UTAH ROCKS / end of the trip

We’re alive! I got lazy with blog posts oops.

Utah definitely has its ups and downs. Ups include national parks like Zion and Arches, while downs include mainly the hellish heat.
We stayed at Ponderosa Ranch and RV Resort for three nights, and it was really nice! They had planned activities every night. The first night we were there, they had a rodeo and nighttime zip lining. We checked in around 4pm then headed straight for the park.

Zion immediately stood out from other national parks. The roads going through the park had a reddish tint which matched the color of the unique cliffs surrounding us. We didn’t have much time the first day so we just did a mile hike – canyon overlook. From there, we were able to see Zion canyon and it was beautiful. We then went back to the campground for the activities. We caught the latter half of the “rodeo”, which consisted of five Cowboys and cowgirls doing various tricks on their horses. Nothing crazy but entertaining, and definitely worth the admission price of free.

We also hiked in the Narrows, which was a really great hike in a slot canyon. Notably one of the most famous slot canyons in the world, we spent the better half of a day trudging through the Virgin River. At one point, we waded about five feet through the cool water.

After Zion, we went to Arches national park, which has the largest concentration of natural arches in the world!! To make it even cooler, there was a guy from Roanoke (thirty miles from Virginia tech) dressed up as a storm trooper at Delicate Arch.

Landscape Arch was pretty cool because we saw it as the sun was setting. The whole arch spans the length of a football field!

There’s Utah for ya.

New Mexico – word of advice. Make sure you have a horizontal driver’s license!! After searching Yelp for the best brewery in town, we got denied service because we still have vertical licenses. I’m sorry, did we jump back into the past? It clearly said we were both over 21. Oh well. We went to three other places and they gladly accepted our money. We also went to this authentic Mexican taqueria and got 8 tacos for $10 yum.

Texas: best barbecue we’ve ever had was in Austin. We waited in line for an hour in front of la barbecue food truck and ordered 3/4 pound of brisket and 1/4 pound of pulled pork. It was like butter and made the whole miserably hot hour that we spent in line worth it.

San Antonio was fun, but the main atraction was the ridiculously overcrowded river walk. We took a boat tour and enjoyed the breeze, but we were forced to listen to our pretty terrible your guide rambling about YouTube and movies featuring San Antonio landmarks.

New Orleans: Bourbon street was bumping! We went to two bars, including Lafitte Blacksmith, which claims to be the oldest serving bar in America (circa 1772). We also checked out Jackson Square and caught the sunset illuminating the cathedral in the French Quarter.

Last day: twelve hour drive from New Orleans back to Blacksburg. Where did the time go?! Seems like just yesterday we left Blacksburg for our trip and now we’re headed into the real world.