. We dreamed of our friends' air mattress we had stayed on the night before as we snuggled in this bed.
Our first day in South Utah was quite eventful. I want to say that I learned a lot about myself that day. I chugged through with "I think I can, I think I can" and "I can do hard things" running through my mind. I'm sure to some it may sound rather weak, but I think I proved to myself a thing or two. I CAN do hard things, and that was one of them. Me, little old Lacey, conquered the heat, in combination little food and water, a migraine to boot and had a blast while doing it! It was worth it all, truly Good thinking Graham, I think we came to the right place.
Canyonlands National Park
Dead Horse Point State Park
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