Onto Moab, we had 3 nights booked at the Hoodoo Moab, Curio Collection by Hilton at
80k/nt.
- Upscale
- Full service restaurant and bar
- Flexible use of $15x2 f&b Diamond breakfast credit
- Upgraded to 1 bedroom suite just off of pool and hot tub
- Heated pool and rapid whirlpool plus inferno hot tub
- Air Temperature ranged from 35-62
- Rain causing pressurization issues with their sewage system- newer construction in the past few years
The Hoodoo is right across the street from a food truck park in Moab, so super accessible to walk for food options. Moab is a cute little tourist town. Food options we loved:
- Quesadilla Mobilla food truck
- Doughbird for morning pastries but in the afternoon they have hot chicken and waffle fries that sell out quickly.
- Antica Forna. OMG this Italian food is better than any food we had in Italy. They import everything from Italy and make everything from scratch, including their mozzarrella. Inexpensive and amazing quality. When does that happen?
Cute story about my husband getting hot chicken from Doughbird. Normally at Dave's Hot Chicken, DH gets the hottest heat level, called Reaper. So at Doughbird, my husband ordered the hottest, called Melt Your Cluckin Face Off. They asked him five times if he was sure. Then they wrote "Good luck" on the box. DH says Dave's is hotter while Doughbirds is spicier. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but it means something to him.
While DH was inside getting this, (poor parenting alert) I told DS (9) he could ask his Dad if he "melted his cluckin face off?" DS worked up the courage to ask and he had the best belly laugh after. My parenting style is normally me just helicoptering around and we are sort of strict, so having this autonomy was a cute moment for him.
So we loved Arches National Park. We got in free with the 4th grader pass and because we were visiting in March, we didn't have to deal with timed entries that start in April. We did pay for the Shaka app and while not nearly as good as Hawaii, we were glad we did. Our favorite stops were Balanced Rock, Double Arch, Windows and Delicate Arch. We have quite the experience at Delicate Arch.
Delicate Arch, Arches NP's most iconic arch, gets nearly 2 million visitors a year and it's believed it will collapse in the foreseeable future. It's a 3 mile roundtrip hike with 600 feet of elevation gain (think 60 stories) up red slickrock. We tried to thread the needle on some weather... but got caught in it. The kids were kinda sluggish this day and didn't really even wanna do this hike, but we pushed forward. We thought we had this window between what looked like some light rain and some flurries, but the weather totally turned on us. But there's a point where you feel like you can't turn back, ya know? So we pushed forward. As you near Delicate Arch, you have to shuffle around the side of a cliffwall, with a steep drop. You do have about 3 feet, but by this time it's snowy and slushy on the slickrock, mixing with sand, making it slicker. As we a couple passed us in the other direction, they whispered, "You'll have it all to yourselves." Drenched in rain, snow and tears, we did it. We turned the corner and we had it absolutely all to ourselves. There was a boy scout troop coming up behind us, but for a few minutes, we were all alone there. My kids recount it as the worst experience ever, but I think it's important to do hard things. And I'm really proud of everyone for doing it in those crazy conditions. After the hike we drove to an alternate lookout point which is just a 100 foot walk from the parking lot, to torture ourselves with the question of if we shoulda just done that. By then, the snow and rain had completely stopped and the sun was shining. But it if had been easy, would it have been memorable?
So another trip in the rearview mirror, but we loved this one and will absolutely we back to explore more of Colorado and Utah. We just scratched the surface.
