Moab? Where’s that?

• 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a wide variety of friends who always take me on adventures!  And when you have friends who love adventure and they know that I’m always up for adventures, they also know that they will be able to convince me to do just about anything!

A few years ago, I was heading out to Colorado to visit my dear friends.  A few weeks prior to me heading out, they sent me a text saying, “You want to go to Moab?”  I said “Ummmm…yeah!”  Then of immediately followed up with “Wait…where is Moab?”  Needless to say, that was the beginning of a great adventure! Don’t all great adventures start with not knowing what you are agreeing too?

So for those of you who have never heard of Moab, it’s in Utah, and it’s BEAUTIFUL!  It’s also where Arches National Park is located!  First off, the drive from Denver out to Moab was amazing!  We drove West on 70 and going in and out of the mountains, the views and the trees made it for an amazing drive for the next 5-6 hours that it took us to get out there! 

Did I mention that we were going to camp in Moab?  Now when I say camp, what do you think of?  Well when my friends Brian and Lindsey say camp, they mean old school camping, no running water, no electricity, no showers or anything!  So when we were pulling up to the campsite and Brian says, as we are pulling in “Oh look, we will stay here, this one has amenities.”  I secretly got excited because now I thought that amenities meant that we would have running water, nope, wrong again!  When he said “amenities for bathrooms” he meant a pre-dug hole with a bucket on top and four walls around it! 

• 

• 

So that night we started set up camp and started the bonfire so we can start to cook our dinner.  While doing so we also experienced some uncharacteristic weather events that night as well!  Setting up the tent and getting the fire going proved to be a little challenging because of the very high winds we were experiencing.  But needless to say, we went with the flow and got it all set up!

And here we have our home for the next few nights! If you are looking for a tent, I highly suggest going with the Coleman 8 person tent. It withstood major winds that night and was still standing just like the below picture the next morning. Now we did put two air mattresses in there to make it a little more comfy. They made a world of difference in getting a comfortable nights sleep, especially now that they have these plush air mattresses that blow up in no time at all. They make it so comfortable staying in a tent. Everyone needs time away and to just refresh and this makes it so easy and comfortable.

As for dinner, that was another story, it took us about 3 hours to cook a baked potato, why you ask?  Because of the high winds AND the downpours that happened randomly that evening!  Once we got some dinner we headed to bed for the evening.  And this is what our dinners looked like!  Filling, healthy and amazing! We even had dessert! We brought a dutch oven and filled it with a peach cake and it was delicious! If I remember correctly, it was a can of peaches and a box of cake mix all mixed together and put it over the fire! How easy! If you read any of my other post, you know how I feel about my cast iron! And when you can take it outside and cook in it over the fire AND make dessert, even better!

The next day after getting up and starting the fire so we could make our morning coffee and breakfast, we decided to go exploring! We made coffee over the fire with this percolator coffee pot. After that we went and rented a Jeep and went on a trail called “Top of the World”. That was another adventure to get to the top of the trail, but let me tell you, what an amazing ride up to the top! It took us a few hours, but it was so worth it when we got there. We had to maneuver and climb up different rocks in the jeep. But once we got up there, it was well worth the trip! Here is a picture of the three of use on the “Top of the World”. You could see forever! Being able to sit up there and just look out and enjoy what an amazing place on earth this is was just what I needed at this time! We were able to have a picnic lunch and of course some drinks while taking in the breath-taking views.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Now getting back down was another adventure and it took just as long and intense as it was getting up there! 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

What an amazing day that was!

Then the next day, we went to explore Arches National Park.  Seeing some of these amazing formations that were handmade by mother nature over time was another experience in it’s self!  Being in the middle of these settings, make you realize how amazing and powerful mother nature can be!  But also, realizing that things don’t just happen over night, it takes time to build beauty! 

Check out some of these pictures! 

Needless to say, after a few days of “roughing it” and using baby wipes to clean up with, I was ready for a nice hot shower!

If you have never been to Moab or to Arches National Park, you need to add this to your bucket list!  It was such an amazing trip and yes, they do have hotels there you can stay in, you don’t have stay under the stars, but I will say, if you get the chance to, I would!  It was so peaceful at night to look up to see so many millions of stars in the sky and no lights or towns anywhere near by!

Just like in life, remember, building a beautiful life doesn’t happen overnight, just like mother nature didn’t build this beautiful earth that we live on overnight, it takes time and work!  Do what you love and ALWAYS love what you are doing! 

Let me know about your adventures!