Moab, utah

​We’ve been talking about taking the boys to explore the national parks in Moab, Utah for a while and decided this was the year to do it! We flew a quick hour and a half flight to Salt Lake City, picked up a rental car and drove 3.5 hours to Moab. About halfway there, we stopped in a town called Price for a quick lunch at Tangerine Eatery. They happened to have like 15 flavors of frozen yogurt and the boys obviously had to try some! They said it was the best frozen yogurt we’ve ever had – if you’re ever there, highly recommend the Dutch fudge with Kit-Kat chunks! (Tyson recommends adding a few Nerds too.)

​We arrived at Moab Springs Ranch, a nice quaint resort of townhouses and rustic stand-alone cabins. Once we checked into our cabin, of course the boys got straight into their swimsuits and headed to the pool. They were having fun doing cannon balls and front flips off the side of the pool. I’m sure the adults trying to relax were just loving that! Some of the adults actually found a corner of the pool and had a floating plastic container they were using to play a dice game, drink beer and eat chips and salsa, lol. 

After a few hours at the pool, it was time to head into town to have dinner at Il Posto Rosso. We weren’t sure we’d get in since it was a Friday night and didn’t have a reservation, but we ended up having the place to ourselves. Sweet! We got to sit at the cozy corner couch table that had fluffy sheepskin pillows. I had a tasty smoked chicken dish that I shared with Tyson, Marshall had a fancy risotto and Wesley had ramen with a soft-boiled egg on top. All our dishes were amazing and the drinks were great too! Highly recommend!

Once we wrapped up dinner, we drove over to Arches National Park for an evening adventure of seeing all the natural arch formations in the petrified sand dunes. We stopped at a few scenic spots on our way to the Windows area which is known for the most beautiful arches in the park. We explored various arches including Turret Arch and Southern Arch. Wesley was enjoying venturing off the trail and climbing up the rocks. Tyson seemed to be more tired and lagging behind, but still champed it up and smiled for pictures and did all the hikes with us. It was getting pretty late and we were all exhausted from waking up so early so we headed back to our hotel to crash.

The following morning, we started our day with coffee and pastries at Moab Coffee Roasters. They have some bomb mocha frappes! We had a half day canyoneering tour planned that started at 8am, so we headed over to Lions park to meet our tour guide. Once he pulled up, we hopped in his off-roading SUV and headed several miles down a dirt road to the starting point of our tour.
 
Without any instruction, just a waiver signing away our lives, we got strapped into some climbing gear and a helmet and began by hiking up steep rocks (without climbing ropes) to get to the point that we needed to use ropes to get to the peak of Cable arch. I went first to show the boys (and Marshall) how it’s done. I got about half way up the 80 ft rockface and couldn’t for the life of me find any place to grip my hands or feet on. I yelled to the guide at the top if he could pull me up the rest of the way. He just laughed and said, “not really”. Darn! Although I was a little scared of slipping, I eventually made my way up to the peak. Wesley went after me and flew up the rock in seconds like it was nothing. Tyson briefly got stuck in the same spot I did but figured out how to maneuver his way up. And of course, Marshall climbed up with no issue (My hero).
 
Once we were at the top of the peak it was time to repel down. We couldn’t see our path down as it was a sheer cliff. Yikes! The boys were a little afraid to repel down, but we kept reaffirming them that they are perfectly safe as the guide had a second rope that he could control. Gotta say though, it was HIGH and we were all a bit nervous never having done this before and with literally a 30 second lesson on how to not let go of a rope while you’re self-repelling down the side of an 80 FOOT CLIFFSIDE. Marshall went first so he could test out the line and made it down pretty quickly. Then Tyson repelled down super fast l
champ. So far, so good!
 
Until….it was Wesley’s turn. Since he is super lightweight, it was more difficult for him to repel down because your weight helps the rope more easily slide through the belay. At one point when he was about to go over the largest ledge that leads to a sheer drop off and overhang, we were all telling him to lean back. If you don’t lean back far enough, you can slip and your face hits the wall. Not fun! He started to lean back but leaned too far back and ended up upside down. Uh oh! Wesley was terrified as he was still high up and staring headfirst at the ground ~ 60 ft below. I couldn’t see him but could hear how scared he was. Marshall was talking to him from the ground and he calmed down pretty quickly and put his trust in our guide. Our guide had never seen that happen before but knew exactly how to help. He loosened the slack of one of the lines so that Wesley could get his feet gripped against the cliff. Then he could repel down the rest of the way. Wow, what a feat! I was so impressed with the boys for having the courage to challenge themselves on this mission and conquered it!
 
The hard part was over and it was time to head back toward the car. We took a slightly different route down than the way we came. Along the way we saw some pictographs dating back a couple thousand years. So cool! We drove back down the long dirt road to Lions Park to pick up our car and then headed to our next hotel Hoodoo Hilton.

​We all changed into our swimsuits and headed straight to the pool. They only had a couple lounge chairs with umbrellas and luckily there was a spot available as it was over 90 degrees out. We ordered a delicious lunch pool side and enjoyed some relaxation.

​Later that afternoon we headed into town to check out downtown Moab. We came across Moab Food Truck Park that had all kinds of things like pizza, tacos, ice cream and shaved ice. Tyson noticed that the shaved ice truck had 50 flavors and the boys just had to try some. The smallest kid size was ginormous!  Tyson’s flavors were tigers blood (coconut, strawberry, watermelon), Hawaiian Punch, and cherry cola. Wesley had tigers blood, blue raspberry and cream soda. They were in heaven!
 
We continued walking along the main drag to check out all the little shops. The boys found a bookstore and picked out a couple new books to read. I found a cute skirt to wear to dinner that night. Once the boys were shopped out, we stopped back by the food truck park to pick up dinner for the boys to take back to the room. Marshall and I figured it would be a good night for us to have a date night while the boys enjoyed a movie in the room.
 
Every trip we let the rope out a little further with the boys. They are super good together and have respected every inch we’ve given them. We walked down the street to a restaurant called Desert Bistro that had a native American vibe. We weren’t super hungry so just shared a salad and chicken dish with a flavorful fruit and vegetable medley. Its always nice to squeeze in a little bit of alone time and the boys love having some free time. They literally didn’t move from their beds/iPads since we’d left and couldn’t believe how fast a half hour can pass, lol.

The next morning we were excited to explore Canyonlands National Park! We grabbed coffee and a quick breakfast and headed 40 minutes over to the park. I realized halfway there that I forgot to wear my sneakers and only had the sandals I was wearing. Dang it! Our plan was to explore the section of the park called Island in the Sky which is said to be the most scenic portion of the park. We stopped at nearly every scenic overlook on the way to Mesa Arch.
 
We got the last parking spot at Mesa Arch and hiked the short distance down to see the arch. It’s the most popular viewpoint at the park so everyone was waiting their turn to take pictures under the arch. There was a short wall next to the arch that has a sheer cliff on the other side that’s gotta be at least 1000+ drop. There were some crazy people including a family with a young kid standing up on the arch for a picture. I was nearly hyperventilating watching them pose and hoping they didn’t misstep. Seriously people?!?
 
We checked out a few more scenic overlooks, and then the boys were ready to head back. Tyson had been having a lot of ear pain since we’d been in Moab so wasn’t really feeling himself the last couple days. When we got back to Moab, I dropped Marshall and Wesley off at the hotel and drove Tyson over to Urgent care which was conveniently located right behind our hotel. After waiting an hour, we finally saw the doctor who informed us Tyson had swimmer’s ear. She put an ear wick in his ear and sent us on our way. Unfortunately it made Tyson’s ear hurt even more so he wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening in the hotel room. 

​To cheer Tyson up a bit that evening, Wesley and I went out to get ice cream at La Michoacana Artisan. They had some unique flavors we’d never seen. Tyson requested blueberry marshmallow brownie and cookie monster. Wesley stuck with the basics and had strawberry and chocolate. I held Tyson’s cone by the AC vent as I was driving back to the hotel in 100 degree heat hoping it wouldn’t just be a melted blob by the time he got it. Luckily it only required a few licks to make it there still frozen.
 
Since the boys wanted to rest in the room again, Marshall and I decided to sneak in another quick date night. We enjoyed Il Posto Rosso so much on the first night, we decided to go back for round two. Instead of the smoked chicken, I ordered the ramen that Wesley had. So tasty! Marshall had brisket tacos that were on point. When we got back to the room, the boys again, literally hadn’t moved and all we heard when the door handle turned was ‘AWWW MAN, already?!’ Sorry kiddos, maybe in a few years we’ll let you have a full evening…we’d welcome it too, trust us! 

Our last morning in Moab, we started with a yummy pancake breakfast at Jailhouse Cafe. The boys had Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce, I had ginger pancakes with apple butter, and Marshall had a Spanish chorizo dish. Yum! Afterward we made a quick pit stop at Lions Park for one last pic before starting our four hour journey to Park City for part two of our Utah trip.

​Moab was quite the adventure! We only scratched the surface of the many outdoor activities offered in this town. It’s definitely a great family vacation destination!
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Next Stop: Park City, Utah