Canyoneering in Moab

Moab has so much to offer that it is really hard to decide where to spend your time when you're only going to be there for a few days. Lucky for me the 100 degree weather really helped me narrow down my options- I just wanted to be anywhere there was water to cool off in. I hunted around for some excursions and found one with desert highlights that takes you repelling down seven waterfalls in Pleaides Canyon. It was a bit surprising that we would have to wear fleece and dry suits in Moab in the middle of the summer but I knew that meant we wouldn't have to worry about the heat and was excited for the adventure.

Tuesday morning we met up at the Desert Highlights office to meet our guide Matt. Before setting off for the drive to our destination, we were outfitted in fleece, dry suits, hiking boots, etc. Picking out the fleece was entertaining. You don't really need anything special for fleece because you wear it under your dry suit so we took what they had and Matt's was quite the outfit. He looked like a pimp daddy!

Our guide Matt with Matt

Pimp Daddy, out styling us all

 After getting our gear together we took a drive up to the mountains for the hike. Here we are about to set off on our adventure.



It was definitely cooler up in the mountains, the hike in was beautiful. Had that been all we were going to do I would have been happy, but it got even better when we hit Pleaides Canyon. We stopped at the creek that leads into the canyon and put on all our gear. Not much further the rappels started. They were amazing, the hike is a bit slow because you take turns getting down, but Matt was an excellent guide and we were in no way disappointed. Our guide was always the last one to go down after each rappel and we were always amazed to see how he was going to do it and get the rope down. He said the river was low right now, but there was plenty of water to make it exciting. In fact I kept wondering how crazy it would be to do the rappels when the water is high. In some spots your climbing to the left or right of the river, but in a lot of spots you are right in the water and when you get to the bottom of the rappel your in a tight area. Had those tight areas been full of running water it would have been a whole different experience. Definitely a fun hike that I would highly recommend.

Kate was such a trooper, at only 14 I was amazed at how well she did. The last rappel was definitely my favorite. It was not only the most beautiful, but the most grand. As you looked up there were seemingly endless twists and turns above you.

What a great excursion. After we came out of the canyon we took off our gear, and ate a delicious little lunch made by our guide. The hike out was a bit tough, it is pretty steep and I was definitely winded but overall we had an amazing time!