2014 Spring Trip - Moab, UT

 My youngest daughter, Teresa, and her husband, John, are very avid mountain bikers.  She is also a teacher.  Every year during spring break they spend the week in Moab, Utah.  Moab is the mountain biking capitol of the world.  Moab is also know for it's ATVing, 4x4ing, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  

All three of my daughters have been very athletic throughout their lives.  This year the other two daughters, Michele and Christine, and their families decided to join Teresa and John in Moab for the week.

As it turns out, Michele's husband's sister and her family were also in Moab that week.  We met up with them one day to tour Arches National Park.  The entire clan hiked up to Delicate Arch, about a two mile hike, uphill, to the arch.

Here is the entire Goode clan that was in Moab.

 This is my daughter, Michele with her family Raif, Stan, Celine and Saray.

And this is Stan's sister's family less their oldest boy.

Across the street from the entrance from Arches NP is this huge sand hill. Of course, my family had to hike up and then race down.  

John won the race.  Stan won the award for getting the most sand in various body parts.

Saray, Raif and Stan on one of our hikes.

Michele, Saray and Stan on the Slick Rock Trail, one of the world's most famous mountain biking trails.

Saray riding Slick Rock

My grand daughter, Saray, and daughter, Christine on another of the mountain biking trails in the Moab area.  

After the family left I spent a few more days in Arches NP.  This arch was next to the campground.

My favorite area in the park is call "The Fiery Furnace".  You need a permit to hike in the area.  It's like a huge corn maze as it's very easy to get lost in there.  In fact, they give you a tag for your car so if don't make it out by the end of the day the rangers will come looking for you.

  To give you an idea of how easy it is to get lost, this huge arch wasn't even discovered until 1963!

 I kept bumping into this trio while in the furnace, David, his wife Yuki and sister Diana.  Between the four of us we managed not to get too lost.  At least we made it out before the rangers starting looking for us.

Another of the arches in the furnace.

That's the end of the spring trip.  I don't have any big trips planned for this summer.  Maybe I'll take a few short ones.   In the fall I'm thinking about visiting the east coast of Canada.