Today was a transit day – moving from Bluff UT to Salt Lake City, via Newspaper Rockand Moab. So … up about 6, and the tremendous job of repacking didn’t take too long. Breakfast with Susan about 7:30 am and we had a lovely time! Today we started with Susan’s homemade granola with fresh fruit, and then moved on to lovely scrambled eggs with a spicy salsa verde, English muffins with raspberry jam and link sausage. YUM! Really sorry to leave Bluff and the Canyon Wren, but we’ve promised each other that we would definitely return … soon!
Oh! Forgot about dinner last night! We went to the Cottonwood Steak House, and honestly, truly, not great; their idea of “rare” didn’t match ours. … in fact, now we’re definitely going to have to go somewhere for a GREAT steak just to rub out the memories! So … 8-oz ribeye steaks, home fries and great roasted carrots, along with a green salad with homemade blue cheese dressing. For dessert, R had a piece of cherry pie, and I had their brownie sundae. I didn’t want the brownie, actually, but definitely wanted the ice cream and chocolate sauce! We ate in their “outside” dining room, which was at picnic tables with lots of shade, and the service was great and we enjoyed the outdoor ambiance.
So … loaded up the car and on our way! Stunning morning! Robert had read something last night about Newspaper Rock, which is a very large panel of petroglyphs about 14 miles along the Canyonlands highway, very close to the road, so we headed their first. Wow! It was truly an amazing sight! The apparent difficulty is for geologists to somehow classify all the different glyphs from a period stretching something like 3000 years! Also, of course, the usual graffiti needed to be taken into account.
From there, we headed to Moab … and I can only say, that it’s unfortunate that we didn’t take any photos, because R not sure any of his old hiking/camping buddies would believe what has happened there! It’s like Jackson, Wyoming – it has become a very large city; R even thinks there’s a Walmart there! At any rate, we stopped at a market and assembled a picnic lunch – found some great cheeses and French bread – but the little town of Moab has really grown! There are more outfitters for just about anything anyone would want to do! We saw advertising for sky diving, climbing, rafting, etc. the list went on and on. There is even a ski-type gondola lift from the valley floor to the top of the canyon! On the outskirts of town, we headed northeast on highway 128 to follow along the Colorado river – a lovely drive. Again, there were rafters, and paddleboarders and swimmers everywhere. It has become quite an impressive place! The Colorado was beautiful, and we found a lovely shaded table overlooking it to have our cheese and bread and salami and pepperoni and … well, the list goes on!
Finally hit the freeway, and took it about 40 miles to get off on US191/US6 heading toward Salt Lake City. Really lovely driving weather, and we got to SLC about 4 pm. Our hotel, Hampton Inn Salt Lake City Downtown, is right downtown very near Temple Square, and we are now cozily settled in room 525, which is a one very large bedroom and a second living room/office. Nice to have some room to spread out, even though we’re only here for two nights!
Walked a couple of blocks to PF Chang’s and had a light dinner of chicken lettuce wraps, veggie spring rolls, and rubbed spareribs, all washed down with a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc. Walked back and are now in for the night! Tomorrow we’re heading to the University of Utah Natural History Museum first and then – who knows?!
More tomorrow!
m
xxx
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