Getting Away

It seems lately that all my life is either taken up by work, or if I'm not there then it is my calling. The last month and a half has been really exhausting, to say the very least, but I did manage to get away for a little fun the first weekend of April. In search of warmer weather my mom and I headed down to Moab for my birthday. It was nice to get outside and get a little exercise (or really a lot since I've been such a slug this past year). Actually we hiked about seven miles in the two days we were down there. Needless to say when I rolled out of bed that Sunday morning I could barely walk (good thing it was conference and I just had to sit on my couch and watch ). The first day we were there we headed off to Arches NP and hiked up to Delicate Arch. I'd done the hike once before with my friend Nancy, but my mom never had. It's kind of exhausting just because you are going at a steady climb the whole time. That rock we were climbing there was a beast :)



The next day we didn't really want to go back to the park (we had been there back in October as well) so we decided to explore up the Colorado River. At the visitors center we found a little brochure of hikes and decided that the Negro Bill Canyon sounded fun.


I really enjoyed the hike. It wasn't too tough, which was nice after the day before, and it gave me lots of things to take pictures of. The trail ended at a natural bridge, the sixth largest in the country I think. All along the way we were following a pretty little creek, and it got nice and roasty hot so I could take off the sweatshirt and get some color. Spring had already come down there and all the trees were leafing out.






You can see the bridge here at the end of the canyon. When you got down under it it was nice and cool and there were a lot of trees, even poison ivy.










We decided to make one last stop on the way home and run out to Dead Horse Point. I say stop of but really it was a 60 mile round trip detour that was completely in the wrong direction but it was so worth it. In fact for me it was the best part of the trip. I've never been to the Grand Canyon or anything, but I think the views would be equally impressive as the view off the point.