Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

Here we are about to enter Arches National Park.

The Three Gossips are on the left.

Balanced Rock

Everyone wanted to add their own balanced rock contributions near the Balanced Rock. We saw these all around Balanced Rock, and even down the road in Canyonlands National Park.

The iconic Delicate Arch, which also appears on Utah's license plates. We opted not to walk the 0.5-mile, 200-ft climb up to see it a little closer. It would have been the equivalent of climbing 20 flights of stairs! Maybe next time...?

This is the road leading into and out of Arches National Park.

Just up the road from Arches is the entrance to Canyonlands National Park.

The road leading into Canyonlands was utterly deserted, so we had some empty-road fun!

Try as I might, I couldn't find a place to perform the traditional "climbing out of the canyon" photo op. So how about the "I'm about to fall into the canyon" shot?

After visiting Arches and Canyonlands, the smart thing would have been to find a hotel in Moab, which is right by the two parks. Moab is a great little town, complete with a myriad of cute little restaurants and its own brewery. Moab would have been great. However, we didn't stay in Moab.

Looking at the map, we set our sights on the town of Blanding, Utah, which was an hour closer to our next destination of the Four Corners. We arrived in Blanding and found a hotel, and set our sights on finding a place to eat dinner. After a hot day walking around and seeing the sights under the Utah sun, all we wanted was to find a place where we could get dinner and an ice cold beer. We drove around to see what kind of eateries there were in Blanding, and both (yes, both -- as in, there were TWO) restaurants looked like they were alcohol-free. Curious as to where two visitors could get a refreshing drink we inquired at the local gas station, where we got the saddest news of the day: Blanding, Utah is a dry town.

At this point we had our hearts set on a beer... the idea had taken hold and we couldn't shake it. We found out that there was a gas station 3 miles outside of town that sells beer, so off we went. While browsing the beer case in the gas station, I saw this beer which made me actually laugh out loud:

Polygamy Porter... Why have just one!

No, we didn't actually buy the Polygamy Porter, but it was good for a chuckle!