To updat you on where we've been so far...
We left friday night-- hit the road after some good bye's and got some Chipotle. Figured it might be awhile before it was available again and we'd enjoy some good food before a long drive that night. Mark got ambitious and drove about 3 hrs longer than we'd expected to and we made it to Kansas City instead of just west of St. Louis. I slept because I was dilerious and making no sense when I talked. We got to a hotel, got a room and a shower and awoke early to begin the long drive to the Rockies.. or about the rockies.. The drive was not bad and we listened to a mystery book on tape for a lot of the time and our newly made roadtrip cds, which was awesome. Kansas was super pretty, but long and just as long in Colorado to get to Denver, but it was amazing to watch the scenery change and enjoy the time together. Just outside of Denver, we stayed at a campsite that ended up being a bit cramped, but still great. We got to see some Buffalo in a sectioned off area, the weather was super cool (about 30 degrees), got some supplies for cooking at our campsite. We set up camp, took a small, heart racing walk down and up a hill and got back to the tent to make some dinner.
Slept ok in our great tent, which we both love and I seriously love that it's orange and seems very athletic and wonderful to have it.
We woke up early in the morning, packed up the tent in 6 min, seriously!! it's so so easy to set up! and loaded everything else for the drive to Utah.
We had a little extra time on this part, so we thought up places we could stop and see on the way.
We decided on Aspen first since it was just off I-70 and it was a great choice as we just had about an hour and a half to explore. There was free parking, a little festival going on in the "town" and we found a little hike to go on and had lunch while we were out. It was great.
We keep imagining moving to each place we go to and it's super fun because Mark and I are both big day- dreamers and Mark makes super funny jokes all the time that almost always make me smile and anyways, it was awesome to get another small hike in (about an hour).
We got back onto the road and our next stop planned was a hot springs, that ended up just being a pool/ fun center with hot springs water fueling the water area. We thought this was pretty lame because we can go to a pool everywhere, but not a river with hot water flowing into it, so we moved on, shrugging, but sucking it up after our high expectations were dashed...
:)
We drove about 8 minutes and Mark pulled off the highway next to the Colorado river, which by the way, we'd been following for a long time, which also looked amazing and also, I should mention, the scenery was mind bogglingly beautiful. LIKE RIDICULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL
So, his idea was for us to swim in the river. I liked this idea because I was super hot and the river looked great and there were tons of kayaks and ppl floating by.. Well, not tons, like 5 max.. :) but anyways, I was into it. I put in a toe and it was frigid. Mark was eggin me on so I got in more and more. My thighs were red from how cold it was, but I deemed it not hypothermia enducing and edged my way in.
As Mark put his toes in, he was seriously backing away from it, but I went ahead and egged him on until he submerged as well. Only Mark brought his camera for this part, so you'll have to ask to see his pics, but it was cold, and great and refreshing and helped us forget about any hot springs we missed.
We proceeded on our drive to Utah.
Utah is crazy. Crazy cool!! ha ha. It was startling to watch the scenery change and follow the Colorado river and move towards MOAB!! Check out the photos below. but EVERYONE should come here. because it's great and I can only imagine what the grand canyon must be like after seeing this. I DID NOT EXPECT THIS!!!!
DESERT. high desert. crazy amazing rock cliffs/ formations/ BEAUTIFUL color. I LOVE the color here!
I Love color in general, so it was so great. Especially earthy colors.
I freaked out at one point because we were getting low on gas and hadn't seen a gas station in awhile, but we made it safe and sound into Moab where we checked into this hippie hostel and hopped right back in the car to do a hike to the Delicate Arch at sunset. It was super tiring after our long day, but good.
We got some mexican food, which took FOR E V E RRRRR....
and came back and fell right asleep.
Now for today... ahhh! so much we already did!
We got up, got some supplies and went back into Arches National Park. We did an amazing hike down a place I think was called the "parkway" because of how big the spillway was that we hiked down. It was so beautiful, we had a great time and hiked back up, then we proceeded to Devils Garden, saw some amazing scenery and huge crazy arches and lots of places where I wanted, but didn't rock climb and now here we are, back at the Lazy lizard.
I wish I could rock climb out here. I'm workin on it, but not as hard as paddling down the Colorado river day after tomorrow, but trying to make this trip about relaxation and not just seeing tons of stuff.
We'll see what happens as the adventure continues...
Love you guys lots, MOM! don't worry too much! This is really good for me- try to focus on that!
and I'm really trying to keep danger to a minimum. Mark must have heard me say "be careful" enough to make him puke, but he's dealing with it well. :)
Emily, I miss you too, and wish YOU were HERE. :)
xo
Love,
Jenny
p.s. i'm really happy. and totally in loooveee. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment