Today is our last day in Moab. Our last day of vacation except for driving. Boo! We decided to do a hike recommended to us by a park ranger yesterday. It was a 3-mile out-and-back to Corona and Bowtie arches, outside the national park in Bootlegger Canyon, a side canyon of the Colorado. No big deal, we thought. Well, it was no big deal until we got to a short but steep incline with a cable set into the rock to haul yourself up on. There were footholes, but Steven said, “No way. I’m not doing that.” I said, “I get it. Do you mind if I go the rest of the way?” We could see the arches from where we were. “No,” he said, “See you in an hour.” Up I went. If you’re not afraid of heights, it’s really not a big deal. I scrambled up the rest of the way, took a few photos and headed back down. I wasn’t going

to chill while he was sitting in the shade beating himself up over his phobia. As it turns out, he was feeling bad and was just done with everything and then I was feeling bad because this was our last hike (or so we thought). We stopped at another spot that was supposed to be a very easy 0.3 mile walk to dinosaur tracks, but again, the going was steep and the trail included scrambling over rocks. Steven was out. I made it and got to see the tracks, which was so cool for me. If I had gone a little farther, I would have seen petroglyphs, but again, I didn’t want to leave Steven worrying about my safety and I have seen petroglyphs before. We headed back to the B&B to regroup, since it was only 10:30 a.m. or so. By noon, Steven was suggesting another hike that was rated easy called the Grandstaff Hiking Trail (formerly the Negro Bill Trail and don’t get me started on that. At least they changed it?). The hike is mostly along a creek that feeds the Colorado to Morning Glory Bridge, a natural rock formation that is believed to be the fifth longest in the world. No sweat. Well, lots of sweat because it was midday. The 2.25 miles in seemed longer and I almost gave up this time because we hadn’t eaten lunch. We stopped in the shade for a snack. Steven said we shouldn’t continue if I wasn’t feeling up to it (I was a teensy bit dizzy) and then in my usual way, I said, “Let’s just see what’s around the bend.” Guess what? Around the bend was the end of the trail. We made it and it was worth it! We met a Boy Scout troop who had rappelled down from the top. At that moment, I wished I had done the same. Luckily, there was cloud cover (the first real clouds we had seen all trip) and the way back was much cooler and easier. Plus, we ended on an up note instead of a down. Yay! Then we relaxed. I hadn’t planned on an 8-mile day, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

We decided to have a nice dinner on our last night. Friday night date night! We had walked by La Sal House restaurant and thought it looked good. We were right! We had a harissa salad with butter lettuce, watermelon, and pineapple that I would never have thought to make, but blended fabulously. Steven had lamb and almost made me pass out when he said the vegetables were as delicious as the meat. I had a version of esquites that was also yummy.

Finally, we watched the sun set over the mountains. A great last day in Utah.