Sunday, October 23rd – Friday, October 28th
I arrived in Salt Lake City knowing little more than it was founded by Mormons and it was supposed to be pretty there. I came away with distinctly mixed feelings; there are a ton of fun places to eat and drink, so much neat nature nearby, a scary lack of diversity and a surprising number of homeless people. Also inversion. It’s a strange city.
Sunday, October 23rd
After learning about the Fremont Indians the day before, I’d heard there was nearby “9 Mile Canyon” where you could see petroglyphs. It was a wide detour, and the signs were a bit vague about about exactly how much was gravel road vs. paved. Perfect!
Saturday, October 22nd
The trip from Moab up to Salt Lake City is easily done in a day, but for wandering’s sake I planned a night between the two. On the map Price seemed the largest city between the two, so I booked a night there and proceeded to have the same conversation on multiple phone calls.
“Yeah, I’ll be spending Saturday night at Price.” “Oh, you’re visiting Bryce?”
I took two trips outside the park while I was staying in Moab, one to hike a trail to Corona and Bowtie Arches and another to Dead Horse Point State Park, a park which takes longer to say than to explore.
Monday morning I woke up and got to work. At this point I was pretty used to the two hour time difference, I get up a few minutes before 6am, then log in and work until lunch. This lets me take a quick shower without waking up my hosts. After a while on Monday I noticed light coming through the blinds and opened the shade.
Up on the hills next to Grand Junction was my second opportunity to use my National Parks Pass: the beautiful Colorado National Monument!
Continue reading “Colorado National Monument (and how not to get to Moab)”
It was late afternoon when I arrived in Grand Junction, so I headed out to find myself a meal. It looked like there might be a small downtown and, sure enough, they had a fun few blocks of shops and restaurants. I had a surprisingly good time in Grand Junction. I had no idea about the town before I showed up so it was a pleasant surprise.
After I left Denver I headed West, towards Moab. I left Friday night (October 14th), and had a beautiful drive through the mountains, ending up in Vail.
Denver is definitely my favorite city of the trip so far, I had a great time there and managed a little bit more exploring in my second week. Robin and Kevin also returned and it was great to hang out with them a bit more before heading off into the mountains.
I had a nice calm day planned for Sunday. I’d go downtown, visit the Denver Botanic Garden, maybe swing by Union Station and then head home to get some overdue picture and blog posting done.
That was the plan.