Our anniversary landed on a Friday this year and we had the bonus of Rob getting the day off. We were all kinds of ordinary all morning. He had some business in town and I did laundry. Later around lunchtime we went for a drive, got some lunch at the super market, and ate at a favorite park.
I insisted on Hobby Lobby for a stop and it turned out to be a lot of air conditioned fun for everyone. I scored a remnant and a sale for mere pennies. It was a better deal than a yard sale, I'm not kidding.
We later tossed around a few ideas of what to do next when we finally decided Moab at sunset would be fun to photograph. We could hike around in the cool of the evening and maybe get our feet wet.
Turns out we took our time a little too slowly as we didn't get to Moab until after sunset. Oops! But I got some nice shots along the way, and we got to have a delicious late supper at a very good, affordable restaurant.
The day ended and the next day began before we made it home. With any luck next year we can stay the night and take our time on the return. Otherwise it was a lovely day out with my little family. One to remember forever.
The back road to Moab gives an amazing view of the Colorado River canyon and Monty La Sal. We are close enough to Utah for Monty la Sal to be visible from the high points in our county.
Just into the river canyon alongside the road are ancient petroglyphs. This large slab of rock is no more than 15-20 feet off the pavement. The drawings (not including the defacement) are thousands of years old.
Looking closely you can see a herd of deer near the very top. A distant elk toward the middle right, and a busy scene at the bottom with a human figure surrounded by elk, bear, and perhaps antelope and a coyote. I want to believe the very skinny animal beside a bear is a fox. It's a magnificent example, really.
Further into the canyon and closer to la Sal the red rock buttes get more and more interesting.
The red sandstone crumbles and cracks with every freezing winter followed by every spring thaw. Washouts of red sand cover the road during heavy rains and rocks fall into and across the highway depending on their size and what height from which they've fallen.
Up Castle Creek Canyon they are surrounded by these massive sandstone buttes and towering ridges. Castle Creek is also the name of the town. It is safe to describe it as nestled in and among the mountains of eastern Utah.
The view from Castle Creek toward Monty shows the plug from the volcano that began the formation of these mountains. We have a similar volcano plug up in Crawford at the base of the West Elks called Needle Rock. Joe Cocker lives in the shadow of it, but I digress. Here is the one in Castle Creek and an aptly named road on the southwestern side.
Much of the rest of our evening was spent finding a restaurant that served food safe for Sis and her diet restrictions. We settled on the Mexican place, La Hacienda, that we'd been to before...
Located, by the way, next to perhaps the MOST awesome rock shop
I had, I am not kidding, a Monte Cristo chimichanga to die for! and a local brew called Scorpion Pale Ale. Yum!
Aside from leaving my wallet at the restaurant and not noticing until around midnight when we were two hours away and the low-gas light came on it was a very lovely day for an anniversary.
