My mom and sister live in Durango, and I live in Carbondale, which means it take approximately 3 hours of driving for all of us to meet in Moab, UT (one of my favorite desert towns)! We decided to meet in the middle this Christmas for a little desert solitaire (one of my favorite Ed Abbey books)!
I try to make it to Moab twice a year to camp and hike, but on this trip we had a room at the Gonzo Inn, which was a nice treat. It gave us time to explore the town, which was completely dead because it turns out nobody goes to Moab in the winter. We didn't mind though. We walked around town until we found a restaurant that was open for dinner before heading back to the Gonzo to settle in for the night.
In the morning we went to Arches National Park to see the sights. Neither my mom nor my sister had ever been to Arches to my surprise. We begun by hiking out to Delicate Arch. There was more snow on the ground than I had anticipated, and there were lots of icy spots on the trail, too. We trudged on nonetheless and made it to Delicate Arch in good time.
My mom was thrilled to have made it to Delicate Arch, but she was even more thrilled to find the car and the heater. We drove around the park a while longer checking out several more arches before heading back into Moab for lunch.
After lunch, we went our separate ways, and vowed to meet in the middle again next year for a second round at desert solitaire. Until then...
