Canyonlands or Bust!

Our first non-Honeymoon vacation!
note: click on the pictures to get a better view.

Our caravan: Cousins: Kyle and Todd (who drove with us...the coolest car, of course), Kendall, Scott (and his friend Raul). Friends: Charlie (a friend from freshman year and former roommate), his sister Sophie and her husband Morgan.

Logistics: The trip took about 4 hours. We left on Friday and got to camp after dark. Heather and I set up our humble little tent for the first time (Charlie's wedding gift to us). It was dwarfed by Kyle's 8-man portable castle, but we liked it. Actually, because it's only 6 feet long, and I'm 5'11", I actually was a bit crammed, and I only got 1.5 hours of sleep that night.

First night: After a night of s'mores, guitar songs, and otherwise messing around late into the chilly desert night, we went to bed. The next morning, we broke camp and headed out.

First hike: The Mesa Arch

It only took about 15 minutes to hike to the arch from the trailhead, but when we got there, it was astounding. As you come around the corner, you see the arch. It looks cool...it looks like it belongs on a Utah license plate or something, but it's not that astounding. But as you come up the hill closer to it, you are able to see under the arch, and you get the following fantastic view:

Second Hike: Grand View

The Grand View actually wasn't as cool as the view from under the Mesa Arch, but it was a lot of fun to hike it. There are so many canyons there! (Maybe that's why they call the park "Canyonlands"...). We saw a lot of cool vistas, and found some fun rocks. Below-left is a shot of Kyle and Charlie exercising their wall-climbing skills; below-right is a rock that closely resembles Todd's schnozz (nose).

3rd Hike: Whale Rock

The final hike was a rock called Whale Rock. The most noteworthy item from the hike was that we found the Iron Rod from Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life (from the Book of Mormon). Of course, we had to re-enact the scene.

After that, we packed up, got lost for an hour, and went home.

For more pictures: please check out the full album. Click here for the full album.