A lot has happened since our post this morning. We crossed into Utah, leaving behind "colorful Colorado" as the sign warned us. It did seem kind of like a cheap shot on Utah, which in this area is mostly just brown. However, not to be out done, Utah has been quite beautiful as well. Just outside Colorado in the south east of Utah where we are no is a vast expanse of arid mountains. We can see further than we've been able to at any other point in the trip, which has been quite useful to confirm exactly how little is actually out here. Specifically absolutely nothing for hundreds of miles.
This area has a very desert feel to it, though I don't think it's technically a desert because there's a lot of vegetation still. But also lots of sand, rock, and the occasional highway signing warning you that there are dust storms for the next five miles and you are not allowed to stop or get out of your car.
One interesting thing about the area is that despite it being really hot a deserty, I can see snow. A mountain, which Jacob has named Mt. Awesome, has been visible ever since we first saw it driving out of the Colorado rockies. It looms over southern Utah, never really passing out of sight. Mt. Awesome has some pretty big snow caps on it and pictures of it from around here make for a pretty interesting juxtaposition.
We hit the hundred mile mark somewhere inside Arches National Park so we figured we'd hold off on the full blog post until after we got out. Arches was quite impressive. We saw a large, top-heavy rock called balance rock. At a place aptly named Panorama Point I decided to test out my new camera's panorama feature called stitch assist. It basically allows you to see you last picture you took right next to the one you're about to take and line them up before you take the shot. I'm pretty unskilled with it so I don't expect them to come out all that well, but we'll see.
Later along the way we found the Mt. La Sal viewing station where you supposedly can take pictures of Mt. La Sal. Jacob and I wondered how people were supposed to do that with the enormous Mt. Awesome in the way.Later, Jacob and I went on a hike up to Delicate Arch. It's a one and a half mile hike up to the arch. It was dry and we could have used a little more water but we didn't really know we were going to be hiking and there was no water at the base of the trail. We paced ourselves and took breaks in the occasionally shady spot, which was considerably warmer than in the sun. Delicate Arch was huge and well worth it and we got some pretty good photos along the way.
The funnest part of the hike was the trip back. The entire trail was up hill going to the arch so it was clear sailing back to the car. I ran most of the way back as it was a little easier to just let gravity do the work for me.
We're currently back on i70, stabbing westward towards the Grand Canyon area. We're both famished and Jacob has found the only civilized settlement in southern Utah so I'm cutting the post off right here. You've all had enough of this update by now anyway I'm sure. Oh wow, "Next service 110 miles." Yeah, we're totally stopping. Catch you later.
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