Canyonlands

We didn't actually get to Canyonlands National Park, but we went to some great National Parks and places around northern AZ and throughout southern Utah.  From Flagstaff we only had about 2 hours to get to the Grand Canyon, unfortunately it was super cold and rainy all day.  When we first walked out to the edge it just looked like the end of the world... the land ended and all you saw was white nothingness.  We walked around the rim for awhile and the wind would come through and blow out the clouds long enough for us to get a glimpse of the magnificent hole in the ground and snap a few pictures.  We hung around for a few hours, but it really was pretty miserable so we were happy to keep driving up to Zion National Park in southern Utah.  

We got to our couch surfers, Keith's place after dark and hung out for a few hours before going to sleep and waking up to an incredible sunrise over massive rocks coming out of the earth.  We went to visit Keith at the brewery that morning and he gave us the tour of his work place... and we started the day out with a delicious beer.  That afternoon we drove around Zion and it is one of our favorite NPs.  It has a Yosemite feel with the canyon walls all around you and the river.  We hiked up to Angel's Landing.  It was a cool hike.  The best part was the last 1/2 mile that they you were climbing up a narrow part of the rock.  They had a chain going along the trail to help give you more security.  There have been 6 people who have fallen and died off the trail since 2004.  It's not really a place to mess around.  We sat and enjoyed the view of the valley for awhile and then the most amazing thing happened.  A California Condor came souring around us.  It's the most graceful bird I've ever seen.  We watched it for 10 minutes soaring above and below us and it only flapped it's huge 9ft wingspan once!  That night back at Keith's he had 6 other couch surfers staying with him; a girl from GA and 5 girls from Poland!

The next morning we went and drove to Gooseberry Mesa which overlooks the park and went mountain bike riding.  It was our first time riding on slick rock!  It was a blast and the desert views with all the colors across the desert landscape was amazing.






















We drove a couple hours up to Bryce Canyon and walked around for an hour or so.  It was snowy and chilly there too.  The hoodoos and landscape in Bryce is incredible and very unique, but there really isn't too much to do there.  That evening we had a really cool drive through the canyons up to Capital Reef area.  There were some snow peaked mountains around the drive too.  We stayed at another couch surfer's place, Lyman.  He had a delicious and much appreciated dinner for us when we showed up.  We toured around Capital Reef National Park.  There is a natural bridge named Hickman Bridge.  It's the coolest thing we've seen all trip.  :)

We had another few hours to drive to get to Moab.  Annie had talked with a couch surfer about staying at his place, and he told us where the key was hidden and everything we needed but he forgot to send his address!  We rolled in about 5pm, and went to a McDonalds to check to see if he'd sent it and he had not.  We sent 5 or 6 urgent messages out to other couch surfers in the area hoping to get a response then we went to a bike shop to get my chain fixed (It had broke riding in Gooseberry Mesa).  Then we went to the brewery for 15 cent wings.  Thankfully while we were there we got a call from another host and we stayed at his place.  We got a call from Sam apologizing and we ended up staying with him our second night.  That's couch surfing though.   Biking in Moab was so much fun.  We were out for 5 hours riding and hiking around the slick rock on Klondike Bluff trail.  We hiked into the back section of Arches National Park and played around on the rocks for an hour break of riding. I could have rode around for days there.  We definitely didn't have enough time! There were some technical spots and some gnarly down hill trails.  It was a blast until I got a flat tire.  That evening we hiked up to the delicate arch and watched the sunset and celebrated our journey with a bottle of champaign!  The rocks with the light from the sunset were brilliant.  It looked like the rocks themselves were giving off the light!












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