man versus kit kat

Feb

From Mesas to Monuments

18/02/2022

Today was another predominantly travel day, from Moab to Monument Valley. Total travel time was around 4.5 hours, but we had two stops planned.

First destination was to Mesa Verde National Park. This was in many respects the main park that Kate wanted to visit. But we also knew this would be the most compromised by our timing. While all the other parks didn’t have too much off limits being winter (in fact it had been SO MUCH better, with the small crowds), Mesa Verde we knew would have many parts closed for the Winter. This sadly included the guided tours into the Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings that the park is most famous for. But we knew this, which is why we elected to visit on a travel day, as we had seen that about 3-4 hours would be enough to explore what we could.

Yet another different vibe in this park. First of all, it was in the mountains and covered in snow! Thankfully the gorgeous weather of the last couple of weeks translated to clear roads so we had no troubles heading up the mountain. Secondly, this park is less of a hiking park, and more explore the ancient sites. The ost spectacular of these are the numerous cliff dwellings that can be seen incredibly perched within the cliff faces themselves.

They date from more than 700 years ago and it is mind boggling to think how on earth they were lived in. Apparently there were hand and foot holes within the cliff face to get up and down. I’m brave, but not sure that brave!

We did the scenic drive to the different sites, taking our time to explore what we could. 4 hours disappeared in the blink of an eye, and so we headed down the mountain and off to our next stop.

Next stop was a minor diversion, but a fun one. Who could resist visiting the point at which four different states meet! With just 10 minutes to spare before it was closed, we arrived at the Four States monument. Here, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. So technically we have now visited New Mexico too 😛

It made for some cute, kitschy, photos, and thankfully 10 minutes was all we needed.

With the sun going down we were back into Arizona (and then Utah) and those familiar red rocks reappeared. This time a bit different though as it was more the classic “cowboy” landscape of those 50’s films. We arrived into Monument Valley itself, staying at Gouldings Lodge, previously used to house all the movie stars who would make their way out here to shoot their films.

Two nights here would mean a full day of exploring tomorrow!

Feb

Arches! Arches! Arches!

By: muttler

arches national park

moab

united states

17/02/2022

Today was exciting as we were visiting Arches National Park, high up on the list of both Kate and I. It is also one of the most popular parks in the country, so much so that from April you need to pre-book your visit. Crazy!

Thankfully for us, Winter = Low Season, so we were 2 of only probably a few hundred that decided to visit.

Arches is just 5 minutes from Moab, so in no time at all we were in the park. We were excited about the park for a couple of reasons. First of all, the images we had seen of the titular Arches looked amazing. And we knew we could explore the arches and their surrounds. But also secondly, Arches is the filming location for the awesome opening of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where young Indy gets the taste for adventure.

Many of the Indy sites were on the way into the park proper. Below are a bunch of classic shots from the opening… the credits as well some of young Indy’s adventure. A good site for reference is this one where you will see the shots as they are in the film. Then you can check out our shots below 😉

These shots were of well known formations in the early part of the park, including “The Organ”, “The Three Gossips” and “The Balanced Rock”.

From there, we started to come to the famous Arches. In fact the rest of the day was spent visiting the arches… sometimes from lookouts, and sometimes from short hikes to them.

What I LOVE about this park is that it almost has a playful quality, as while it asks you to stay on the trails, the trails are plentiful and you can get up close with almost all arches, and even make your way through them! So very often a short 15-30 minute hike could get you right under the arch itself.

So here are a bunch of photos of the arches and exploring them. I won’t bore you with all the blow-by-blow of arches, rather just enjoy the scenery 🙂

As a bit of a bonus, we visited a small collection of petroglyphs!

In the blink of an eye we had spent about 8 hours, and the sun was close to setting. As it had been a long day we decided to drive back into town and have an early dinner. I was intrigued by the old school looking Moab Diner to see if we could get a bit of a proper diner experience. While it probably had a little more sheen on it than some country diners, it was pretty good. Fast food, pretty delicious, attentive server, and drink refills.

I decided to give their “signature” green chili open burger a crack. The chili was not super hot but nice and tasty. So while technically this can be included in my burger challenge, it is a bit unfair to compare it as it was more a platform to enjoy the local chili. Mmmm.

Back to a big driving day tomorrow. Off to Monument Valley via Mesa Verde!

Feb

Island In The Sky

By: muttler

canyonlands

united states

utah

16/02/2022

Our first real day in Moab, and it was our first overcast day of the trip. Given we are here in the depths of winter, we have had a charmed run. And when I say overcast, it wasn’t like it was threatening rain or snow. But because of this, we decided to head to Canyonlands National Park, rather than Arches, as Arches was top of Kate’s “to do” list so we thought we would trust the forecast for sunny weather tomorrow.

Off we went. Just near Canyonlands is a State Park called Dead Horse Point, and we thought we would wheel in there before heading into Canyonlands proper. Oh boy we were glad we did.

Kate remarked that while Utah is dominated by rock formations, each park had a different feel, and already we felt that this part of Utah was different to Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef. Here we were surrounded by basically HUGE canyons.

Dead Horse Point, while a very small park, was dominated by a massive canyon and views over the Colorado River, cutting its way through the landscape. Stunning.

From there it was into Canyonlands. Like I mentioned, this park had a very different feel to the others. Zion you are in amongst huge cliffs and you get to hike in and up them. Bryce was all about the spectacular views of the hoodoos and then hiking amongst them. Canyonlands though, it was all about being on an “Island In The Sky” and looking down on the canyons.

In fact, Island In The Sky was the name of the area we were in. Canyonlands actually is made up of 4 separate areas, and the one we were in was the most visited. We were on a flat of land in the middle of a number of canyons, in part formed by the Colorado and Green Rivers. So it made for a very different experience.

The park consists of several scenic drives, each with their own viewpoints and short hikes. The first hike I did was to the two outlooks for Upheaval Dome, which rather than be a dome sticking up out of the ground was actually more of a crater, of somewhat unknown origin. While not as spectacular as the crater of Death Valley, the second outlook gave me not only amazing views of the crater, but also the other canyons.

The rest of the day was mostly driving the scenic roads, with stops for viewpoints or short hikes. These included along the rim at some points to give unique views at every turn.

Another feature of Canyonlands is Mesa Arch, a short hike to a rock formation of a large arch, that not only was stunning itself, but very picturesque views through. It was spectacular but thought it may just be an entree for our visit to Arches National Park tomorrow.

It was only mid-late afternoon, but the weather had come in. In fact we were getting light snow on us! So having done the main sights, we decided to wander out of the park, lest we get stuck in the fog and snow. Besides, tomorrow would be a big day in Arches.

For dinner I strong-armed Kate into a visit to the Moab Brewery. A MASSIVE burger and a couple of pints later (a couple of IPAs) and we were done for the day. Time to rest for tomorrow.

Feb

Taking The Scenic Route

By: muttler

capitol reef

united states

utah

15/02/2022

Today was a fair driving day, needing to get from Kanab to Moab… all the way across the other side of Utah.

We had originally planned to hoof it on some of the major roads, however Kate proposed a different idea. How about we take the scenic route? It would only add another half an hour on, but would also take us through Capitol Reef National Park. Of course, let’s do it! Capitol Reef was not on our original plans, as it is quite small and a little out of the way. But now it was in the way, so was a good excuse to pay it a visit.

We said farewell to Kanab and headed off, back toward Bryce Canyon, but then heading further north. It was amazing the changing landscapes we had today. Within half an hour we went from the familiar red rocks, to snowy landscapes. Ah! So this is why we were warned about driving in Utah in winter! Thankfully for us it had been quite a mild, dry spell, so the roads were nice and easy and trouble free.

After about 3 hours of driving, 1.5 of which were in snowy landscapes, we were back in red rock territory. Capitol Reef is a sneaky one, as you don’t “enter” the park like the others… you literally drive through it as part of your normal travelling!

Once you are in the park, there are then some sights signposted, giving us perfect vistas that we were not getting sick of.

The main difference is that when you hit the Visitors Centre, you can pay the park fee to drive the 10 mile scenic road. Given we had our National Parks Annual Pass, we flashed that and meandered down the scenic road, stopping for pics and then some lunch.

We didn’t partake in any of the hikes. There wasn’t any that were key ones to do, and we thought it best to get back on the road. On the way out we got to see some petroglyphs dating from between 600-1300 AD. Sadly they were slowly disappearing through erosion and natural rock falls, but given a number had lasted 1500 years already, they were likely to be around a little longer!

The drive continued to stun us. We went from the red rocks to strange, grey landscapes. Completely natural, but in some ways they looked like they were the result of mining or something, given the ashen colour.

But soon enough the red and brown vistas came back, as we got off the smaller road we were on and back on to an interstate. Barreling along at 80mph (yep, about 130kph) were were in Moab in no time.

Moab was a bit bigger than Kanab, but much more of a tourist town it seemed, with Arches and Canyonlands National Parks within half an hour of the town (Arches only 10 minutes away). Rather than explore we decided to chill after the long day of driving. More parks tomorrow 🙂

Feb

Hoodoo Voodoo

By: muttler

bryce canyon

united states

utah

14/02/2022

Today was Bryce Canyon day!

We headed off nice and early on the 1.5hr drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. We were really looking forward to this one as photos we had seen were stunning.

A fairly quiet drive was made exciting by the proper arrival of SNOW! As we got within an hour of Bryce, we found the ground covered in snow. The roads were all fine, but it was delightful to see the white dusting all the landscape.

We drove into the park, and made our visit to the Visitors Centre. Unlike the previous two days at Zion, it seemed deathly quiet. There were very few cars around and we got the sense that we would be lucky to see a dozen other cars in the park. After getting our bearings and maps and things, we headed to one of the main view points of the famous Bryce Canyon Amphitheatre.

Holy moly.

It is incredible how similar, but also how vastly different the landscape and parks can be here in Souther Utah. Unlike Zion, which was magical and dramatic cliffs, with myriad hikes, Bryce Canyon was different.

The amphitheatre is a mind blowing canyon full of “hoodoos”… massive upright standing red rock formation. The hoodoos come from bigger rock formations that erode, giving a dramatic canon full of tall red soldiers. From above it looked immense.

We wandered along the rim for a while, trying to view the canyon from different angles, each catching the rising sun in different ways.

Today was going to be quite different to Zion… more about sightseeing in a way, more so than hiking. Bryce has one main scenic road that you can drive up and down, with about a dozen viewpoints along the way. Each would give a different view of the canyon and its hoodoos.

There was also some more unique rock formations, like Natural Bridge… a massive rock eroded by water to form a bridge like formation. The shapes, the colours… all was unbelievable.

So we spent the good part of a few hours doing the scenic drive, soaking in all the different views. There was also time for snowball fights 🙂

From there we went to something different. Mossy Cave is off the scenic drive, down at canyon floor level, and offers an alternative to the canyon. A short hike along a river leads to a small cave. In summer it has flowing water, but in winter it is full of icicles and frozen mini waterfalls. It was nice diversion from the drama of Bryce Canyon.

From here, I embarked on a 1.5hr hike down into the canyon. From the main Sunset viewing point, you could head straight down into the canyon, and hike amongst the hoodoos. It is remarkable how different it felt. From above, the canyon seems huge and almost impenetrable. But hiking into the canyon it becomes more intimate, as you wander amongst the hoodoos and other formations. It was amazing to just wander the trail down on the canyon floor, looking up at the formations.

A strenuous hike back to the top, I met Kate and we visited our last sightseeing spot, Bryce Point. We probably saved the best for last, as it was stunning, and with the sun starting to set it presented us with some final stunning imagery.

With the sun going down we headed back for our last night in Kanab, before we get moving again tomorrow. We finished the night at the local restaurant. Burger challenge… not too bad… pattie a bit overcooked, but the pickle and mashed potato was a nice side touch!

Oh, and a bonus photo… Kit Kat I picked up yesterday after getting a heads up from my mate Craig that they were floating around in the US 😉

muttler.net

it's matt butler... in website form

man versus kit kat

From Mesas to Monuments

Arches! Arches! Arches!

Island In The Sky

Taking The Scenic Route

Hoodoo Voodoo