So being the spontaneous Hatchells that we are (not really, but we try to be!) we decided to detour completely from our plan for our first night after Yosemite. We were supposed to have a 10-hour drive to a campground in Zion National Park. Well, as I was trying to entertain myself while driving through the Mojave Desert, I began to notice several interesting billboards: "Stay in Vegas for just $34.95!" and "Come See Cirque de Soleil!" Well, all I can say is they sold me on it... and when Kris woke up from his nap, I sold him on it too! Forget four more hours of driving to stay a sweltering night in a tent in Zion... let's enjoy Vegas! And we did...
Although it was pricier than we would have liked it to be, we had to take advantage of Cirque de Soleil's newest show: Michael Jackson ONE. It was NON-STOP light show, acrobatics and dance routines! We loved it!
They even had a small MJ museum area with his original jacket and shoes!
MJ even did us the honor of posing with us!
A little later on, we took a drive down the main Vegas boulevard... almost being blinded by all the lights!
And we spent a total of oh, about $5 on the slot machines. We have heard that this is addicting for lots of people... but $5 down the hole later, we were ready to call it a night!
I tried to at least pretend I was having fun and winning big!
And we did score a nice king bed room in the Main Street Station Casino for 35 bucks. Other than the fact that it was right by the interstate and we had to sleep with ear plugs in, not a shabby deal for a night in Vegas!
The next morning, we made our way into much prettier southern Utah.
And we got to Zion National Park around mid-day.
Here was our first view of the famous red rocks of the park...
We decided to spend a majority of the afternoon on one of the most popular hikes... The Narrows. On a hot day, this hike was perfect because most of the way you were wading through the ankle- to calf-deep water of the Virgin River.
Gorgeous canyon walls surrounded us on all sides...
And the cool water felt SO good in the 97 degree heat...
As got in further, true to it's name, the canyon got narrower...
And narrower...
But by then, the crowds had thinned out... and this was our favorite part!
That evening, we took a short sunset bike ride and really enjoyed the scenery!
The next morning, we got up early for a hike on the Watchman trail to see the famous mountain and the valley below....
We later made the really short hike up to the Canyon Overlook... well worth it!
Then, we made our way to our next stop: Glen Canyon and Lake Powell.
This sky-blue lake surrounded by the red- and tan-shaded canyon walls quickly became one of our favorite spots... and we regretted that we hadn't brought our boat along on this 7,000 mile road trip... wait, what boat?
The famous Lake Powell Dam... where the Colorado River begins on the other side.
We didn't have a lot of time, so we passed on the SUPER EXPENSIVE boat rental and opted to go on a short kayaking trip instead for just $10... good choice!
We kayaked into the famous Antelope Canyon...
And then made our way back at a little more relaxed pace.
The next day, we headed to Arches National Park in Moab. Despite the 104-degree heat, we decided to head on into the park and enjoy most of the scenery from our cool, air-conditioned car.
These are called the Three Gossips.
And this is Sheep Rock... you can kinda see the face in the top left...
And Balanced Rock...
Our first arch: Turret Arch.
Then the North and South Windows.
And this one was really cool... the Double Arch.
Even the non-arch rock formations were pretty cool!
The most popular, Delicate Arch... in the over-100-degree heat, we opted NOT to take the five-hour hike to see it up-close and personal... this was close enough for us!
And that night we enjoyed the hip rock-climbers', bicyclists' and hippies' town of Moab.
We stopped by the small-town farmers' market and enjoyed some refreshing shaved ice drinks and bought some homemade poppyseed bread for the next morning's breakfast.
And thanks once again to Trip Advisor, we enjoyed a high-class dinner of spring rolls, fresh-out-of-the-oven wheat bread with honey rosemary butter, homemade pasta with mushrooms in a marsala sauce and a lemon-almond tart at the Desert Bistro.
The next morning we were on our way to our last stop in Canyonlands... just an hour outside of Moab.
Not sure if it was the heat or the vastness of the endless canyons surrounding us that left us breathless...
Our first hike was to Mesa Arch...
Then we hiked out to some other viewpoints at Murphy's Point and the White Rim Overlook...
Had to get one last, good baby bump pic!
And we ended with a short hike to see the huge crater of Upheaval Dome, where scientists believe a meteorite possibly once hit...
As the temperature was climbing, we got even more antsy to head East... and so that's just was we did! After stopping in Denver for some barbecue, we pushed on through that evening to the eastern border of Colorado. And although we had originally planned to divide the rest of the drive into two days of travel, we decided to push on through and finish the 15 hours in one go...
So, after 30 days of travel and over 7,500 miles covered through 16 different states, we arrived at my parents' house in Lebanon at 1:30 AM on Sunday, June 30th...
Our adventure out West had oficially come to an end...
But we pray (and deep down, we know) that the adventures of the Hatchell Family never will!
