Day 7 - Canyonlands Birthday

  Another North American Road Trip

Day 7:

Thursday, June 25th

Got up early and got ready. We went down to breakfast and were pleasantly surprised to find that the attendant knew allergen info and there were lots of options that were dairy-free.  Desmond had scrambled eggs and muffins, Bryan enjoyed a breakfast burrito, and I filled my plate with pork, eggs, homestyle potatoes, and melon cubes. 

We were on the road by 6:30 AM and on our way to Canyonlands National Park. There wasn’t anyone at the fee booth to check our pass, so we drove straight to the trailhead. We took the little 0.6 mile loop to see the mesa arch. As we hiked down the trail towards the sun, I was happy to see Desmond using his new sunglasses. 

Looking through the arch was a stunning view out across the landscape. There is so much variety and depth to the scene with rock formations and wide open spaces viewed through the frame of the arch. Very beautiful. 

On the way back to the car, Desmond spotted a tiny bird chirping repeatedly and I was able to (with the help of my Merlin app) identify it as a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher. So cute!

We hopped back in the cruck and headed down the road to the Grand Viewpoint Trail for a 1.8 mile hike.  I put my hat on as the direct sun began to feel warm. As we hiked along, from one stacked rock trail marker to the next, the views were stunning. Soon birds began to swoop overhead and off the edge of the cliff side. Earlier in the trip, Desmond had guessed that the name of an animal would have to do with the color of its neck because “You’d be surprised how many animals are named by their necks!” He had turned out to be right, much to our amusement. So I had to share with him that the birds above turned out to be “white-throated” swifts. 

 

When we reached the end of the trail, we were the only ones there. We climbed up the rocks and looked out over the canyons. We sat down and ate pistachios, dried mangos and drank Gatorade and cold water.  After taking some pictures and video clips, we headed back to the car. 

Next stop on our morning explore was Whale Rock. A short drive down the road we got on the trail. We had hiked upwards long enough to spot a hare, some harvester ants, and the tiniest little lizard, when Desmond decided he didn’t need to go all the way over to the rock to climb on it. He had enjoyed his climb on the other rocks, and was ready to get out of the sun. It was about 9:30 at this point, and the sun on the exposed rock was already no joke. So we hiked ourselves the short way back to our car and headed for the visitor center. 

Desmond did the Junior Ranger program, we enjoyed the strong air conditioning while watching the video about the park. We decided it was going to be too much to try to drive down to the needles district (a few hour drive from Moab) so we will need to come back sometime to enjoy those up close. 

Bryan has been looking at commemorative National Park tokens as we go into each gift store. He mentioned that they have them at this one. We had previously decided we probably didn’t need to collect them. But he is looking for them in every store and seems really amused. So we got him his first one as a tiny birthday gift. (It is his birthday, after all.) We chose one that has the Mesa Arch on it that we hiked to this morning. 

By the time Desmond was sworn in as a junior ranger, it was 10:30 AM, and we have decided to go back to the hotel and enjoy some rest during the hot part of the day. 

The AC wasn’t working very well and I asked the gal at the front desk for assistance, to make sure we had the settings right to cool the unit off. She said that with this particular suite it struggles to keep it cool. We ran some fans and waited for the air conditioning to cool it off some. 

Even so, we were able to rest and nap, play video games and listen to audiobooks in the relative cool of our rooms. We would not have wanted to be out in the heat hiking or sight seeing. 

Eventually, I roused myself and made lunch for the three of us here in the rooms. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Bryan had a quesadilla, and Desmond (when I offered him one or the other, or half of both) jokingly asked for a combination of the two. Which I provided, much to his surprise and amusement. 

Then we went back to resting for a bit, until it became clear that we really should take Bryan out for some sort of birthday treat. So we walked a short distance to the Moab Froyo place. Bryan got himself a hearty ice cream sandwich, and Desmond and I did the pay by weight frozen yogurt with toppings. 

Desmond and I went on a little outing to get him some swimming goggles (it is unclear whether or not they got packed and 7 days in to our trip I’m tired of looking for them and I’m happy to just replace such an inexpensive item).  We got him goggles, a beach ball, and then picked up some M&Ms and Fritos as a birthday treat for Bryan to have in the “pantry” of snacks we have in the back of our cruck. 

Desmond got to swim for a couple of hours while I worked on the blog. Then he took a shower and was in his pjs before we mentioned dinner. So, he opted to stay back and have an actual quesadilla while Bryan and I went out on a date. We walked less than a block to Trailhead Public House and Eatery and got ourselves some good “waygu” bacon BBQ burgers. Yum!  I annihilated mine so quickly the waiter came back and said “Ma’am, are you happy? That disappeared pretty quickly. Do you want me to go have them make you up another one?” 😂 

Bryan and I talked about which National Parks we’ve been to (less than half, so far!) and figured when we might go to some of the others. He has been transferring the stamps from our old passport booklet into our new one, that has a spot for every little thing. That way we can see what we’ve done and where we still should plan to go. 

We had toyed with the idea of hiking to Delicate Arch tonight in Arches, but Desmond was in his jammies, and Bryan was still tired, so we stayed in instead. That gave me some more time to get a few days posted to this blog so we could share with friends and family. 

Tomorrow we do not need to get up early. We are not in a hurry and might not even set an alarm.