Salt Lake City

On our last day in Utah we spent the day exploring Salt Lake City, but before we left Provo we stopped for Kolaches at Hruska's. Fun to try out a spin on a doughnut from eastern Europe. We ate them too fast to take a picture!

We did some drive by touring of Salt Lake City - seeing the Grand American Hotel, Masonic Temple. Cathedral of Madeliene, & the State Capital. We checked out Gilgal sculpture garden. We parked and walked around Temple Square and were amazed by all the Mormon buildings around downtown and we also walked over to Vivint Arena, We ended the downtown tour at Crown Burgers for lunch. 

One of the Mormon buildings

An old Train depot

the boys with John Stockton & Karl Malone (Jazz icons)

We made a drive out to Antelope island to check out Great Salt Lake. The lake was low so the walk to the water was pretty far across the beach. The boys spent some time skipping rocks.

Me, mom & Gavin

Buffalo on Antelope Island

Me & Mom overlooking Great Salt Lake

We refreshed after our visit to Antelope Island with a stop at FIIZ Drinks. Where they mix sodas into all sorts of flavors - fun and yummy!

Arches & off to Provo

 We got our breakfast to go in the morn and made an early start for Arches. No lines! Found a parking spot for our first hike, but by the time we got to the Delicate Arch there was no room in the parking lot at the trail head. We were done at Arches by about 10 AM and then headed out towards Provo.

Start of the trail to Landscape arch, it was cold & windy.

The boys finally started in shorts and soon regretted it.

This is Landscape Arch, I think it was supposed to Delicate Arch, but some map maker made an error many years ago and it's still Landscape Arch today.

Tunnel Arch

A drive by arch

Delicate Arch - the arch seen on the Utah license plate.

Pretty drive to Provo and way less unnerving than previous days drives. We made a stop in Price, UT for a Dinosaur Museum and lunch. Then made a quick stop at Bridal Veils Falls outside of Provo before finding some ice cream and then the hotel. After a short rest at the hotel, we found some KFC and a park to enjoy supper.

Bridal Veils Falls

They got the teeter totter to balance.

Canyonlands & an Arches preview

We stayed 2 nights in Moab, UT which is located near Canyonlands NP & Arches NP. After we got into town we wandered across the parking lot for some tex-mex supper and then the boys enjoyed the pool for a while. We got a leisurely start to the day to go check out Canyonlands. As we drove by the entrance to Arches, we could see the line up to get in and decided on an early start the next morning to avoid that line. 

We found a couple little hikes to do in Canyonlands - Grand View, White Rim, Mesa Arch, & Upheaval Dome.

Mesa Arch

Mom loves arches, and the hike was short, so she made the trip.

Grand View Pt

Canyonlands didn't take us too long to explore - you could have done more if you had a 4x4 vehicle, but our van was not going to cut it.

 We took an afternoon break at the hotel and then grabbed some Wendy's before heading into Arches to see what we could see and not have to fight as many crowds in the morning. We went in to the Double Arch and explored around there. So impressively big and looked so cool with the setting sun. We could also see the North & South window arches from that parking lot.

Double Arch

Proof mom was on a hiking trail.

One of the Window Arches

A guy on top of that tall rock!

Capitol Reef

We stayed the night in Torrey near the entrance to Capitol Reef NP. No breakfast at the hotel and not much for options in the morning, so we stopped at a gas station for a breakfast that almost broke the bank and didn't impress anyone as far as nutrition went.

A nearly 1,000 ft elevation gain.

Fred, Jacob & Wyatt made it to Cassidy Arch, Gavin and I turned back after we saw it and didn't go all the way to the arch.

Cassidy Arch from where Gav & I turned around

The big draw at Capitol Reef was pie! There is an old orchard in the park and we waited at the Gifford Homestead shop for it to open AFTER lunch to get these little pies & ice cream. Yum!

We hiked to Hickman Natural Bridge, but I had tired cranky boys by then & Wyatt and Fred stayed back as Wyatt's heal was hurting. So I didn't get a good angle picture of the bridge.

Hickman Natural Bridge

After feeding mom pie for lunch, she decided she'd do some hiking with us (plus we told her it was flat). Hoping for more of a slot canyon feel on the Grand Wash Trail, we hiked a little ways before asking those coming back out if it got much narrower - it did not, so we called it good enough.

Jacob, Grandma, Me, Gavin & Wyatt

Grand Wash Trail

We found another nook!