Our theme for the trip was appropriately dubbed "YOLO" (You Only Live Once).
Thursday night we ate dinner at the restaurant The Sunset Grill. It is high up on a cliff overlooking the city and is actually the home of the Uranium King Charlie Steen from the 1950's. We had a great waitress who knew a lot of local inside information. The food was simply amazing, and we watched the sun set. I especially enjoyed the time we had to just be with Seth's parents to visit with. It was pretty expensive, but YOLO!
We walked through town looking through the shops and found some cute shirts for the kids. We went into a pottery shop that had the most expensive things I've ever seen! That was just packed on tables and would be a serious nightmare to bring kids into. I'm surprised they don't have a bodyguard at the front of the store to make sure kids don't come in the store. There was a pot the size of a large Peanut Butter jar that was honestly $795!! I am not even kidding. Items the size of a baseball were $300+!
They were handmade and hand-painted. But I am not sure who on earth would buy something like that! We weren't feeling like we needed to buy anything there in order to fulfill YOLO.
FRIDAY! Was the day! We rented a 2013 Rubicon Jeep from Outlaw Jeep Tours from 8-6pm. And fit in 3 trails; Fins N Things, Hell's Revenge, and an off roading trail in Arches National Park. Jim, the owner of Outlaw, was seriously impressed we fit so much in! YOLO
Fin N things was a great warm up. The start of it wasn't too intense, but it was bumpy! We hiked a little to get some great views of Negro Bill Canyon. We saw lots of geckos and chipmunks. It got a little intense in a few spots, but was overall a good warm up to Hell's Revenge.
Hell's Revenge!! was definitely more intense. We weren't sure we would do it, but when we ran it past Jim at Outlaw Jeep, he had complete confidence that we could handle it. And we did it. The entrance of the trail is a ridge with drop offs on both sides. It's kind of like driving up an arch. So pretty much you are white knuckle driving from the first few feet.
"This trail is very intimidating, partially because of being near death and white-knuckled for such a long time and partially because of the name. It's not a technically challenging trail if you take bypasses, but there are no bypasses around some areas that are truly terrifying." - That sums it up pretty well.
Seth drove the majority of the time, Steve enjoyed his time behind the wheel too. Sandi and I were the #1 fans in the back. We all tried to spot a few times, but clearly Steve knew what he was doing. I'm not sure I helped Seth for one second when I tried to spot him!
We met really nice people in difficult spots that helped us through or cheered us on. Toward the end of Hell's Revenge we got stuck in the middle of a Toyota truck group. I personally felt they were a bunch of idiots who were getting their "Rock Therapy". I was getting extremely annoyed and nervous with how close they would get behind us going down very steep ridges. Or how the leader would stop only 4 car lengths away at the very bottom of a ridge to wait and watch the rest of its 9 truck group come down While we were stuck in the middle of them they wouldn't let us pass, nor could we pass. So we just sat there, for a combination of 2 hours. Finally we got to a part where we could get past them. Can you tell I'm still bothered with their lack of etiquette?
I may have been screamish the majority of the time; Closing my eyes, and reminding myself to breathe. And I may have had an emotional breakdown in Seth's arms when we safely went back over the ridge entrance. We lost the exit route and it's not like there are signs anywhere. I kept trying to YOLO it, but was just very relieved when we were done.
Seth is my hero though. I would go again, I just need more experience. I hope we get to go again!
Arches - we off roaded to the Marching Men arches. And hiked up to a balancing rock (not THE balancing rock). At the very end of the trail it was a very intense rock climb down to the paved road. A Nice cherry on top to the intense parts of the day!
We washed and filled up the jeep. Returned it with no problem and headed back to the hotel. Steve wasn't feeling well (serious dehydration). But after some food, gatorade, and a shower he was feeling a lot better. We went swimming while he rested. It was such a beautiful evening, we really had perfect weather the whole time!
Saturday - We drove around Arches for a few hours and hung out at the Visitor's Center a while. On our way out of town we found some pictographs, ghost town, and abandoned mine. It was really fun to explore!
Happy Birthday Seth! Happy Graduation Seth! We thoroughly enjoyed our Moab getaway and Steve & Sandi's Company. Cannot wait to do it again!
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