States Visited Today
Today started with us following along the Colorado River again. Google Maps took us down an extremely long county road that was more dirt and gravel than the normal road we are accustomed to driving on. I was not happy about it. I slowly got over my anger at a silly app when, as we were going down into the valley, we came across a mountain goat in the road.
After turning the corner, and just a few seconds later, we saw two more mountain goats. Trust me they are there though it may be hard to see them. Who knew mountain goats were experts at camouflage?!
As we kept going down the county road we kept seeing more and more great sights.
Later on we saw a sign saying the county road was a Scenic Road. It wasn’t kidding.
Next up was I-70 and the scenery around it was even more impressive. We went through Glenwood Canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous.
We followed along the Colorado River the majority of the time along I-70. After that the mountains became smaller until we hit another open area which quickly led to plateaus and mesas. We even passed by the Colorado National Monument area and probably should have stopped there too. But we weren’t sure how much open time we would have with what we already had planned so we had to pass on it. Maybe another day!
From there it was on to Utah. There was almost nothing to see along the whole way until we turned off the highway. Exits were rare and gas stations were even more rare. Except for this oddity.
That was at the exit that leads to our next two stops near Moab, Utah.
Arches National Park was more than worth the effort to get to. All the sandstone formations were both pretty and mind-boggling. We hiked many of the smaller trails that led to arches and other formations. We skipped a few things near the end that we will have to go back again for. And we still spent about five hours in the park! Also, I recently found out that the beginning of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade features a lot of Arches National Park. Watch the movie and you will some familiar sites in the below pictures. Here are some of the highlights from the park.
Road going into Moab
The visitor center
Driving into the entrance
Park Avenue Trail
Roadside attractions
Double Arch area
Windows Trail
Delicate Arch Trail
Other highlights
After the park we went into Moab and found a place to stay for the night. It was a nice little motel not far from the main strip. After wandering around the city for a little bit we settled on getting food at a place called Zax. They had really good pizza and there was so much of it that we had leftovers. Here is our view from the second floor dining area.
Come back later for the next day of our trip which will showcase Canyonlands National Park!
Hollar if you see Us 