UTAH Part 4, May 14-21

We woke up early and well rested at the Red Cliffs Lodge. The sun was just starting to lighten up the sky, but unfortunately there was a steady rain coming down on this Tuesday morning. The covered porches both in front and on the back patio were nice to have. The fresh rain and cool morning air made the peaceful ranch smell amazing. Like most 21 year olds our daughter likes her sleep, but she also wants to watch the sun rise with us.... we let her sleep in a little while longer. I made a cup of coffee and sat on the porch wondering if the rain would let up. Our plan this morning is to visit the Arches National Park.

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My wife and I put on our raincoats and walked over to the main lodge to look around. One of the nice ladies at the front desk said it didn't rain at her house on the other end of Moab, so maybe there was a chance this seemingly persistent rain would end. I grabbed a hot cup of joe for my daughter and we returned to the room around 7am, rise and shine sweetie! We packed up our gear and made the 20 minute drive to the town of Moab. We found a nice coffee shop for another refill and a bagel sandwich.

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Just outside of town and across the Colorado River we found the entrance to the park. We saw the hotels in town that were 1 minute from the park and said that would have been convenient, but we were so thankful we chose the ranch!! With the annual parks pass we quickly made it in and started our scenic drive. By now the rain had ended and the sun was trying to coax the clouds away. The park is amazing from the minute you head up the paved mountain road. After winding up the switchbacks we reached the crest of the mountain, "BOOM, there it is!" What an incredible sight to see! Everywhere you looked were enormous red rock features, Arches and distant views that blew us away. We only had a couple of hours to spend here so we drove in as far as time would allow and started our rock scrambling. It was turning out to be a beautifully warm blue sky day!

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We hated to leave this wonderful park, but our rafting trip was scheduled at 2:30 and we wanted to hang at the ranch for a little while in between. Once back at the ranch my wife decided to run the roads, our daughter hit the computer to actually work on her internship project and I grabbed the camera looking for inspiration. If I said it once I'll say it again, there are photo-ops around every turn in Utah.

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The Adrift Rafting Company picked us up right at the lodge, nice! Once in the van we waited a few minutes for a second group of people to arrive, but they were no shows. The owner/driver of the company said he bet the other group was scared away by the morning rain. If so, it was their loss because the afternoon weather was outstanding! Less than 10 miles up the river we met our friendly guide Molly, great young lady who was taking some well earned time off before heading to grad school. We expected to hop in a smaller type raft straddling the pontoon with oars in hand, but noooo, Molly would be doing all of the rowing for us in a larger river raft, nice! She respectfully distributed the weight and placed me on the stern, ha! She was very knowledgeable of the area and better yet very skilled with the raft. We really had a relaxing raft trip. The part of the Colorado River we were on was class III, so there were only a few moderate rapid areas that were a blast! We covered half our distance and pulled ashore to a sandy beach for lunch, which they provided. We had 3 other fun guides floating with us in smaller one man rafts and they helped Molly set up a table to lay out a nice lunch of fresh cold cuts and salads. We felt very spoiled since the other group were no shows. After lunch and stacking stones we continued on our journey floating through tight cuts surrounded by the towering red canyon walls, very cool!

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At the end of our amazing 2-1/2 hour trip we didn't have to lift a finger, the guides loaded up the gear and drove us straight back to the lodge, PERFECT! The owner of Adrift said he had a restaurant in town called the Broken Oar, so we planned to have dinner there. It was still fairly early so we cleaned up and drove around a bit, actually as far as the base of snow capped La Sal National Forest!

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La Sal was almost an hour in the opposite direction of Moab, especially with having to slow for free ranging livestock! We made it back to Moab just in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset. Dinner at The Broken Oar was very good and once again we were exhausted by 10pm. Off to bed.

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To be continued............