Utah Trip 2025: Part II - Canyonlands and visiting family

After visiting Arches National Park, we went into town for lunch then up to Canyonlands NP for the last few hours of daylight. It's nice that the two national parks are so close to each other. In spite of growing up in Utah, this was new information to me. For some reason I always assumed Canyonlands was in the southeast corner of Utah. Oscar and I hadn't even visited it when we came before in 2012. 

It was beautiful but difficult to get clear pictures due to the angle of the sun at that time of day. This is where the Grand View Point Trail starts. We took some photos then came back to hike the trail the next day.

We thought this canyon looked like a giant dinosaur track

We knew the mountains would look nice with the sun shining on them, so we found a spot where we could view them as the sun was setting. It was a LOT colder when the sun was going down. 

We caught the sunset then drove back to Moab. We went out for some pizza and pasta then Oscar and I had a good sit in the hot tub. We invited the kids, but they were exhausted and just wanted to lay in bed and watch a show. Oscar took longer to get ready for the hot tub than I did, and I ended up having a good conversation with a mom of 6 boys who was visiting from Kansas. 

The next morning we ate some breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and came back up north. This time we stopped off at Dead Horse State Park first before heading up to Canyonlands. 

We took a little 1/4 mile walk around the visitor's center.

Then we drove to the famous Dead Horse Point overlook. Legend has it that they rounded up all the wild mustangs at this point so they could have their pick of horses, but then they accidentally left the rest to die without opening up the gates. Surrounded by treacherous cliffs, the poor horses died from lack of water while in sight of the Colorado river.

It's very beautiful! We had to pay an extra admission fee with it being a State Park, not a national park, but it was well worth it. 

We explored the area a bit longer then went back into Canyonlands.

First we went back to The Grand Viewpoint Overlook Trail to do the hike we'd skipped the previous evening. As you can see, our views of the "giant dinosaur footprint" were much better now that they weren't all in shadow.  

Here are the beautiful views at the end of the trail. 

After that we took a hike to Mesa Arch.

It's a lovely arch with a lovely view beyond the arch.

Here are my silly kids sitting on things. You can't tell from the photo, but Allison climbed up into the hole she's sitting in. 

We also saw several ravens. We learned that crows tend to habitat near cities and towns while ravens tend to be out in the wilderness. Their feathers are thicker and fuller too. 

Here are the kids getting sworn in as Canyonlands Jr Rangers.

From there we started the drive up to Mike's house in West Jordan. We ate pizza and Crazy Bread at a gas station in Green River, UT that had a Little Caesar's Express inside. That evening we had a good time hanging out at Mike's house and eating Chinese takeout. We hung out for a few hours then drove up to Marcus and Martha's house to get some rest.

On Wednesday the kids spent the day with their cousins doing homeschool activities. Melissa had planned a fun Thanksgiving homeschool day for her kids, and she let our kids and Jane and Deacon along with a couple of neighborhood kids join them too. Here they are making Ooblek. 

They also ate popsicles, made snowflakes, played with parachute men on the deck, and got their exercise in with "Would You Rather Thanksgiving." Plus they choreographed a dance to go along to a song they performed for us on Thanksgiving. 

That evening we all met up at granny and grandpa's house for dinner and s'mores.

On Thanksgiving day we hung out at Mike's for the late morning and afternoon. Mom made her cheese ball, Shannon picked up some sandwiches and cookies, and Tyler helped solve this CHEEZ-IT puzzle. Oscar worked on a baked mac and cheese while Tyler and I went to the park to play pickleball with Mike and his kids. Tyler and Ethan tossed a football around at first then swapped out with us playing pickleball.

That evening we went up to Julia's house for our full Thanksgiving meal. Allison is not a big fan of most Thanksgiving fare, so she was probably playing downstairs when these photos were taken. 

On Friday we took Tyler to do baptisms at the Layton temple before I met up with Rachel at Zupa's. While I was with Rachel Marcus took Tyler down to see the Hot Chocolate booth the Havertz girls had set up.

I met up with them later to go swimming at the Bountiful Rec Center.  

That evening we had ice cream and mac and cheese at granny's.

The next morning we got up and started our drive home. We'd intended to leave Sunday, but there was snow in the forecast for both Sunday and Monday, so we figured we should leave Saturday instead. It was still frigid and there was some slush on the roads in Wyoming, so we're glad we didn't wait any longer. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch, and I had pecan pie innards for dessert. Martha was a bit concerned that her pecan pie hadn't set properly, but I didn't care since it was still delicious (and I don't like the pie crust anyway). She scooped the remaining innards out for me and put them in a tupperware dish, which was a great treat to have on the drive. 

We got home around 4pm and basked in the cuddles of a sweet, lovey kitty.