Off the beaten path

The day started with something new to us this vacation - sleeping in (until 7:30am!) and a hot breakfast! Ha, today was kinda our "off" break day (i.e. no major hiking), so we had pancakes and sausage. The kids were vocally very excited to not be eating breakfast bars :)

We had reservations for a 4x4 tour at 8:30am, so we rushed out of the house by 8:20am! The first order of business at Moab Tour Company was signing releases (duh :) ) and getting fit for helmets. The young girls each got pink helmets, which I am sure made Brie very happy. Our guide (Rusty) was super awesome with a smile the whole morning. He made sure that we knew how to work our 4x4's and we were off to the races!

It was just our group and one other couple on  the tour, so four total 4x4's. Also, let me preface everything that happened the rest of the day with this: I had NO IDEA what to expect when we made these reservations. I was thinking (honestly, naively) that it would be a nice leisure drive on top of some scary cliffs. Well, I was partly right.....what I was NOT expecting was the speed at which we would take said cliffs/drops/turns. AH! Aaron drove and was definitely in his element. I just held on tight and clenched my teeth. Brie and Grace in the back laughed. Well, let me correct that....the first time we went fast down a hill, Brie screamed and cried. The next time, she laughed. In the end, she said it was a blast! Her and Grace had so much fun in the back seat. Noah and Josie (who were in the buggy in front of us) had fun turning around to "shoot" at us :).

The tour was three hours and did two off-road trails: Fins and Things + Hell's Revenge. The first ride was more speed, but lower heights. The second trail had more height and cliffs. So a good balance!

The weather was PERFECT the entire time - it started off super cool with a nice breeze and ended a bit hot, but not uncomfortable. Rusty was a great and fun guide. He took us fast when he knew it was okay, but slowed down when he knew it was probably safer to do so. I appreciated that :)

Below provides a glimpse of what the tour encompassed, but there is just no making up for physically being there. The steepness of the cliffs we drove up (how the heck do cars/machines make it up an almost nearly-90 degree hill?!?!) and went down just do not do the tour justice. Also I cannot describe how many rocky areas we drove over that would absolutely butcher a normal car! 

We got out of the 4x4's a few times for breaks. On one break, we got to see REAL dinosaur tracks! We also saw one cliff, the Lion's Back, which has been closed for a while because of all the dangerous accidents that happened on it, which you can google to see. On the last stop, I almost lost Aaron and Brie....I told him not to go close to the edge!

After we were finished, and I had definitely had my fill of daredevil excitement (and eaten enough sand!), we headed back and I snapped a picture of Moab off in the distance!

For lunch, we ate at food trucks! Moab has a permanent food truck "food court" with lots of yummy food. I ate at the gourmet quesadilla one! I had a delicious beef, sweet potato, onion and corn quesadilla :). 

After lunch, and after I did a little bit of shopping (there are so many cute artsy stores in downtown! Think Asheville, NC), we headed back to the unit. Now here is where our day took a bit of a detour.... so I had found blogs online talking about this "Faux Falls" waterfall near our house that is only a .5 mile hike and it has a 2-3ft pool to play in plus the waterfall. Ok, cool, we thought! Let's go! (all the while the kids begging to go to the pool....ha) Well, we drive out there, get lost, find the road, see that it is not in fact closed so yay!...we won't have to walk the .5 miles! So we drive down the sandy/rocky .5 miles (I thought I was done driving off road....). We get to the end. No trailhead sign, hm. Weird. I walk a few steps and do not see a waterfall. Well I pull up the blog and picture of the waterfall, compare it to the landscape, and the darn thing must have dried up or they otherwise cut off water to it! Grrr. lol. 

But Aaron smartly recalled that our 4x4 guide, Rusty, had recommended another creek and waterfall with cliffs to us! I looked it up on the map, and it was only 10 minutes away. We all agreed that it was doable to go check it out, so we drive out there and find the parking lot. Well, this was where things got a bit confusing again :) There was no map. There were some trails we started to follow that took us to a creek with slippery rocks, but definitely not any body of water you would jump from cliffs into. The kids were hot at this point, so we let them wade around in the rocks while Aaron took off more down the trail to explore.

After about 15 minutes, Aaron came back and told us that he had run into people on the trail who said there was an amazing waterfall just one mile down the trail, and that the trail was fairly easy to walk and only half of it in the sun. So at this point, I was tired, hot, and thinking ahead about making dinner tonight and having time to relax. For once in my life, I was the one leaning away from adventure and towards going back to the unit for pool/air conditioning! Say what?!?! haha. Thankfully, my sister-in-law Jenni picked up the slack and reminded me that swimming at a waterfall trumps having time to properly make pasta salad for dinner :) So off we went! It was a hot hike, but we got to cross the creek three times, which definitely helped cool us down. We also ran into the other couple from the 4x4 tour this morning...awesome! Finally, after probably 20 minutes of walking, we made it. And it was SUPER cool. (literally and figuratively - the water was freezing!)

(such clear water!)

(wet cold hugs!)

Aaron and Joe had a blast making it halfway up the waterfall and jumping in (brrrr!)

Jenni was BRAVER than me and slid into the water, going under! I think she said her nervous system went into shock and stopped for a half a second once she went into the ice cold water :)

After about 20-30 minutes, the kids started getting super cold, so we decided it was time to head back after a couple more pictures. 

The views on the way back were absolutely incredible. Noah and I walked together and I really enjoyed talking with him. At one point, I looked back and he was looking all around the canyon walls. I asked him what was up? All he said was "It is all very pretty." Awww! You know if a 8 year old boy can recognize how pretty something is on his own, it is probably pretty!

As soon as we got back to the unit, the kids really wanted to go swimming, so Aaron went with them to the pool while Jenni and I got dinner together. I also ended up going and getting in the pool one last time (we leave Moab tomorrow :/ ) and it was so nice. But you know what is funny about out west? As soon as you get out of the water, even though it is over 90 degrees, you get cold!! Just the smallest breeze will make you absolutely shiver. So I tried, in vain, to sit in a lounge chair in the sun after getting out of the pool, but only lasted one minute. haha. I had chill bumps all over my body even though the nearby thermostat registered around 91 degrees! It's the dry air. So I quickly made my way over to the hot tub, which felt soooo good, even in 90+ degree weather. Amazing.

For dinner we grilled out, which was a nice change of pace for our last night here. Jenni and I spent the rest of the night preparing for tomorrow, when we will try to leave here around 6:30a.m. and head to Capitol Reef National Park. We did laundry (Aaron, myself and Brie only packed about 3-4 outfits each), cleaned up, and packed everything up. The kids had a blast playing upstairs for most of the night. Based on my few views of them, it appears they were recording their voices on Brie's Vtech camera while acting out ridiculous plays/scenes that they made up :) Brie has become quite a little diva while she's "acting", haha. She can flip her hair and do a valley girl imitation. 

I am very sad that our time in Moab has already come to a close :( Vacations go too fast! I knew it would could fast, but I cannot believe we only have a little over 7 days left. It just does not seem possible! I need for time to slow down. I am going to miss our little unit (maybe I will remember to take a picture of it tomorrow morning before we leave). It has been a lot of fun staying here. But on to the next adventure....time waits for no one!

(kids eating pancakes this morning)