After Austin, out next stop was Moab, Utah. It took a couple of days to get there, taking in Dallas for half a day, and then staying in a couple of other hotels on route. Dallas was slightly disappointing, thought it would be a lively, vibrant city, but seemed mainly to be a business centre. The highlight though was visiting the spot where JFK was shot.

We arrived in Moab at about 5pm, thinking that it would be fairly easy to find a room as there are over 30 hotels. Well, 2 hours later and we were heading on a 50 mile drive to the next town, Green River, where we managed to get a room.

So the following day, we drive back to Moab as it’s where we start our National Park trekking. We chose Arches National Park and a hike that lasts half a day and covers over 7 miles. It was harder work than we both expected, climbing up and down fairly steep terrain and rocks. The weather was hot and sunny, which meant it was very draining. It took us about 5 hours to complete, but well worth it and satisfying at the end. We got back to the hotel and pretty much collapsed.

We now have a couple more days of national park hiking before arriving in Las Vegas early next week.