NP Trippin' Day 2 !!!

Day two in Moab started out pretty early.  I got up a little earlier to shower and soon enough we were packed up and headed out the door around 6.  Us St. George girls came across a slight obstacle... our car had been iced over.  Luckily it didn't take too long to scrape it off with some student ID's. We were able to make it to the Delicate Arch trailhead around 6:50 and as we were getting ready to get out of the car we realized it was a whopping 5 degrees. Yikes. We were all dressed in the warmest gear we had, but we probably should've packed a little bit more.  For the record our phones said it would be 25 degrees which wouldn't have been that bad, but they were terribly wrong.  We started on the snow covered trail.  For the most part it was old crunchy snow and not too icy but on the way back shawnee slipped...twice. Anyways after the mile or so hike we popped out around this rock to see this beautiful arch lit up by the sunrise. SO COOL!  As I researched this place in preparation for this trip, there were so many article that said sunset was pretty but hundreds of people are at sunset.  Sunrise on the other hand is just as beautiful but there were only about 6 people when we got there.  And all those people were gone with in 20 minutes so there was a time when we had the Arch ALL TO OURSELVES WHAT?! so worth the early morning and freezing hike. We chilled at the arch for about an hour, just enjoying life and the amazing surroundings. 

Hiking under the moonlight. 

iPhone didn't do too bad.

Trying to get warm in the sun, while enjoying the view. 

After shawnee slipped we decided we better be a little more careful.

On our way back to the car we noticed the snow looked furry... not sure why this happened but it looks super pretty. We also stopped at some petroglyphs which were awesome but our fingers were too numb that we didn't want to take a picture. We finally got back to the car and thawed out.  We drove around and saw sand dune arch and skyline arch.  Then we parked and hiked up to balanced rock.

Such cliche pictures but I had to.  I was super pumped for the next stop... Double Arches! So the double arches were actually formed from a pond of water that ate away at the top of the rock rather than regular erosion from the side, kinda cool eh?  They were so pretty and we were able to climb all over the rocks and spend some good time there. There was even a crow that I swear almost ate us.  He came so dang close to us it was insane, but we made it out alive. 

In the background you can kinda see the "windows" of arches. 

Team work makes the dream work :)

The descent.

Lex wanted a picture of her in front of the arches so to get the perfect angle I had to lay in the sand. Whatever it takes to get a cool picture haha. As we were hiking to the arches it was about 10 am and we needed to be checked out of our hotel by around 11 so we were planning on leaving the park around 10:30. Well as we were messing around and having fun we checked the time and it was about 10:40 so we ran back to the car (the most running I've done in weeks) and sped back to the hotel. Successfully checked out of our first ever hotel. 10/10 recommend the Adventure Inn. We spent a little bit looking through some local shops and I bought some pins to add to my collection. Then we were off to the next and final spot... the hot springs. We drove a couple hours on the freeway and once we got close to Meadow we decided to ask siri how to get to the hot spring, but as usual siri was not very reliable.  She got us to the springs but took us the back way through a random field of cows.  We had to use this four wheeler trail that Im still wondering how siri even thought it was a road.  I was praying that we could make it out alive.  I thought for sure our car was gonna get stuck or be ruined.  We got as far as we could and then walked the next 400 meters to the springs. They were nice and warm and plenty of people were there. Siri was nice to everyone else and took them to the parking lot but oh well we had a more memorable experience. We relaxed and swam around for an hour or so.  Shawnee even tried slack lining over one of the ponds. Wish I could post the video on here, its hilarious. 

Our heads look somewhat detached from our bodies but oh well. 

And I promise we aren't naked. 

Deep Diving

After changing into warm clothes and having a stressful time trying to get back out of the field we made it safely back to I-15.  The car might have made some sketchy noises at first but it ran just fine. I just hope alexis's parents never read this because they aren't supposed to know about that whole deal. whoops.  So glad we were able to pull this off and visit a little more of utah.  Best way to start off the year amirite?  Also for memory sake throughout the trip we switched drivers, but as I was sitting in the back with the snacks, alexis would ask me to pass up her deer jerky and a pepsi. I kid ya not, she downed 2 full bags of jerky and around 12 cans of pepsi in 2 days.  I would hand her a pepsi and twenty minutes later she would ask for another one. She loves her pepsi. Good times.  2018 has already been such a treat and Im pumped for what else it has to offer.  Ill be honest Im dying to go back to school.  This break has been nice but way too long, im ready to go back to having a routine.  My brothers, not so much. This next semester will be harder than last but I'm always down for a challenge.