SATURDAY
Friday evening we went to Under Dog Animal Rescue in Moab to…just look… and ended up picking up Lucky/Kirby for the weekend! She’s an amazing golden/aussie looking pup with 3 legs, 2 in the front 1 in the back. She’s really really nimble, but we found out she gets pretty tired & sore quickly. But she’s so amazing!! We went to the Rotary park for a while to read & nap, went on a few walks, stopped by the coffee shop, and hung out around town. It was great, Lucky/Kirby is an amazing dog!
Eventually we made our way back up into the La Sal Mountains when it got warm out. We found a nice pull-off to make some lunch & play with the dog :)
SUNDAY
Sunday we did a lot of the same! Had a lazy day around camp in the morning, made a lot of coffee & played with Lucky/Kirby. Eventually we made it out of camp and went to the river down 128. We found a nice place to set up the awning & relax in the shade. Eventually we got kicked out of that spot, and went a bit further down the road to a new spot.
We were going to check out the winery down there, Castle Creek, but it was Sunday & Easter, so the bar was closed (silly Utah). We ended up just relaxing in the sun on the river all day with the dog! Also snagged a shower on this ‘rest day'.
At the end of the day we were feeling like moving, so we went to Wall St. for a few quick climbs. I taught Kayla the basics of climbing on lead (no back stepping, back clipping, z clipping, how to clip, etc.). I lead a 5.6 trad route & left the gear in for her to clip. She did a few runs up it as a “mock lead” while on top rope. Soon she’ll be leading her own sport routes! So sweet.
MONDAY
Monday was a busy day during work. After I wrapped that up we went for a few quick climbs on Wall St. again. Wall St. is basically an outdoor climbing gym 😂
We did a few routes, all slabby with no handholds & pure foot trusting moves. I thought it was amazing practice for building confidence in your feet on sandstone. Kayla hated it 😂 It was fun to get on some new routes though!
TUESDAY
After work on Tuesday Kayla had some plans to volunteer at the animal rescue, so I went on a quick sunset mission at Delicate Arch in Arches NP. I’ve done the hike before, so it felt very familiar, but it’s such a pretty spot! Incredible for sunset. The La Sal Mountains were turning an amazing pink, so cool.
I met an older guy who was also there to snap some photos during sunset. He had brought his whole Canon set up & we chatted for a while about arches & photography. Got some cool pics of him, too. It’s always a fun challenge to go to such popular photography places like Delicate Arch (there’s gotta be like, 100,000 photos of it…) and try to get a relatively new or unique perspective.
WEDNESDAY
No pics from Wednesday, but we did some more climbing at Wall St. Building confidence in my trad placements & general climbing. We did a fun route called Ring Pin (5.8) with a bouldery start, short but fun warm up. After that climb we went down to Top 40 (5.9), a classic on Wall St. I climbed up it, having to re-figure out the beta. A lot more laybacking than I remember, I was trying to hand jam/finger lock on it & struggling. We climbed it a few times, it’s brutal on the forearms!
While we were there we met Sarah & Trevor who were also climbing & hanging out around Moab. We chatted for a bit, they don’t climb trad yet, so I tagged a top rope for them so they could work on Top 40.
THURSDAY
Thursday I had to work a bit later than usual, so Kayla & I did our own things. I had a massive headache, so I went exploring in the Jeep during sunset. Trevor (who we met at Wall St.) gave me coordinates to this amazing camp area up near Dead Horse State Park. I went to check them out, and it is AWESOME. 100% will be camping up there eventually. It’s a bit too far for everyday camping, but amazing for a Friday or weekend spot. There’s also really good Verizon service, so maybe I can work from up there on a slow work day…. we’ll see..
But yeah, the sunset was gorgeous, and the camp sites were on the edge of this massive canyon. Unreal!
FRIDAY
After work on Friday Kayla & I met up with Sarah (from Wall St.) for dinner at 98 Center (my fave restaurant in Moab) for some Bahn Mi Nachos & a few drinks. We went to Dewey’s for some drinks beforehand, and then picked up our food to go. We went to the Backyard Theater which is the little outdoor theater in Moab that has live shows Thursday-Sunday. There was this incredible folky trio who played while we ate our nachos & poured the rest of our wine out of the thermos. Awesome evening!!
