Day 2 - Delicate Arch and Devils Garden.

(Sorry about the weird layout of the photos, i was experimenting and couldnt undo it!)

Today was AMAZING! We went to Arches Nartional Park and Delicate arch which is a world famous big sandstone arch (you will probably have seen it before, have a look at the photo) and then to a place in Arches called 'Devils Garden' which is a cool name for a cool place.

Delicate Arch - We set off up to Arches national park. There were tons of cool rock formations as you can see in the photos. The whole place is a desert and is very hot. Its cool as there is loads of cacti around and lizards/snakes and other stuff that you get in deserts. The trail up to Delicate Arch was about 1.5 miles each way. So it wasnt really a hike, but it was very hot, and the trail was more about seeing Delicate Arch than going on a hike. On the way up to Delicate arch we saw loads of Toads and Lizards, and I managed to get like 1 inch away from a lizard to get a photo (look at the photos I put up). We saw the toads jump to catch dragon-flies as well which was cool.

So we carried on in our efforts to get up to delicate arch. We followed a rock trail all the way up and walked past lots of cliffs, arches, washes and so on. We ended up waling along a ledge and going round a corner and suddenly, Delicate Arch was right there in front of us! It was spectacular, magnificant, awesome, and HUGE! Much bigger than I had expected! If you look at the photo of it, you should be able to see me standing underneath it! It helps you get some perspective. We sat there for ages! Thankfully it wasnt so hot underneath the arch as a cool breeze was blowing to give us a little escape from the extreme heat. After a while everyone else up there left and we had the whole arch to ourselves for about 10 miniutes which is really lucky and rare as that never happens. We took TONS of photos whcih will soon be uploaded to facebook! :D

On the way down we saw a load of old native Indian Petroglyphs on the rocks which was very interesting. W hen we got back to the car, we were all very tired out!

Devils Garden - Devils Garden in a trail in a mixture of rock formations.It was very very cool but we were all ready tired so we didnt go too far as it was very hot. We ended up waling about 4 miles on that trail. It was nice though. Ill put some photos up on facebook soon. i cant be nthered to write about it now as its 1am and I need more sleep. I keep on staying up way too late!! Argh!!

Anyway - maybe ill say more about that tommorow! :d

C ya - There is still TONS more to come! :D So keep checking! :D

Day 1 - Travelling there

Today was quite kool. It was the day we travelled to Moab in Southern Utah. Today we picked up our rental car in the morning (which was a huge S.U.V) and packed it full to the brim with camping gear, hiking gear and food. We had SO much stuff. Anyway, it was really nice because it had A.C and was nice and roomy. We filled up with petrol and were on our way! The drive down to Moab to about 4/5 hours. It was nice though. First we drove past all the Salt Lake Mountains in the Wasatch Range, and then we hit the really arid desert where is was a little non-descript but It was cool as it was so baron! We headed down furthur south were we suddenly hit red rock country! It was so cool! So much red rock everywhere! You cant describe it only that everywhere you lok there are massive cliffs and huge red rock geological structure and arches and pillars and so on. Its cool. We got to Moab where we set up our tent and unpacked all of our stuff. We drove around and saw the area a bit but it was allready late when we got there so we didnt to too much. I bought a pretty cool map though! The tent at night was VERY hot! And me and Britney found it so hard to sleep, We both woke up during the night absolutely sweating! And I wasnt even using a sleeping bag! Nathan loved the heat though. He found it really easier to sleep in the heat. It was very hot though, I am not sure how hot it was at night, but during the day in Moab it ranged from 97 degrees to 105 degrees! Phew!

So that was that day. Pretty much a travelling day really, but still cool!

:D

Update!

Ok. I have just got back from my 10 day trip and it was AMAZING! It was so brilliant and I have never done so much cool stuff in one holiday! The great thing is I still have 3 more trips to go on! Anyway, I want to write about it all in detail and put lots of photos from each day on here, so I am going to make a seperate post for each day and I'll include the Dates and what we did in the title. I have ALOT to write so I might not be able to write about all 10 days at once but Ill try and get it done quickly! There were some really good things that we did and I have LOADS of really cool stories. So watch this space.......

=:~)

Monday 6th July - Leaving For Southern Utah And The Grand Canyon

Hey! Nothing exciteing to write as I have just got up, but thought I would let you know that I am about to leave to go on a 10 day trip to Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon! Woo! So I wont be able to update this blog regularly (if at all) but I will try to whenever I get the oppetunity such as a hotel WI-FI of somthing. Anyway. Yes..its going to be goood! HOT, but good! The forecast for the next few days says 97 degrees, 98, 100, 97, 100, 100. I dont know what that is in celcius but I know its hot! Anyway.

Cya!

=:~)

4th July 2009 - Independence Day

Hi. Today has been....interesting. I woke up a about 5am feeling terrible. Really really sick. And my stomach kept making really loud and stange noises. Anyway...turns out the Sushi I had eaten the night before might not have been so good after all, as I think it gave me food poisoning. So I was throwing up and the works all morining. Anyway, after I finished, I felt really exhausted and sick for the rest of the day. I think I slept in till 2:30pm, and went back to bed again at about 7pm, and then didnt wake up till 7:30 Sunday morning. So..alot of sleep. I didnt really take any photos (except this one of the chair that i like lounging around on in the back garden) yesterday as I felt to tired to move or do anything. I was a little gutted that I missed all the independance day celebrations, but I guess I dont really celebrate that anyway.

So yeah...Have had better days, but at least being sick in the U.S is better than being sick in the U.K.

Friday 3rd July - I-Hop, Antelope Island and Many Other Things

Ok. Well let me start off by saying I am writing this at 00:45 and it is only the packet of lovely 'Sportsmans Warehouse' beef jerky that is keeping me awake, so if I keep this breif..its because I want to sleeeeep!!

Today was a very interesting day. We got alot done! I woke up early fairly late this morning - 9am! (Still have a little Jet lag so 9am is late for me at the moment, I have been waking up at 6:30/7am up till now) Just after I woke up but as I was still laying in bed, Nathan came in with my morning Green Drink. He said...."This one may be a little worse than normal, because I havn't got any spinach, only brocolli, kale and cabbage,".....'A little worse' is an understatement! It was one of the most foul things I have ever tasted. Britney and Joslyn were in the doorway watching me to see my reaction. When I gagged Joslyn quickly said (half joking, half not) "Dont you dare throw up over that bed!" Haha. It was warm, lumpy, thick, and emitted and putrid and pungent smell of somthing horrible. :( Need to get some more spinach....and soon.

Anyway - Nathan then told me that we were all (Me, Nathan, Britney, Reed and Joslyn) were all going to go to I-Hop (International House Of Pancakes) so I should get up soon. I was rather happy about this as I was hungary and had been really looking forward to getting a goold ol' american style stack of pancakes with maple syrup, butterscotch and the works. So I got up, and we left.

I-Hop was goooooood. Very good. I was actually tempted to get a cooked breafast or an omelette as they looked so good but I thought I had better go for the Pancake Experience. I got 5 think pancakes with cream, maple syrup, pecans, buterscotch and an orange juice. When I left however...I was so full I felt like I never wated to eat again! Still..it was nice.

We then went home and relaxed a little. Nathan and Britney went to get Nathans hair cut and go ot 'good earth' to get some bits for Nathans food whilst in Southern Utah. Whilst they were out, I though it would be a good idea to try to get rid of some of my tan lines that I had aquired the day before on Lewis Peak. I took the book I am reading (The Kite Runner) out into the back garden with a bottle of water and a bowl of chilled watermelon and sat on the hammock/chair/swingy thing and read for about 2 hours. It was HOT! Now, bear in mind that this was around 12:00 noon and the hottest part of the day. I had put on a thin spreading of factor 50, but I didnt want it to block the sun out too much. Anyway, I came back in 2 hours later and began to realize that I had got a little red. As the day went on it became more and more burnt and now it is very saw. So I have the two things I didnt wana get..Sunburn and Blisters. Ah well....they will have both gone by Monday which is the day I need them to have gone by.

After this, Reed took me out to a ranch the other side of Antelope Island. Its a kool island in the Great Salt Lake with lots of Buffalo/Bison, Antelope, deer, cayotes and mountain lions. We managed to see buffalo, deer and antelope which was very kool. We then drove up to the beggining of a train on the island and found that the trail went up to the top of the highest peak on the Island (around 2300m). We are going to hike that at some point. After this we drove up to the visitors centre on the island where there was a great view of the lake!!!! Ahhhhh. Some american girls in the visitors shop were talking to me about my accent and where I am from again, which was funny. Antelope Island is very baron and deserted, Well, not deserted becuase no-one ever lived there who could desert it! Still, there is nothing!!No-one! Its kool though, I got bitten to death by mozzies and the island has some of the oldest rock on the earth!!!

When we got back, Me, Nathan and Britney sat in the garden and had 'Young Coconuts'. Its nice. Its like a unripened coconut - except its better as it has more milk and the flesh is better to eat! Very refreshing on a Hot day!

Britneys Friend Kristen then ame over for a while. She was kool. She was really nice and very funny. She is a musician and is trying to get her halloween music heard more! If you wana look her up, its Kristen Lawrence. She has played in some nice bands too. I showed her our bands songs and she really liked them.

Me, Nathan, Britney and Kristen then went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies for next week. I went to the cereal isle and was amazed!!! Ahhhh! Its soo good there!!! I took alot of photos and a video of it as well. I'm and sure all the other customers saw me taking photos of cereal and speaking into the camera and though "Hmmmm....Weird englishmen." I also bought some beef jerkey, butterfingers, sausage things and blister plasters! That was G-good.

We all then went out to 'Osaka's Sushi' to eat sushi! Its was goooood. Very nice! I had a spicy Tuna roll. It wan very nice indeed...expensive though!

We then came back and sat outside in the chair watching an amazing storm for almost 2 hours. It was very nice. When we did this, I went to run inside to get somthing. I saw the open door and went to run through it...little did I know that there mesh msquito net was still there and went straight into it. Everyone laughed. As we sat outside, Me, Nathan and Britney decided that at some point on this holiday we are going to camp on top of Ben Lomond peak (2797m) That will be FUN!!

So yeah....Some good stuff!

Oh yeah - I also tried my first every mountain dew today. Not badm just a bit better than sprite. Anyway gota go o bed now...I'm falling asleep.

Thursday 2nd July - Lewis Peak

I have blisters. 2 very painful, very annoying blisters. But it was worth it, because today was a fantastic day!

Me and Reed (Britney's dad) decided to climb a mountain called 'Lewis Peak'. Its 2,447 meters high (8,031 feet), the highest I have done before now is Scafell Pike and that is only 978 meters. Anyway, we decided it would be fun to do.

We set off early this morning. I had to get up at 6:30 am (I woke up naturally at EXACTLY 6:30am strangely) and then we got ready and packed our bags. We packed Chocolate chips, fruit, nuts and alot of water as it was going to be a hot day. I had another lovely bowl of Lucky Charms and a green drink before we set off, to get me full of energy.

(Green drinks are these things that Nathan and Britney have introduced me to recently with consits of spinach, broccoli, kale, and other greens...all blended up in a blender to liquidise the greens. It creates a rather potent smelling and tasting, luke warm liquid which isnt nice, but you feel great for the day after having it! - I'll post a photo of one when I next have one)

We drove up to the car park where we were going to start from which was in a canyon call the North Ogden Divide. On the way Reed informed me that we would be hiking in Cougar country and that there would be a fair few snakes around (there are alot of rattlesnakes here). However, we didn't expect to see bears, elk or moose as we were in the wrong area and too high for that, although, there was always the chance that we could bump into a stray one. He also told me about the time when a moose charged him in Wheeler Canyon (where we were 2 days before) whih must have been terrifying! So we started the hike....I didnt really feel too worries about the cougars though.

On the first setion of the hike, the trail consisted of a lot of switchbacks that went through a pine forest. This was a pretty nice place and was quite a steep first acent. Anyway, as we were going up I thought I heard a noise coming from the dense 'off trail' forest and the thought occured to me that it could be a cougar. This was when I realized that i was actually very scared about seeing a cougar, or even a bear or a moose face to face as a sudden wave of paranoia came upon me and I got genuinly scared about meeting cougars. However, this didnt last and I soon forgot about it.

We got out onto the top ridge and It was a very nice view! We could see Ben Lomond Peak and Mt. Ogden (both of which we plan to climb) and Snowbasin Ski Resort which was very impressive! Reed mention for me to watch out for sun-basking snakes at this point. From here it was just a series of ups and downs in a horseshoe shape untill we got to the peak. It was 5 .5 miles each way so 11 miles all in all. I didnt really feel tired but I could feel a difference in the altitude from that in England.

On top of Lewis Peak we ate out chocolate chips and nuts and drank alot of water. We also took photos and so on and so forth. We came back down the same way. We had to get down fairly quickly as there were some big thunderheads coming our way! We didnt want to be on the mountain in that.

As we were driving back, a big storm broke out and it was raining hard with alot of thunder and lightning. We stopped of at Carls Junior again which was great!

In the evening, Me, Nathan, Britney and Reed all watched this movie called 'Mall-Cop' which was rubbish! But then we saw this good one which was a documentry about Alaska. That was amazing!

So yeah. A pretty good day. My first American Mountain and my highest ever mountain (although that'll soon change as we are doing some much bigger ones soon).

Might be doing Ben Lomond peak tommorow...depends on my blisters.

See you later

=:~)

P.S - I thought it was funny as when we were up there, we met these guys on top of the peak. One of them looked at the sky and said "They-re's a storm comin". Pretty typical american phrase. Haha