Utah: Adventure in Moab (Part 2)

Welcome to part 2 of our quick trip to Moab! If you haven’t already, head over to part 1 of this trip to catch up. We last left off having spent the day exploring Arches National Park and then treating ourselves to some food from a restaurant owned by the brother of a guide who works with Jay *exhales*. After arriving back at the campsite with full bellies, and after having good conversations with our neighbors camping in an A-frame, we drifted off to sleep.

Around 5 am the next morning I woke up to go pee and ended up staring at the stars for a half hour. The Milky Way and Orions Belt are all I could make out in the sky because 1) I don’t know too many constellations and 2) there are so many stars that it’s hard to make out anything! Around 6am I decided to go back to sleep for a bit, but as soon as I was about to fall asleep, our neighbors on the other side of us in an RV started charging their generator with their vehicle. After breathing in the vehicle’s exhaust for a half hour and listening to the noise of the generator, I decided to go ask them if they could charge later. The woman in the couple politely said sorry and promptly turned it off. The man in the couple started to have a temper tantrum about having the right to charge his generator whenever he wanted. He thankfully agreed to charge the generator that night instead of the starting it back up that morning, but what was funny about this situation, is that later in the morning the man apologized and later that night even offered us a beer.

For the day, we decided to try doing the rocky drive down the Potash Rd. to Canyonlands National Park in the Crosstrek. The man in the RV couple had said that we could easily do it. The road was definitely drivable in the Crosstrek…at a very slow pace. It took us several hours to get to the sign saying you’ve entered in to the National Park, and that was only at 5 miles of the 18 miles until the main road in to the park. We thought long and hard about whether to continue or to head back and rent a Jeep for the next day to have a more enjoyable, less lengthy, off-road drive into the park. We decided renting a Jeep would be the wiser option, so we headed back into town and went to Jenn’s Jeeps Rentals- most affordable in Moab- to inquire about a rental. They were off to lunch so we left to go explore and then come back later. Because it felt so hot- even though it was only 75 degrees- we went in search of some water to splash around in.

Jay found a trail up Mill Creek to a water fall so we did a short hike. The creek winds its way down a canyon so for part of the hike you can actually walk up the creek while the canyon walls tower over you. Once at the waterfall you can walk into a shallow pool that seems to have carved a bowl into the surrounding rock. We saw a few people walking on the rock above the waterfall, so we went in search of a way to climb up. Once up on top of the waterfall you get a gorgeous view of the canyon with the sound of water splashing into the pool below- very peaceful. We spent a while gazing at the water and canyon, cooling off in the water, and relaxing. Eventually we had to make our way back to the car and make our way back over to Jenn’s Jeep Rentals to rent a jeep!

The second we walked in to the office kittens came running! Renting the Jeep was something Jay really wanted to do so I let him do all the deciding while I played with the kittens the whole time. They were only 6 weeks old, brother and sister, but completely different. Female cats can have several different partners, so their kittens can come out as different mixed breeds. That being said, one kitten was a male orange tabby while the other was a female calico kitten. For probably an hour they took turns curling up on my lap or lying down on the concrete floor getting belly pets. These two were the sweetest kittens I’ve ever met, and it’s most likely because they interact with customers on a regular basis. This interaction is proof that not all cats are standoffish, mean, and don’t like getting petted, so let’s drop the stereotype!

Eventually all the paperwork was completed so we transferred what we needed for that night and the next day to the Jeep and made our way back to the campsite. We made dinner that night and then spoke with our neighbors about teaming up to do the Potash Rd. and Shafer Canyon Rd. after they noticed the Jeep and showed interest! They have a more capable vehicle for the terrain so they were lucky and didn’t have to rent.

Above is a sneak peak at our one day adventure in the 2020 Jeep Wrangler that will be covered next week! The days on this trip were so much more eventful than our California trip since we only had 3 full days to explore around Moab vs. the 7 full days we had in California so I guess it has now turned into a 3 part overview! Thanks for reading about our second day in Moab, see you next week.

Mahalo and Kia Ora!