After a month in Utah and two months away from home, we used the opportunity to take advantage of our road trip. The first stop was in Moab, UT where we opted for a cheap alternative. The Lazy Lizard hostel wasn't quite as nice as the Europe hostels I had stayed in. We got what we paid for and luckily were only there a few hours and weren't forced to use the shower.

As our previous hikes in Utah proved, we found it best to hit the trails early, taking advantage of the morning light and the lack of tourists.

Delicate Arch, Utah's unofficial mascot, lived up to its reputation and was even more impressive than expected.

Figuring that it might be a long time until we traveled that route again and seeing that it was only 20 minutes out of the way, we decided to stop at four corners.

We were slightly appalled to be unexpectedly charged $6 at the gate and this clip from The Simpson demonstrates the anti-climatic nature of the event.

Before we depart Salt Lake City this week, Stephanie and I made a final trip into the mountains. It was quite a trek, but definitely worth it in the end. We went to Desolation Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Here's a few pics from our adventure.

 Desolation Lake

Due to the lack of authenticity of "mountain" biking in Lubbock, it was my goal to get in some actual mountain biking with actual elevation changes while staying in Salt Lake City.  One of my co-workers was gracious enough to guide me and patient enough to take pictures of me in his ample amounts of spare time waiting for me to catch up.  I was so slow and oxygen deprived that many of the "action shots" of me are a small dot on the opposite peak. Most of the pics were taken on the Bonneville Shoreline trail north of SLC.

Steph and I tried to be adventurous this past weekend and get some hiking in at Big Cottonwood Canyon to Dog Lake. Unfortunately the snowfall, lack of light and miscalculation of time allotted were not in our favor.  We shall try again this weekend.  We did manage to get a few pics before turning back: