Day 8 - Salt Lake with Aunty Sandra

Wednesday 11^th May

The drive back to Salt lake city took about 4 hours. We quickly dropped some stuff back at mum’s place before heading to the airport to pick up Aunty Sandra. She had come from New York and was starving, so we walked to City Creek again, to the food court to get some lunch. Toby enjoyed the Dinosaur playground again, then we made our way to the Church History Museum. We walked around while Mum took the kids to the play section. (didn't get many pics of today)...

That night Hayden and I went to the Salt Lake City Temple. It was so beautiful, and definitely one of my favourite things to do.

Day 7 - Arches National Park

Tuesday 10^th May

It was very busy at Arches National Park today. Cars everywhere, we stopped a couple of times for a closer look at balancing rock...

...and sky arch, 

we also did a short hike to the upper lookout for delicate arch. The bigger walks we couldn’t do because of the kids and some things we couldn’t see cause the car parks were full! Just beautiful scenery everywhere!

(This part reminded me of never ending story)

We took the kidlets to the park again that afternoon and that night we went out for tea and the guy serving us recognised and complimented Hayden’s salamon shoes, so we gave him a generous tip. Hayden and I hit up the local frozen yogurt place – MoYo, so good!

Day 6 - Capitol Reef to Moab

Monday 9^th May

Today we headed into Capitol Reef National Park, there were a couple of short walks that were good to do with kids and the drive in and out was beautiful.

We didn’t stay long before heading to the green oasis in the Red Rock…Moab. We enjoyed Wendy’s for lunch (heaps better than maccas and the same price) then took Toby to a park he would enjoy (with swings and slides). We stayed at the comfort suits in Moab and it was a beautiful hotel with delicious breakfast.

Day 5 - Bryce Canyon and HWY 12

Sunday 8^th May

Edith’s American birthday we awoke with some presents and a song.

It was time to pack and say goodbye to Kanab.

We would make our way through Bryce Canyon ...

... then have lunch at the local  Diner where Toby would enjoy the thickest most chocolatiest milk shake of all ...

...then it was time to drive up scenic HWY 12 to Torrey. The scenery on HWY 12 was spectacular, we drove through blasted rock on a road that cost 1 million dollars to build (at the time), the landscape changed so much as we drove along, we got to see more snow before arriving at our Torrey Hotel, the red sands.

(There were horses out the back of the hotel that Toby and Hayden went to check out, in the rain...)

Day 4 - Grand Canyon

Saturday 7^th May

Mum got a message first thing, confirming that the North Rim access road was shut. Determined to see the Grand Canyon we googled how long it would take to the south rim (4 hours each way) With nothing else planned we decide to take the opportunity and go for it.

Stopping on the way:

It was WELL worth it…

 

We stopped at the Visitors Centre to get on the shuttle bus...Unfortunately this was one of the worst weather days, so we didn’t stay on the shuttle route for very long. It was freezing and felt like there was snow in the air.

On the way I was worried that i'd be disappointed, but I can't even explain how GRAND it was, it was absolutely amazing!

We stopped at Page on the way back out of Arizona to try some American Mc Donalds (not worth it), and made it back to Kanab about 10pm.

This would be Edith’s Aussie birthday so now she can claim she was at the Grand Canyon for it.

Some wildlife we saw on the way out: