May 1:
Today it is drizzling and ominous clouds look like storms are on their way.
May 2:
We drove down to the Canyonlands Needles district and there was beautiful blue sky in one direction and huge threatening storm clouds in the other.
We ate a picnic lunch in the car while it sprinkled and spent the remainder of the afternoon checking out the viewpoints along the rode and hiking a 3-mile slick rock trail with beautiful vistas, but the slick rock is really hard on the legs and ankles – we felt like we’d been standing on concrete for hours. The weather cooperated beautifully for the hike. The actual needles are in the distance and it is hard to get pictures, because the area requires high clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicles to get close. We skipped the Needles Overlook on our return to 
May 3:
Jack played golf under partly cloudy skies and in the low 70’s. Perfect weather for golf. I caught up with writing this journal and assembling pictures to send out. After golf, we explored downtown
May 4:
We stopped at the Moab visitor center – we already have all the literature and didn’t find out anything new of interest. Friendly folks, though. We also stopped at Arches visitor center to reserve our spots on the Fiery Furnace hike – this hike requires a ranger. The weather forecast for Friday looked best, so we reserved our spots for Friday morning.
We drove up to the outfitter place in downtown 
Pleasant day on the river with a great lunch served on a nice beach area alongside the river. We agreed that a multi-day rafting trip down the
We stopped at a tacky tourist stop called Hole in the Rock, just outside
Back to
We stopped at Negro Bill’s Canyon and hiked along a mountain stream up to a huge arch called Morning Glory. The hike was beautiful with the stream, loads of wild flowers and sandstone cliffs. It was a bit treacherous with slick rock ledges crossing the stream five times and climbing over boulders. The hike was about 4 ½ miles long and we had lunch under the arch.
After the hike, we drove the surprisingly beautiful scenic loop through the La 
We were treated to a little oasis in 
Driving through the valley, cowboys on horseback were herding cattle across the road. 
Great day, especially as it started completely overcast, but it was sunny and warm all afternoon when we played in the snow on top of the mountain.
We were supposed to hike the Fiery Furnace, but we postponed it to Saturday afternoon. The wind was brutal today, so we walked around downtown
May 7:
Rained steadily till
In the morning, we drove the
After being in
We walked around balanced rock, and then headed directly to Fiery Furnace for our ranger led hike. 
It was really tough climbing over boulders, straddling two ridges, and a really difficult section where we put hands on one wall and feet on another – almost horizontal and working our way across a fairly large crevice. The hardest part was getting back down from the horizontal position to vertical. We didn’t get many pictures of the tough portions of the hike because we needed both hands and I had to put the camera away.
We went to McStiff’s for their thin crust pizza – the first pizza we’ve had that is close to Chimney Rock’s! On the way back, the sunset turned the La Sal snow capped mountains to a beautiful pink. Really gorgeous – one of our best days of the trip!
May 8:
Mothers’ Day.
We headed into the Canyonlands – 
May 9:
Jack played golf today and I took a lesson. Great teacher and a great price.
May 10:
We finally spent some more time in Arches and we hiked up to Delicate Arch. It was very steep, but not too long – about 1 ½ miles, but it seemed a lot longer. It was too windy to feel comfortable close to the edges by the arch, but it was a fabulous view of the arch with snow-capped mountains in the background – lots of pictures.
May 11:
The weather was cool, windy and rainy in the morning and we had to wait for the rain to let up before we hiked out to Landscape Arch in Arches. A pretty arch, but it is set against other rocks, so not as dramatic as Delicate Arch.
We also took a short side trail to Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch. We stopped at Fiery Furnace lookout and Delicate Arch viewpoint that provide distant views, to take some pictures. The weather cleared up, but was still windy. We checked out Skyline Arch – a short walk from the parking area and stopped for pictures of the Three Gossips and
We then ran errands – grocery store, car wash, and t-shirt shops so
May 12:
Cloudy and cool again this morning, but it finally cleared up and over 70 – a beautiful day. Jack played golf and I took another lesson from Rob.
