Vegas, Zion, & Arches


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North America » United States » Colorado » Glenwood Springs
September 25th 2012
Published: September 25th 2012
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Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay in between the last blog entry and this. We were going to update after leaving Vegas, but figured we didn't have enough to make it a decent blog entry. So, when we last left you off, we were making the drive to Vegas. We made it there easily within the 5 hours we expected. We booked a room at the Tropicana before we left our motel that morning, looking at the best deals we could find. I wanted to stay on the Strip, since we wanted to make sure we could walk to wherever we decided to go.

We got to Vegas at about 4pm and checked in. We spent some time in our room getting ready, then left to try to find a decent dinner. We stopped at a bar in the lobby to get our bearings, and decided to throw a quarter in the slots, hoping the rest of the trip would be paid for immediatly after. It wasn't, but we did end up $5, which for us was fantastic! We headed across the way to the MGM Grand where we had dinner at Wolfgang Puck, where I had a prociutto pizza that was to die for. We continued on our way down the strip, and watched a car almost kill about 15 cyclists. We were stunned by the lights and were really excited to be out and about. We kept working our way down, stopping at the Flamingo for a drink, then on to the the fountains at the Bellagio and Treasure Island, where we went to Gilly's (a country bar). We watched some people line dance and ride a mechanical bull. We ended up geting in free to a club nearby called Ink, where we meet a group of guys from Jersey who seriously reminded us of the members of Jersey Shore. We danced for a bit, then left to walk back down to the strip. We ended up geting a cab back to our hotel as it was getting a bit late, then met some members of a bachelor party and some really interesting British people. We had an absolute blast, and will find our way back to Vegas at some point. Nothing but a great time.

The next morning we got up and packed our things and put our bags in the car. We went down to the pool and spent the mroning and part of the afternoon actually taking the time to do some swimming and relax. It was nice to take some time out from sitting in the car. We left at about 2 or 3 pm and drove out close to Zion National Park, which was pretty close over the border from Nevada, in Utah. We spent the night at a motel, and got plenty of sleep. We were all ready to head into Zion the next day. We got to Zion at around 11 am, and the rangers told us the campground was full, but managed to find us a group camping spot nearby. Zion has been the only park we've been to so far that has a tram system, so we spent the day riding around the park and taking short hikes around to see the sights. We saw Weeping Rock, where rain that falls on the top of the rock is squeezed through all the layers of rock below it, until the pressure builds up so much it comes out on one side. It was another amazing sight. We walked down into some slot canyons and waded in a few creeks. There were a lot of people there, including a number of Germans, which made Ang very happy. We looked at Hanging Gardens and the Emerald Pools. We saw some baby deer and got back to the campsite when the sun had already set behind the cliffs that surround the area. We didn't have any wood, so we sat around the lantern and read until going to bed. We listened to some screechy teenage girls giggle for a long time, and had car lights in and out of the tent at all hours. Not a great night's sleep, but at least it wasn't cold. We left there and made the drive to Moab, Utah where Arches National Park is.

We looked for a motel in the area, but everything was booked, or really expensive. We ended up at another KOA in Moab. About 20 minutes after we arrived, we had just finished getting the tent up and a sand storm came out of nowhere. The tent, car, and us were all overwhelmed by the amount of sand blowing us over. Ang hung onto the tent while I tried to get everything thrown back into the car. Sand covered EVERYTHING!. After that stopped, we staked the tent and finally did some laundry. While it was drying, we went to dinner at a BBQ joint nearby where we could watch the Patriot's game. It was the first Pats game we got to see on the road so far, and even though it had such a disappointing ending, it was good to finally watch one. We made it back to the campground, and went to pick up our laundry. I saw a younger couple sitting out front of the office, and Ang picked up that they were speaking German. So we ended up hanging out with the two of them (brother and sister from the southeast of Germany) for a little while. Ang got to practice her German, and I got to have the exact same conversation with them in English. They were really nice and interesting and it was great getting to spend the time we did with them. They came to our campsite this morning and had breakfast with us, and we all exchanged information so we could keep in touch. We all left along our way, into Arches National Park.

Arches was one of the most beautiful sights so far. I know I keep saying that, but it's really hard to compare one place to the next. We drove through, stopping to take short hikes through different rock and sand formations and cliffs. Balancing Rock and Delicate Arch were beautiful and the Windows were stunning. We took a few hours getting through and took our time walking around. There was a thunderstorm moving through the area as we were, so seeing lightning flash around these formations was even more amazing. We left the park as the storm was getting a bit worse, and strangely enough, saw the largest amount of rain since we had since we were in Canada, while we were in the desert. We left the park and drove for a few hours into Colorado, and found a motel here, just outside of Aspen. We're going to head there in the morning to walk around and do some sightseeing. We're going to try to make it to New Orleans for Friday. Hope you all are doing well again, and not missing us too much 😊 We'll update again soon. Take care!

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27th September 2012

Arches sounds so cool! I loved reading about the sandstorm and the German friends you invited for breakfast! Please continue to enjoy and be very careful! May God bless you with more wonderful experiences and safe happy trails! All my love and tons of hugs and kisses!

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