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The Three Gossips and the Sheep

When H's parents arrived Wednesday afternoon, they were pretty tired from a long day of travelling but they rallied and went out with us to the Porcupine to celebrate our third move-iversary - three years in Utah already!  We didn't stay out late partying, though, because the next morning we were getting up and going back to Moab.

Double Arch - so cool

We had rented a condo this time so B could go with us, staying at the Cedar Breaks condos on 20 South 400 East, just four blocks off Main Street.  The condo was fine, suiting our purposes, but the walls were very, very thin - if we'd had loud neighbors, it would have been bad.  We had a late lunch at the Moab Brewery and then tried to do a long scenic loop through the La Sal mountains, finally turning around after our dirt road dead-ended.

View of L and P from Double Arch

Arches National Park was our first stop Friday.  We took our time, stopping at every single scenic turn-out and overlook and walking out to lots of arches.  For some reason, H and I hadn't gone out to the Windows area on prior trips: the parking was tight on that side so we walked out to Double Arch instead, which is just spectacular.  There were lots of tourists, both European and American, and lots of bus tours and by the time we got out to the near overlook for Delicate Arch, the place was swarming with people.  But the great thing about having our national parks pass is that when Arches gets too busy, you can leave and come back first thing in the morning the next day!

L and P at Delicate Arch overlook

We had packed sandwiches and beer for lunch, and found a shady picnic table down along Potash Road by the Colorado River, not far from the petroglyphs.  We followed Potash to the end, discovering where the Shafer Trail starts up but deciding that we didn't really need to take the rental car up it.  After a break back at the condo, we had dinner at Zax on Main Street, sitting in the busy bar and enjoying the Full Suspension on tap.  The evening brought card games and cocktails back at the condo, with a return to Arches to look forward to for the morning.

Potash Road petroglyphs