Utah part 1

Last Monday Jake and I headed down for a vacation in Utah. We haven't been on a honeymoon since we got married (almost 3 years ago!), so we figured this would kind of be a honeymoon.

We had a plan to go see Jake's cousin, Amy, and her family before heading down to four different national parks. First park out was Arches national park in Moab.

A little break on our way down.

Can you say never-ending straight roads?

We stayed down in Moab at a campsite by the Colorado River. We got there right before it got dark, so we didn't get to see much that night.

The next morning we got up at like 6:00, and headed up to the park!

The first place we stopped; "Wall Street". The colors were amazing!

Cool view of the park.

This one is called "Balancing Rock"

Our first arch! "Skyline Arch"

Taking a minute to enjoy the view in front of "Fiery Furnace"

Pretty flowers in the desert!

A little hike to see "Delicate Arch" (on the left). We were going to wait until the afternoon to hike in to it.

The geologist is trying to figure out how things came to be.

(he talked about rocks non-stop)

Jake exploring "Garden of Eden"

The road through the park

I have an obsession with cactus flowers. Cool huh?

"Double Arch"

Jake and I in an arch.

In the middle of the day we left the park (due to the HOT weather and too many people) and went swimming instead. We asked a lady at the gas station for a nice swimming place, and even though it was a little ways to hike up there, it was totally worth it.

Cool trail towards the swimming hole.

We had to cross the river a few times on the way up there

We could have had us a lobster dinner!

More cactus flowers...

...and other desert flowers

Always important to run the last bit

Made it to the swimming hole!

Isn't that the prettiest place ever?!

Later in the afternoon we went back to the park. 

On our way to "Sand Dune Arch"

Gotta climb a little bit too

Sand Dune Arch

Crazy that anything would grow in there

On our way to "Delicate Arch"

Delicate Arch at sunset

On our way back to camp, we stopped by Fiery Furnace again

Our camp at the top of Arches national park!

Some advice before going to Arches:

1. Go explore early in the morning and late at night.

2. When they tell you to bring lots of water, they mean it. Bring LOTS.

3. I wouldn't go in the summer. We almost died of heat this time of year.

4. If you want to take pictures; go online and check out what you should see in the morning vs. at night. 

I timed some stuff wrong and only got silhouettes.

5. You probably only need to go one day to this park to see what you want to see, it's not that big.

I will post more pictures from the rest of our trip soon!