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Canyonlands National Park

[Sadly I have run out of time to get pictures into this blog post – I’ll add some when we get back. That seems important even though it’s 3 months from now.]

Tuesday, November 6, a big day for the United States, had us up early in the morning and into downtown Moab for coffee and internet at Red Rock Bakery. As the morning progressed we ventured into Canyonlands National Park at Island in the Sky and Grand View Point, a beautiful 2mile trail overlooking the canyons, then White Rim Trail, a 1.8mile trail to another canyon overlook. Other quick stops included the Black Canyon Overlook, the Green River Overlook, and an uphill 0.8mile hike to an Upheaval Dome overlook.

Upheaval Dome looks like a 1,500 foot deep crater but is actually a dome, either caused by a meteor hitting the Earth or salt deposits pushing up from below. Other park highlights included Mesa Arch, a long thin arch on the edge of a canyon where I sat to contemplate life for a while. We spent the evening with a quick drive through Arches National Park for sunset, with stops at a Delicate Arch view point, Panorama Point and Balanced Rock. We had dinner that night at Eddie McStiff’s in Moab, then booked a hotel room for a change of pace and election night results viewing.

The next morning was a slow one for us, with brunch at the Pancake Haus, a grocery stop, and a very nice Laundromat. We made our way back to Arches National Park for further viewing and the Devil’s Garden Trail to Landscape Arch which towers on a hill and is over 300 feet long. We also stopped at the Fiery Furnace Overlook, the lower Delicate Arch viewpoint (the arch on Utah license plates), Balanced Rock, and made our way to the Windows section of the park for North Window, South Window, and Turret Arch at sunset. We found a misplaced phone in the parking lot which we returned to the visitor’s center, then headed towards I-70 east and Colorado, stopping at a rest stop to cook some pasta with sandwiches before staying in Grand Junction, CO that night.

On our first day in Colorado we made our way to a few breweries including Crazy Mountain Brewery in Edwards, Backcountry Brewery in Frisco (coffee stout), and Tommy Knocker in Idaho Springs (maple nut brown). There were skiers on the mountains visible from the highway before we arrived in the Denver area, then headed north to Longmont and the Left Hand Brewery and Avery Brewing Co in Boulder. We stayed in a Boulder WalMart that night where the overnight parking lot cleaning machine enjoyed doing doughnuts in the wee hours of the morning.

Friday was our day in Rocky Mountain National Park where we drove to Bear Lake and hiked the 3.6mile trail to Emerald Lake, passing Nymph Lake and Dream Lake on the somewhat icy trail. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous but eventually we made our way to Fort Collins and the New Belgium Brewery to taste a mole stout and chocolate stout in their crowded but energetic tasting room (dogs were even drinking beer inside). Our next stop was Odell Brewing Co for a taster flight and pint glass purchase before heading south to Denver to meet a friend, Allen, from WashU at the Denver Beer Company (pumpkin ale and chocolate stout). A guy in the bar next to us was painting a hops design on a snow board as we drank but we eventually pulled ourselves away and ended the evening at My Brother’s Bar.

What city is complete without an REI, so we stopped in on the Denver store, then went across the street to the Wilderness Exchange and GoLite stores, then Patagonia. We walked down 16^th Street in the sleet, then headed northwest to Arvada to meet my cousin Kim and her husband Paul for lunch. We spent a few hours catching up and laughing with them over pizza and a large cookie, then headed south to our second REI of the day in Englewood. We stayed that night with friends Bill and Cori and their lively kiddos in Louisville, CO (it’s confusing, I know) and shared conversation and good wine before sleep.

We were up early the next morning in preparation for our long drive to St. Louis, and were delayed slightly by the snow on I-70 which had closed the interstate temporarily overnight, but made our through eastern Colorado and Kansas. A quick stop at the Free State Brewery in Lawrence, Kansas for a delicious oatmeal stout showed us a bar I’d like to return to someday. Later that night we arrived in Belleville, IL and Tina’s lovely, welcoming house. The last day of our trip was relaxing, as we read and ate pumpkin whoopee pies at Tina’s, then had lunch with her before heading east to our final destination, Louisville, Kentucky.

We spent the evening with some amazingly wonderful friends we had missed tremendously, Abby, Alison, and Brad, and felt at home.  It was nice to not have to consult a map for directions, and to see familiar faces, and to know that at least for a few weeks we were home with people that were important to us and that we loved. Home!