Arches National Park

We stayed at Arches National Park on day/night two. We were hoping to camp for two nights but booking 5 months in advance was no where near early enough. I was lucky to get us a site for one night and it was literally the only site left. I would highly recommend this campground, so plan ahead and book early! There is so much to see and do in Arches, but dare I say once I saw 5 arches I felt like I saw them all. I had quite the list of things on my "to do list" while there...and I think we got to two of them. Camping at Devils Garden Campground was a total highlight and so was our hike we did on day three; Devils Garden trail out to Double O arch, passing Landscape Arch and seeing Black Arch in the distance. If we did have more time one thing I think we really would have enjoyed would be driving some of the dirt roads out to the lesser traveled parts. Finding any alone time in Arches when just off the main stretch is nearly impossible to come by!

Engagement in Moab, UT

It's hard to believe that just about a month ago Alex and I were getting on a plane for our 10 day road trip out west and hard to believe that we've now been ENGAGED for one month! Alex took me completely by surprise when he got down on one knee on day one of vacation and asked me to marry him. More on that later. 

We landed in Salt Lake City just before midnight on July 24th. After a helish ordeal with getting our rental car (luckily that was the worst part of the trip so we got that over with early!) we made our way to our hotel 30 min away in Lehi, UT. We decided to make this our first stop 1. because it would cut a little time out of our drive to Moab the next day and 2. there was a hot spring near by that we wanted to check out. 

After getting to our hotel at 2 am, what felt like 4 am to us, we were surprisingly able to get up early enough and go check out to Saratoga Hot Spring. I had learned about this spot from The Outbound. This was my first time in a hot spring so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Initial thoughts were; it's a man made hole in the ground and the ground was visibly silty and muddy. I was apprehensive at first about getting in, but the ground really wasn't that bad and the temperature was perfect to relax in. There were some logs floating which made for good seats. 

Later we hit the road for our three hour drive to Moab. One of my favorite things about this trip is while we had long days of driving, the scenery was always so amazing and constantly changing. We arrived in Moab at 3:00pm, just enough time to get to a gear store to pick up some necessities (bear spray for later in the week, propane for the jet boil and some new sandals for Alex since he forgot a pair) and do some grocery shopping. We checked into our adorable Airbnb (highly recommend if traveling to Moab) then got right back out into town to pick up our mountain bikes I had previously rented from Chile Pepper Bike Shop. They rent from 5pm until 1pm the next day for their one day rentals since it gets so hot in Moab mid day! They were super helpful and efficient with getting our bikes fitted, getting a rack on our car (which they also rent) pointing us in the right direction to beginner trails and sending us on our way. We decided to take a drive up to Dead Horse Point State Park. It's 40 minutes from Moab center, but we figured we wouldn't have another chance to get up that way.

Only about 1/2 mile into the ride we came to Great Pyramid Overlook. Alex had brought his camera and tripod so he began to set it up to take some great photos.

At this moment pictured above, I still had no idea what was about to happen. Once Alex moved the camera to a different location and was taking a really long time setting it up, my mind began to wonder. Alex hit the auto timer and ran over, I had my arm outstretched for him to stand next to me. He had a different pose in mind...

Even though my mind had begin to think "is he about to propose" nothing could have prepared me for the rush of emotions and the immediate tears that followed. Tears of pure happiness of course. All I could seem to say was "are you serious, really?!" and eventually realized I didn't even say YES, which I finally did. 

 

We stayed at the overlook for a while longer enjoying  this amazing moment with each-other. Eventually we got back on our bikes, rode to the car, grabbed some beers and rode up the road to another lookout and watched sunset.

Day 1 of vacation down and 9 more to go - only now with my Fiance by my side! Moab certainly holds a special place in my heart. It was all that I imagined, and then some. No doubt, we'll be back some day.