After a short break we were back on our way to Arches National Park. Lucky for us it just happened to be Veterans weekend and entry into all national parks was FREE! After a long drive we were finally there!
We stopped at the little gift shop and museum and then we headed out on the trail. The park was pretty empty so we practically had it to ourselves. The views were amazing and the pictures don't do it justice.
I sadly don't remember the name of each of these rock formations but like I said before they really were amazing! This is definitely a place I want to go back to. After we drove through the park we decided it was time to eat something a little better than the snacks in the car so we googled the closest town and decided to head into Moab. We pulled into town found a cute little Italian restaurant and discussed where we wanted to head next. Neither one of us had been to New Mexico so we decided to head there for the night. After dinner we walked around Moab for a little bit.
It started to snow so we decided we better be on our way. We googled directions and headed South again with New Mexico in our sites. On the way we looked up some possible Hotel options and settled on a Hampton Inn in Farmington. We hit some snowy roads on the way so we were a little late pulling into town so unfortunately we couldn't see anything. (Although now I am grateful that we couldn't...I'll explain later) We made a quick stop at the local Walmart (lets just say we didn't fit in). We then headed to our hotel. After parking I ran inside to check in, the clerk informed me that it would be wise to park your car by your room window so you could keep an eye on it throughout the night...I realized we were no longer in Idaho. We called it a night and decided we would explore more in the daylight. The next morning we woke up to a snowstorm that had shut down a few roads around us. We loaded up the car again and headed out on the only open road. New Mexico wasn't at all what I expected it to be. We drove up and down the streets and happened to stumble upon my street.
I think we were meant to go here. :) We stopped for a few moments then jumped back in the car and were on our way to explore. My Boss Corey told us about a local Mountain that we needed to go see. We tried to get as close as we could but the task became harder than it should have.
Next we decided to head to the four corners. We again looked up directions and were on our way. We always stayed entertained in the car.
Corey issued a challenge to find a random prop and have it make an appearance in all of our photos. We tried smaller items including bubbles but the wind was blowing like crazy so we stopped at a local dollar store and purchased our new friends.
Now off to the four corners! We pulled into the parking lot and quickly realized we were the only crazy people in the entire area to go to the four corners on such a cold and windy day. We had the entire place to ourselves, so of course we took a lot of pictures.
I really wanted to take a picture of me doing a toe touch, so I prepared to jump and just as I went into the air I heard a rrrrrrrrrrrippppp. I split my pants all the way down. I just started laughing, Steph had no idea what happened. I finally composed myself enough to tell her and she joined in the laughs. I am so glad only one other person had joined us. I ran to the car to change, we walked around and froze a little more then we got back on the road. We found out that there were some local ruins not too far away so we decided to go check them out. Well we thought it wasn't that far away After about 1.5 hours of driving in the middle of nowhere we finally found the Hovenweep National Monument.
We were again the only ones there and it was freezing. We put on as many layers as we could and we started the hike. These places were built by cliff dwellers that left suddenly because it is rumored they ran out of water. All of their buildings were literally hanging off of a cliff. It was definitely worth the drive.
We tried to thaw out a bit and decided we better head back toward Moab since we knew another storm was rolling in. The snow hit just outside of the town so we found the nearest hotel and checked in for the night. We again walked around Moab and shopped a little and grabbed a bite to eat at a local Mexican restaurant, then grabbed some hot steamers.
The next morning we said goodbye to Moab and headed back toward home. The roads were horrible since it was still snowing so we took it slow. We decided to head to Park City and do a little shopping. We arrived, checked into a hotel and then headed to downtown Park City. We walked around enjoying all of the sites even though we were ill prepared for deep snow and slick sidewalks. We made the best of it. We found a delicious place to eat and so we decided to rest for a bit. I had to take a pic of Steph enjoying her meal.
We also had to stop and say Hello to all of the Sidewalk animals.
We went back to the hotel to warm up and decided to call it a night. The next morning we headed to the outlets and shopped for a few hours until we had to head home. I don't know about Steph but I had a blast and honestly I couldn't have asked for a better travel partner. Thanks for the memories friend! Yet another item on my list turned out to be AMAZING!!
