The Epic Loop

So I'm really bad at blogging... About 2 months ago Matt and I went on an epic journey through Southern Utah. We began in Logan of course and made our way to Bryce Canyon. We got there around dinner time and saw just about everything we wanted to see that night. We camped there then headed to our next destination, which was basically right there in Bryce Canyon, but was called Fairyland canyon. It was pretty sweet, everything was all pinkish and pretty. Don't you love how I'm standing in the picture??

Anyhow, on with the trip. We then headed to Grosvenor's Arch, which was really cool too. We met a old blue bird there while we were eating lunch. You could tell it was used to humans and their food. It got way close to us. Matt spilled a few crumbs and some water and the little guy just came right up and got what he wanted.

We then headed toward Cafe Creek falls, but along the way we picked up some hitch hikers. I wish we had a picture of them. They had been hiking for about 40 days!! They were all burly and bearded and really smelly. We gave them a lift to the closest city and good thing it was close, because seriously they reeked! So we make it to Cafe Creek falls camp ground and we were planning on camping there that night...but the sign said it was full and there were a ton of other people there trying to get spots too. Long story short we got super lucky and the first site we walked to was actually open!! Hooray for us! So once we had a site we started our way to the falls. It was a really pretty hike. On the way there we got caught in the rain and had to take cover under some trees. We eventually made it to the falls and I was freezing, but it was totally worth it. The Fall was beautiful!! That night we made another animal friend. A mouse kept coming up by our feet while we were sitting by the fire. I'm not really scared of mice, I have had pet ones before, but just not knowing where it was or seeing it very well made me a little jumpy.

So on to the next day. We then headed to a place called Devils Garden. It just had a bunch of cool rocks and arches and things to climb up in. It also had some nice soft sand go sit in. After that we made our way to Neon Canyon to hike to the Golden Cathedral. We had to go on a crazy ride to get there, but our good old Subaru got us there. We crawled over huge rocks and even had to go through a small river! So we begin our hike, which we are supposed to have maps and compasses and really good hiking skills...but we don't have any of these things and do it anyway. We had to climb down this rock wall and then we walked through the desert pretty much. Our main guide was this big huge boulder in the distance and the little rock fixtures on the way. Eventually we stopped seeing the little fixtures, but we still kept going. After what seemed like forever we made it to a cliff basically. We didn't know where we were supposed to go until we look over across this big gorge and see a trail on the other side going down into the canyon. By this point I was kind of done. I like to hike and all, but I was tired. It was only supposed to be like a 8 mile hike or something, but it turned into much, much more. Matt convinced me to keep going so we back tracked quite a ways and made it down to where we were supposed to and then after crossing the river 3-4 times we finally made it to the Golden Cathedral. We sat there and ate peachies and peanuts until we thought we could head back. Oh and the Cathedral was awesome! And the walls in the canyon really were Neon! ha oh and funny story. We found a toad on the way in an Matt picked it up but then it jumped out of his hands and when it hit the ground it peed on him. I had never seen anything like it. Very, very strange. I think it was a defense mechanism or something. So we eventually make it out of the canyon right before it gets dark. Lucky us we didn't have a flash light with us. We camped that night just right there at the start of that hike. By this night I am exhausted and hating camping. I can handle a night or 2, but 3 and 4 I begin to dislike it. I have a issue with sleeping in sleeping bags and basically anywhere that's not my home. So needless to say I did not sleep much this whole trip.

But, onward we went anyways. The next day we kind of took it easy and stopped at Capital Reef Park and laid around in our hammock. Don't you like how close it is to the ground? We took a nap there and saw lots of deer. It was strange to see deer so close. After that we found a flowery meadow where I wanted to frolic in... it's been a dream of mine to skip and frolic through a flowery meadow, I don't know why. It looked a lot more full of flowers from the road, but it was still fun.

That night we made it to Natural Bridges. Matt had found out that at this place you could see the best night skies ever! We found spot on the side of the road...camp site was full...we set an alarm for 2 am so we could wake up when the moon went down. And oh wow!! It was so amazingly beautiful and fantastic. You could see the whole milky way and just so so many stars!! Matt saw a ton of shooting stars and I for one did not. I'm not good at seeing them for some reason. I totally recommend going there just for the stars! but the bridges were cool too. We hiked down to one of the bridges and found some Indian Paintings. I liked this one because it looked like a pregnant mom (she kind of looks like big bird) and a happy family! I don't know I just liked it.

Last, but not least we went to Mule Canyon on a short hike to see the House on Fire, which is some Indian Ruins. They were really cool and only a mile hike in. We found lots of hand prints too. We then headed back through Moab (didn't go to Arches this time though) and got some Pizza Hut and went home. Enjoy the many pictures from our Epic Trip!!

Bryce Canyon

Fairyland Canyon

Grosvenor's Arch

Escalante's Visitor Center

Cafe Creek Falls

Devil's Garden (Escalante)

Neon Canyon - Golden Cathedral

Capital Reef National Park

Natural Bridges

Mule Canyon - House on Fire Ruins