Southern Utah Spring Break 2016

Southern Utah Spring Break 2016

Friday, April 1^st:

We took off out of Yakima around noon and drove all the way to Salt Lake City.  On the way we stopped and got some excellent Thai food from a food truck in Ontario, Oregon.  It was run by a husband and wife.  She is originally from Thailand and made very authentic grub.

Saturday, April 2^nd: 

We looked around all of the sites in Salt Lake City and met our niece Taylor and her husband Robert.  Matt and Jacob went to the Priesthood session of the General Conference for our church.

Sunday, April 3^rd:

 We went to the afternoon session of General Conference.  Elise stayed with our friends Richele and Greg since she was just a little too young to go.  We came back to their house and hung out and had a barbeque.

Monday, April 4^th: 

We drove down to Deadhorse Point State Park, which is just northwest of Moab, Utah.  We took the kids mountain biking on the Intrepid trail system, which was great for the kids and had some more challenging trails as well.  

We Then drove out to the tip of Deadhorse point and hiked around.  Fortunately we were able to find a nearby campsite before it got dark.

Deadhorse Point

Tuesday, April 5^th:

We were thinking about going to Arches National Park this morning, but after seeing the line up of over 50 cars at the entrance gate, we decided to skip it for today.  Instead, we continued south and stopped at the Hole in the Rock house and took a quick look around.  We made our way over to the Needles District in Canyonlands National Park.  We did several small hikes with the kids in various areas of the park.  We thought we might try and camp in the area, but a huge windstorm blew in and made any campsite completely uninhabitable due to the dust. 

Newspaper Rock

Canyonlands National Park

  We ended up driving all the way back to Moab, but since it was Spring Break, the place was crowded.  We ended up driving over 20 miles up the Colorado River before we found an open campsite at Lower Onion Creek.  It turned out to be a great place to camp and the sites were spread out.

Wednesday, April 6^th: 

After a chilly morning we drove back into Moab and went up to the Slickrock bike trail.  Becky and I have ridden the trail several times before, but forgot how difficult it really is.  Jacob and Elise decided to just hike while the rest of us biked.  We took them on the practice loop, which is just shorter than the main trail, not in any way easier.  Siena stated that this was beyond her ability level (which she had just read off of the sign at the beginning of the trail).  After about a half mile, they were done.  Becky took the kids back to the trailhead while I finished riding the practice loop.  I was definitely not in the same shape I used to be and ended up being the out of shape middle-aged guy that really shouldn’t be out there by himself.  

Marcus on the Slickrock Bike Trail

We then looked around Moab a bit, then decided to drive back out to Lower Onion Creek and camp there a second night.  In the evening we all rode out to Fisher Towers and had a great time.

Biking out to Fisher Towers

Fisher Towers

Chilly night at Lower Onion Creek Campground.

Thursday, April 7^th: 

We got an early start this morning and beat the crowds to Arches National Park.  Since we had been there multiple times before, we decided to head to the Devil’s Garden at the end of the road.  We hiked to a few different arches and ended at Landscape Arch.  By the time we reached the parking lot, cars were backed up trying to find a precious parking space. 

We made our way out and back up to Provo.  We spent the afternoon looking around BYU.

Friday, April 8^th: We loaded up the car and made a somewhat uneventful drive back home.