A weekend in Moab, Utah

I love Moab.  Since living in Arizona, I have visited Moab three times.  The first time was last Spring when Brandon and I went with another couple from Flagstaff.  While in Moab, we met with two of their friends who were from Salt Lake City.  We only have one and a half days exploring on that trip, but it was just enough to give me a taste of something that I enjoyed.

When coming back home from Denver last Summer, we drove through Moab.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time or enough sunlight to explore the cute town, but once again, it gave me an urge to come back and visit again.

Last October, I decided to give Brandon a unique birthday present.  Gifts can be difficult, especially when that person buys themselves what they want all year long.  I wanted to do something different, so I bought him a ticket for the Canyonlands Half Marathon race in Moab, Utah.  Brandon was running a lot with Kodak, so I thought this would be a great gift for him.  Since I didn't want to wait my entire morning for him to finish the race, I signed myself up for the 5 mile race.  I don't run, and I really haven't ran that much since I played soccer.  However, I paid for my ticket, which made me committed.

Fast forward to March-- Brandon did some training, but he still never ran 13 miles straight.  I also did not train.  I've been doing my body sculpt class twice a week, so I was getting a workout in, but I did not ever run.  I was a little unsure since I did not train for the race at all.  I know people walk these races, but I didn't want to walk.  I told myself that I will be fine.

Moab is an excellent spot to camp.  There are lots and lots of campground on the BLM lands around Moab.  However, Brandon and I both wanted a shower after the race.  I looked at hotel rooms, but they were almost $200 a night!  I looked at Airbnbs, but the ones that were available were all hostel style.  Lastly, I found a privately owned campground called ACT Campground.  They were pretty cheap at $25 a night with very clean bathrooms with showers.  We never spend a lot of time at camp, so I decided this was our best option for what we wanted.

The Weekend

We left Flagstaff right at noon on Friday.  We both wanted to get an earlier start, but we had to take care of some work.  Driving to Moab isn't too bad.  It's a 5 hour drive, but it's mostly on the reservation,  It takes 3 hours to get to the Utah border, and then it's all good from there.

Newspaper Rock

We have been participating in the Utah GeoTour.  This is a geocaching tour all across Utah.  When you find 3 specific caches in each county, you get a patch.  After 10 patches, you can receive a coin.  Anyways, we needed one last cache for San Juan County.  We stopped at Newspaper Rock, which is on the way to Canyonlands Needles District.  This was a really cool rock!  I highly recommend stopping here if you are in that area.  We would have continued to the Needles District, but we were running out of time and sunlight.

We got to Moab with about an hour left of sunlight.  We drove up to Dead Horse Point State Park to see the overlook at sunset.  It was very pretty! Once the sunset, we drove back into town to pick up our race packets.  We ate dinner at a cool burger joint, then found our camp and went to sleep since we were waking up early for the race!

The Race

Brandon and I left camp at 7:15am.  That is 6:15am Arizona Time.  We found a parking spot downtown, wished each other good luck, and went to our shuttle pick ups.  The race was very organized, which is very nice.  When I did the Warrior Dash back in Atlanta, it was not organized, which made it the worst race I have ever participated in.  Anyways, I was on one of the first shuttles for the 5 mile racers.  We waited in a trailhead parking lot for about an hour.  Once we were 15 minutes from the start of the race, we walked a quarter mile down the road to starting line.  When I got to starting line, I realized I had to use the restroom.  Yes, I used the restroom when I was waiting for the hour.  I was drinking a lot of water, but wasn't sweating anything out.  

The race started, and I was feeling great.  I did the first mile in 8 minutes!  I kept thinking about my bladder and knew I was going to have to go to the restroom soon.  After mile 2, I saw a porta-potty with no wait.  I was finally able to use the restroom, and I told myself "if this puts me 2 minutes over an hour, it's because of my bladder."

The course was very, very nice.  It was very scenic and was mostly downhill.  Mile 4 went along Hwy 191.  This was probably the worst part of the course.  Many cars, and the sun was beating right on you.  I reached mile 5 and knew I was almost there.  I had to walk and catch my breath a few times, but I kept going.  I crossed the finish line at 1:03:15.  That's maintaining a little over 12 minutes a mile.  Not too bad for someone who doesn't run. 

I got snacks, stretched, and waited for Brandon to cross the finish line.  We completed his race at 2 hours and 23 minutes!  We grabbed a free beer and sat around.  We finally decided to head about to the campsite around 2pm to take a shower.  

Post-Race

Once we were all cleaned up, we decided to drive around Arches National Park since we were both sore from the race.  We went to a lot of the viewpoints and parking areas that we missed last time we were in the park.  I love Arches National Park!

Double Arch

We made our way back into Moab for a small geocaching meet & greet.  We met two other geocachers who were from Blanding, Utah.  We talked about geocaching, about Utah, and the Bears Ear National Monument.  After about an hour of chatting, we parted our ways.

We originally wanted to go to Moab Brewery for dinner, but the wait was 50 minutes for a seat!  We went across the street to the Blu Pig for some yummy bbq.  We got back to the campground around 9:30pm and quickly fell asleep.

Sunday

We woke up around 8am, broke down camp, and made our way back into town.  Brandon wanted to show me where he started his race, so we drove up to the Half-Marathon starting point.  We found a few geocaches, set up the GoPro, and went back down into Moab.  It was a very beautiful drive! 

Musselmans Arch

Next, we decided to visit Canyonlands for a little bit before heading back to Flagstaff.  We went to Mesa Arch, which was a short little walk we did last time.  After looking at the map, we wanted to go into the canyon to see Musslemans Arch. 

We took the Suburu down Shaffer Trail, which is a 4WD road that goes into the canyon.  The road and drive was scary, but also very cool.  It took us about an hour to get to the Arch.  The Arch was wild!  There were only a few other people down there, and one offered to take out photo on the arch, so we did!  Walking on the arch was terrifying!  

Moab Potash Ponds (source: Google)

After the arch, we decided to go back home.  Only problem-- we either go back up into Canyonlands, or we follow the road into Potash and then Moab.  We decided to take the latter!  Brandon had lots of fun taking his car off road.  It was a beautiful day for a drive, so why not?  We saw the Moab Potash ponds, which are the "electric blue ponds in the middle of the Utah desert".  Super cool!  We ended up seeing a lot of rock climbers, found even more camping spots, and had a nice time driving.

On the way back home, we found a few more caches before the sun went down.  Overall, it was an awesome weekend. I will definitely sign up for the 5 mile race again next year! 

View from 4WD Shaffer Trail

A weekend in Death Valley National Park

Our campsite

Last July, I decided I wanted to go to Death Valley National Park.  Of course, I wasn't going to go in the summer where the temperature is over 100.  I looked on recreation.gov and found that they were taking reservations for campsites in January.  This would be a perfect little weekend getaway before starting my final semester at NAU.  I booked two nights in a tent-only campsite in Furnace Creek.  Now, there are several other campsites within the park, but I do not like doing the whole "first come, first serve", especially on "Brandon's time" (aka, later than I want).  On recreation.gov, most campgrounds have an interactive map of the site.  In addition, some campsites have pictures.  What I loved about the drive-in tent only spots were the trees!  I wasn't sure how hot it was going to be, so I picked a spot with the most shade.
We left Flagstaff on Friday around 11am.  We were in no rush to get there since there wasn't a gate to the campground. (Tip: Always check to see if there is a gate.  While in Utah last summer, the campground gate closed at 10pm).  Death Valley is also only a 5.5 hour drive, and we were going back a timezone.  We finally headed as far West on I-40-- all the way to Kingman.  We stopped at a Mobile gas station to use the restrooms.  However, this wasn't no ordinary Mobile Gas Station; this gas station had a small dog park!  We let Kodak run around for a little bit.  There was another dog that came by.  Of course, we told Kodak that we didn't drive 2 hours for this little thing, and that we had to keep on going.

About one hour from Kingman is the Nevada Border and also Hoover Dam.  I've heard my grandma talk about this location, and since we were passing through, I figured we just take a small detour.  I was surprised on the amount of security there. We drove all the way to a parking lot on the Arizona side of the dam.  I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to check out the bridge walk, but I knew that we didn't have enough time, and that someone in our party is terrified of heights (Kodak).
The Hoover Dam isn't too dog friendly.  In fact, dogs aren't allowed on the dam at all.  Brandon and I walked around, grabbed a geocache, and made our way back to the freeway.  Overall, it was a pretty interesting place, and I would love to check out the Dam Tour next time when we don't have Kodak with us.
Next stop: Las Vegas!  Okay, this was only for lunch.  We packed food with us, but wanted to save it for when we were in the park.  Since I was driving, I requested In-N-Out.  I've only had this food once, and it was actually last January when I first had their food.  Brandon ran in and ordered, and we ate in the parking lot.  Once we were refueled, we switched places.  Brandon went to start the car, when we realized I left the engine on.....whoops!  Brandon asked a truck that was parked two spots down if he had any jumper cables.  The nice guy did and helped us jump the car.  At this moment, Brandon and I decided that we need to have a set with us in future emergencies. (Update: We now have a set with us!).
After that small little fiasco, we were finally back on our way.  Next stop: Pahrump!
The drive wasn't too bad.  There was a little traffic (people not going the speed limit), but we made it on time.  We decided to top off in Pahrump, even though we had about half a tank.  I knew we were going to do a lot of driving within the Park, but wasn't sure how much the gas would be.
Update:  Gas in Pahrump was $2.19.  Gas in Furnace Creek inside Death Valley was $3.79!
Because we were in Pacific Time, the sun sets at 5pm.  We got to our campsite around 5:40pm and set up camp.  We had a fire, and Brandon made himself a brat.  We just sat and chilled around the fire.  We went to sleep around 9pm. Though we went to sleep early, we woke up several times throughout the night because of the wind.  The wind was so loud and strong that it shook the tent!

Devil's Golf Course

The next day, I woke up around 8:30am (hey, you get to sleep in a little when you're on vacation).  I walked Kodak around the campground, woke Brandon up, and we were off to the Visitor's Center.  We picked up a map and got an idea what we were doing today.  I had several geocaches saved on my phone, we were also trying to get enough to pick up our #3000 cache on the trip!

Our first stop was Badwater Basin-- the lowest point in North America.  It was pretty cool to see, and we just walked out a little since we had Kodak.  We also went to almost every point heading back North to Furance Creek.  We actually hiked Natural Bridge and checked out Devil's Golf Course.

Zabriskie Point

I wanted to see Zabriskie Point, so we headed around two miles East to check that out.  Once again, dogs weren't allowed, so we took turns checking it out.  This was probably my favorite sight during the whole trip.  Next time I'm here, I would like to hike the Badlands.
We made lunch and examined what we wanted to do next.  We checked out some of more not-so-popular sights like the Salt Flats with the pupfish, and the Death Valley Borates.   We made ourselves all the way up to Mesquite Sand Dunes.  We had fun here and let Kodak run in the sand.  Once we were down, we noticed that we had around 40 minutes left of daylight.  We were pretty exhausted being in the sun all day that we decided to head back to camp and cook dinner.

We had another fire and made the remaining brats and smores.  Brandon read some of his book while I just relaxed and enjoyed the moment.  That night, the wind was not as bad as the night before.  I had a pretty good night's rest.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast and broke down camp.  We chatted to the young couple that was next to us and gave them recommendations on what they should do.  I knew we needed to get back home, so we stopped back at the Visitor's Center to grab some souvenirs.  Our last sight at the park was Dante's View.

Dante's View

This was a pretty interesting part in the park. You drive around 30 minutes and gain around 4000ft in elevation.  I watched the temperature from when we turned off the road to the parking lot at the very top.  The temperature began at 65 and dropped all the way to 41! At Dante's View, you are overlooking the Badwater Basin.  It was crazy to see the landscape at a different elevation.  We made lunch, and then decided to make our way back to Arizona.

We didn't make many stops on our way back.  We did, however, stop at Seven Magic Mountains which is a temporary art piece just outside of Las Vegas.  It was very crowded but still really interesting.  It was here that we finally grabbed our #3,000 geocache!

Seven Magic Mountains

Death Valley National Park is a huge park.  I wish we had one more day to explore the Western part of the Park.  The northern part with Scotty's Castle is currently closed due to historic flooding.  I read in the Visitor's Center that it probably won't open back up until 2019.  I will definitely like to go back to this park in the future.
Death Valley is also filled with lots of Earthcaches and Virtuals.  During our trip, we managed to grab 15 within the park.

Exploring the parks and camping always makes me excited for my next trip.  After some work and school, I'll be ready for another vacation.

Havasupai- aka The Hidden Paradise in the Grand Canyon

After moving to Flagstaff, all of the "most do" activities for nearby attractions always led me to Havasu/Havasupai Falls.  Several Grand Canyon postcards and advertisements use the unique turquoise water-- however, it is almost impossible to see the naturally, breathtaking waters in the flesh.  Okay, perhaps I am being a little dramatic, but it is actually really hard to get a camping permit in the beautiful little piece of paradise.  After missing out on an opportunity via Meetup and another through the hiking group at NAU, I pretty much accepted the fact that I may not see the falls in person while living in Flagstaff.  However, while working at the City of Flagstaff, my supervisor told me that her and her friends got a last minute camping reservation for the following weekend.  She told me to try and call because cancellations are pretty frequent. After hearing that little bit of hope, I decided to give them a call.  I first called the Camping Office on a Monday at 9am.  I believe I used the 2121 number.  The lady who picked up the phone told me that they were completely booked for the season, which lasts through November.  I knew this was my fate, and decided to call them in another hour.  So after about 45 minutes had passed, I took a water break (I was collecting data at the time), and I decided to give them another call.  This time, I called the 2141 number.  The phone gave me a busy tone, so I hung up.  I remember I edited some data and decided to call once more.  So, I called the same number, and it rang for almost a minute.  I was about to hang up, but a voice was on the other line.  I asked about 2 different weekends in October, but this new lady told me the same news.  I then asked if there were any openings in September, and then she said yes!  She said that they had an opening for 2 nights for 2 people in September.  Of course, I didn't exactly know what days they were, but I accepted the opening.  I gave her my name and wrote down my confirmation number.  I was head over heels excited for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

** So this is how the reservation process goes down.  Feb 1st is when the season opens for camping.  I heard that since so many people are calling on this day, that it is nearly impossible to get someone to answer the phone.  You could be lucky and get someone to answer, but your dates might not be available.  When I called the office, it was the last week in July, and it was for a reservation in early Sept.

Anyways, fast forward to a week before the trip.  I start school for the semester and realized that I couldn't miss school that Wednesday, which happened to be the first day of our trip.  I called the camping reservation and asked if it was possible to change my trip by 1 day.  I got denied, which made me really upset.  This isn't a trip that you want to do in 2 days.  I waited a few days and called back, on a Saturday afternoon.  The phone rang for a minute, and I almost hung up.  However, a chipper lady answered the phone.  I asked her what time the tourist office closes in the village, because you have to check in there before you go into the campsite.  She told me 6pm, which would not have been enough time for me to teach lab that Wednesday morning, and drive 3 hours to the trail head.  I told her that I wouldn't be able to make it on time, and if it was possible to change my reservation by 1 day for my party of 2.  She told me to hang on, and got back with an answer.  She said that since it was just 2 people, that one extra night shouldn't be a problem in the campsite.  I thanked her so much and confirmed my reservation number.

I was very, very lucky with this whole reservation process.  I booked a 3 night stay at a kennel for Kodak.  Though, it was more than just a kennel-- they have doggie day camp and have 24 hour care!  Anyways, Brandon and I made a meal list, ran to REI for last minute supplies, and packed our bags.  We were very excited about this trip.

Day 1

We left Flagstaff at 4:30ish on Thursday morning.  Brandon slept in the car while I drove to the trailhead, which was almost 3 hours away.  We arrived at the trail head around 7am.  We tidied up our packs, got all situated, and headed down the trail at 7:20am.  The trail was all down hill, which meant it was going to be all uphill on the way back.  However, I tried to not focus on the future, but rather on the now.  We passed several groups that were hiking up, and got passed by a few pack mules.  We even saw the helicopter.  The weather was great and we were in the shaded during the majority of the hike to the village.

Havasu Falls

The hike from the trailhead to the village was 8 miles.  Yes, 8 miles.  When you get to the village, you have to check into the tourist office.  Here, you pay for your trip, get wristbands that must stay on you for the entire trip, a tag for your tent, and a few rough maps of the area.  We got to the tourist office around 11:20, which meant it took us 4 hours to hike 8 miles downhill.  We took breaks for food, water, and picture opportunities.  There were several groups checking in at the same time as us, so we didn't get out of the office until almost noon.

Once you check in, you have to pay for your reservation.  It is $35 per person to enter.  Then, $5 per person for an environment fee, and then $17 per person per night for camping. It is rather expensive for camping, but this is how the Village makes their money.  When you pay, everyone in your party gets a wristband that must stay on during the duration of your trip.  After checking in and getting your wristbands, it is another 2 miles to the campsite from the village.  The village is home to almost 300 Supai people.  There is a helicopter pad, a school, post office, trading post, lodge, and cafeteria.  We didn't spend much time at the village, since we had everything that we needed.  The 2 mile hike to the campsite was really hot-- the sun was out and if was of course the hottest part of the day.  It took us almost an hour to reach the campsite.  I was very exhausted from the heat. While going to the campsite, you pass Upper and Lower Navajo Falls and Havasu Falls.  We knew that we were going to head right to Havasu Falls once we set up camp.

We reached the campsite and saw one available spot.  Not knowing what the campsite status was, I sat with our stuff at the first site while Brandon continued down the camping area to hunt for available sites.  He said there were several nicer spots, so we walked a little further.  We found a nice spot that was off the trail with some shade and picnic table.  We set up our tent, ate a snack, and put on our bathing suits.  By this time, it was around 2pm.  We decided to head back to Havasu Fall which was just about a quarter mile from our campsite.

Havasu Falls was amazing.  We jumped in the water, which was cold, but felt really good after a 10 mile hike.  The area was a little crowded.  There were people eating on the picnic tables, some people were asleep on the beach, while others were playing the blue water.  After enjoying the nice water, the sun moved below the canyon, so it was getting cold.  We went back to the the campsite and grabbed some dinner and water.  We went back to Havasu Falls, and no one was there.  We cooked out dinner and enjoyed the lovely views.  We headed back to the campground right before dark.  I was exhausted and went right to sleep.  Brandon stayed awake for a little bit to take pictures of the stars.

Day 2

Mooney Falls

We decided to let our bodies sleep in after our long hike yesterday.  I remember waking up to hearing people people on the trail.  It was a slow moving morning since we were a little sore.  We had breakfast and decided to do Mooney Falls and Beaver Falls.  We packed our day packs and continued down the campsite and saw all of the other sites we missed.  About a half mile away is Mooney Falls.  This waterfall is taller than Havasu Falls with a very strong undertow.  We took pictures from above and looked at the climb down--- and it look terrifying.  But, I was going to do it.  Brandon hooked his GoPro to his head and he recorded the climb down.  The climb down to Mooney was a narrow hike, through these mini-like caves.  Then, you had to descend using ladders and chains.  It was definitely terrifying, and I didn't have that much fun, but the view were worth it.  At the last ladder, there was a Rez dog just chilling.  She was in my way, but after gathering up my guts, I attempted to go around her, and we were both safe.  The Falls were beautiful, but we wanted to head over to Beaver Falls since it was a 2 mile hike away.  The trails was not marked at all, and at times, it could of been difficult to lose the trail.  After a few water crossing and sketchy ladders, we made it to Beaver Falls.

Beaver Falls was not crowded at all.  Beaver Falls is a cascaded waterfall with several pools.  Before descending down to Beaver, there was a Native to checked our Wristbands.  It was crazy to see that they still had some checking wristbands all the way out at Beaver.  Anyways, we enjoyed the cold water for about an hour and had lunch.  It took us almost 2 hours to get from Mooney to Beaver.  It was around 2pm when we headed back to Mooney.  Heading back was a little tough since we lost the trail twice, but we ended up where we needed to be.  We took photos of Mooney Falls, but decided to grab our dinner back at the campsite and eat it at Havasu.  The climb back up from Mooney was just as scary.  Since the wind changed direction, the mist from the falls made the chains really slippery.  But, I made it back up in one piece. 

Near Beaver Falls

We arrived back at the campsite.  I changed out of my bathing suit and into some dry clothes. We grabbed dinner and went back to Havasu Falls.  We stayed until about dark again and went back to camp.  Since we were heading out in the morning, we packed our bags the best that we could that night, so we could head out early.

Day 3

My phone alarm went off at 5:30.  We got up, took down camp, packed our bags, and hiked on out at 6:30am.  We stopped at Havasu Falls once again to quickly eat breakfast.  We enjoyed the last views of the Falls, and hiked back to the Village.  We arrived at the village around 8am.  The helicopter doesn't run on Saturdays, but we should of used a pack mule...anyways, the hike out was a tough one.  The never ending uphill was a killer.  We took our time, had plenty of water breaks, and took rest stops in the shade.  They last hour and a half, and mile and a half, was the worst.  It was a 1,000 feet change in elevation.  With a 30 pound pack on my back and during the hottest part of the day, I seriously thought I was going to die--okay, I was being super dramatic, but it was a tough hike, and it was super hot.  Brandon does a great job putting up with me, but I was thrilled to see a small little stand at the top of the Hilltop.  Here, we bought 2 cans of Dr. Pepper, 1 cold water bottle, and 2 slices of watermelon for $10.  It was so great.  Overall- the trip was awesome, and I would do it again.  Here are some tips.

The Only Way Up and Down to Mooney Falls

Tips

• Leave early.  During the later summer/early fall hours, you can leave the Hilltop around 7am and get to the Village at 11am.  Perfect for beating the sun.
• Filter your water.  Even though it's from a spring, we still filtered our water.  We heard several people have bad times in the restrooms
• There are 3 compost restroom areas in the campground. 
• You check in at the lady at the top of the Hilltop to confirm your confirmation before heading down
• Don't stop at the first open campsite you see.  The campground goes back quite a ways with some very nice spots by the water.
• There is a Cash-Only Frybread stand between Havasu Falls and the campground.  They were open around dinner time both nights we were there. 
• Don't wear your packs when hiking back to the Hilltop.  I will definitely pay for a Pack Mule next time.  
• You can pay with Cash or Card at the tourist check in
• My hydroflask was awesome.  It kept ice cold water in it for 3 days. 
• Take all of the pictures! 
• Go down to Mooney Falls. It's super scary, but totally worth it!
• Always wear your wristband
• There is a Trading Post and Cafeteria in the Village
  
  
  

Funny story-- as we were hiking to the campground after checking into the tourist, we past these 3 southern people.  They were giggling up a hill and we said "hi."  The lady told me "We're going back to the village for a Coke."  I don't know why, but I thought that was so funny.

Also, my FitBit lasted the entire 3 days.  From Hilltop and back to Hilltop, my FitBit recorded almost 35 miles for the 3 days!  Talk about a workout.  I also lost 4 pounds when I weighed myself when I got back to the apartment.