Day Seven

We headed back to the Arches National Park to do a long hike with a ton of arches along the way. The trail was 6.5-miles long, and at the end, we decided that our bodies have had enough. We decided to head back to the valley that afternoon. We drove back through Monument Valley, which was pretty, but we made no stops, and finally made it home at about 9 pm.

Day Six

In Moab, we took the mountain bikes up to the Bar M Loop and Circle O trail, which was supposed to be physically easy, but technically difficult. I'm not sure what standards these are based on, but we were exhausted after the 10-mile ride. We ate lunch at the Slickrock Cafe and took a nap afterwards! We headed off to the Arches National Park that night to catch some sunset views of the Arches.

Day Five

Day five, I found myself heading down a river in a boat a little bigger than a bathtub. Four Corner's Whitewater took us out on the Animas River to attempt kayaking, or something similar to it. The called our boats "Duckies". It was fun, hard work, and cold! Yeah, we both took some spills trying to "surf" on the rapids. Chris was our river guide, and saved me twice. The river wasn't high at all, and they (river guides) all seem to think we would enjoy the river at it's wildest (June). In a raft I probably would. After that, we went to Mesa Verde National Park, and toured two ruins, the Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House. It was Scott's first time, and he loved it. We left Colorado Tuesday evening and drove to Moab, Utah. We're staying at the La Quinta Inn, which is pretty nice, and plan on going to the Arches National Park today.

Day Four

We took off north thru Silverton and up the "million-dollar highway" to Ouray, Colorado, aka America's Switzerland. It was a pretty little town surrounded by mountains. Ouray is also known as the Jeeping capital of the world. And even though we didn't have a jeep, we attempted to take the CX-9 up to Little Boy Basin, where we could start our hike up Mount Sneffels (one of Colorado's Fourteners). The road, or rocky cliff, depending on what you want to call it, rose about 2,000 feet in 5 miles. The tires started to slide a little on the real steep sections (40-45 degree inclines) so we decided to park the CX-9 on the side of the mountain and hop a ride with a group of jeepers we had met. And good thing we did. The rocks we encountered next were HUGE! I was scared the Jeep wouldn't make it. So finally at 12,000 feet, we started our hike. Even though the trail book named this as a moderate hike, the footing was all loose rock, straight up, and as Scott learned, 12,000 feet is a lot cooler than down below! We have pictures of snow still being up there. So at 13,000 feet, because of hypothermia, hypoxia, and some weather moving in, we turned back. We made it to the car right before it started raining. (the car was located at about 11,000 feet). I hope to go back though, and make it to the top! We finished out our day playing pinball and soaking in the hot tub at the resort.

Day Three

We headed down to Purgatory on day three (the ski resort in Durango), and hopped on the lifts with out bikes and did some real mountain biking! We only had a couple of spills, but no real injuries. We ate dinner for our anniversary at an old restaurant in Durango, called the Mahogany Grill. I had the Duck, Duck, Duck, (a trio of duck) and Scott had the pepper-crusted filet, really good food anyway!

Day One and Two

After finally getting out of Phoenix, we drove to northeast Arizona (Holbrook), stayed 4 hours in a hotel room, and got an early start on the Petrified National Forest/Painted Desert. We hiked a trail to the Onyx Bridge, which we never found, but did see lots of Petrified wood and exotic landscapes! (Six mile hike too!) From there we drove to the Four Corners (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona) and paid 6 dollars to the Navajo Nation to take two pictures, and feel like idiots for falling for this tourist trap :) Never go there. It is not that cool to stand in 4 states at one time. But the Navajo Nation has some amazing red rock formations, even prettier than Sedona in my opinion. We are staying in a condo north of Durango, Colorado. We are going to hit the slopes today! (On mountain bikes that is) Wish us luck, and no broken bones :)

Happy 1st Year!

September 2, 2006