Sorry About the Delay, and Arches National Park Part I

Some user hacked my WordPress account and I was worried I had lost at least 10 years of work. WordPress was not very helpful at all. Everywhere I turned was a dead end. I was finally able to reset my password.

Instead, let me provide photos of Utah….

My friend Jenni and I flew to a tiny airport in Moab, Utah.

We actually arrived at sunrise because the day was supposed to be hot and we were wearing jackets. It was really chilly in the morning.

This is Balanced Rock in Arches National Park.

I met some really funny Chinese women who called them the “burgers.”

Can I just say that we were blown away by all the rock formations? I have never seen anything like this in my life.

This is the path we took. I didn’t have good tread on my shoes so it was kind of scary. Did you know they have hiking sneakers?

Everywhere we looked it was stunningly beautiful.

Along the way we saw a log cabin.

In 1898, a nagging leg injury from the Civil War prompted 69-year-old John Wesley Wolfe to leave his wife and three of his children in Etna, Ohio, and seek a less humid climate. He brought his oldest son, Fred, with him, and the two settled a 100+-acre property along Salt Wash, just north of the village of Moab and close to a fresh water spring. For nearly a decade, they lived and worked alone on the remote “Bar DX” ranch, eventually grazing more than 1,000 head of cattle on native grasses that once covered this area.

The scene changed in 1906 when John’s daughter, Flora, made the westward trek with her husband, Ed Stanley, and two young children, Esther and Ferol. Appalled by the condition in which her father and brother lived, Flora demanded they build a new cabin with a wooden floor and real windows. John obliged, creating the sturdy cabin that remains in the park to this day. All six family members lived and slept in the one-room cabin, measuring just 17 feet by 15 feet!