Moab, Ut-Canyonlands Nat Park

Now this is the west. Canyonlands National Park is what you envision when you think of the western United States. I half expected see Clint Eastwood come slowly riding across the horizon like an apparition with a cigar from the side of his mouth. In fact many western movies have been filmed here. And after hiking here in the 100 plus degree temps , I am sure Clint Eastwood would

say"Scott,sometimes a man has to know his limitations." 

Knowing the weather report in advance, we got up early to get some hikes in before it got real hot.Even so it was in the mid 80's at 7:00. The park is a bit of a drive out of town, nearly 40 minutes out to the middle of nowhere. It is flat desert out to a enormous canyon and it's no wonder one of the lookouts is called Dead Horse Point because this land is not fit for man or beast. We hiked a few trails. Mostly shorter ones because of the heat because you are always in the sun here. The views were spectacular and a bit scary as the drop offs are over 1000 feet in places and there are no railings. They just warn you to be safe.  Cassie and I would get up just close enough to feel it in our gut then back off slowly.

Among the dust and desert though, you would find an occasional lonely desert wild flower. Cactus has a pink flower and right about this time of spring they bloom. 

We hiked the short trail to Mesa Arch which is the most popular trail in the park because it is rather short but the view through the arch of the canyon with the white capped Lasol Mountains in the background is beautiful. 

We then climbed Aztec Butte. A butte is a large hill with vertical sides with a flat top and they stick out on the surrounding flat land. 

On the way up we ran in to 2 couples from New Zealand. They were very nice and we had a good time talking about our countries and our National Park trips. They were on their way to Zion so we gave them one tips then we did what is common here in the parks.We took a picture of them on the top of the butte and they returned the favor. 

Then we climbed down talking the whole way. Here is Cassie and our friends. 

We rounded it out with a hike to Dead Horse Point which had a great view of the Canyon and the Colorado River

Tired and sweaty we left by 1:00 when the temps were 93. They would eventually get to 101 but we were safe in the car by then. We made our way back in to Moab.and had lunch. Before our trip I researched the good places to eat at each of our destinations. I used Trip Advisor a lot and I have found their reviews very helpful. Believe it or not, the top rated place to eat in Moab was a place called Quesadilla Mobilla. It's a truck like an ice cream truck that is parked on the side of Main St and all they serve are different varieties of quesadillas 

Trip Advisor did not let us down. The quesadillas were so good and the people running it were super nice. We found that in all of Moab. It is a young town with a laid back atmosphere and as you would expect with the parks close by, it is a very outdoorsy granola type community. It's the type of town where a lunch truck is the hottest place to eat. 

After chilling for a bit , we went downtown to the Moab Brewery for dinner and a couple of their beers. 

Yes I drank a beer made at he brew pub from the can. Why? Because Utah law does not allow beer above 3.2% alcohol to be sold on draft. So every draft beer can only be 3.2% abv.By comparison, a normal Bud Light or Michelob Ultra is 5%. The catch is you can get a beer with its normal alcoholic content if you order it by the can. That's legal. Makes perfect sense to me. 

Arches National Park is next, then we head east again to Colorado.