Day 18: Hanging Lake

After a healthy oatmeal/bagel breakfast, we did some calling home over Skype and after that continued our trip. At the breakfast there was overly social guy asking all kinds of things. He thought I sounded Russian, well geographically we are of course close :) Overall we are probably considered as reserved Europeans as we are not talking to everybody we see. R has also outsourced most of that to me :) Usually people are asking where we are from, as they can obviously here we are not from the States. One funny incident was also when we stopped at a store to buy some Ice tea and Dr Pepper. R was wearing a hoodie that said something about Mt Everest. The guy looked at it and then asked from R "So have you climbed Mount Everest?" We couldn't but to take it as a compliment, that someone looking at us would even think that :-D Probably it also means, that the locals in Colorado are used to seeing all kinds of climbing people here.

Before heading to Utah, we decided to stop for a small hike by the I-70. The hiketrail is called Hanging Lake, and it was marked as moderate when we looked at it. We thought we can make it an easy stop since the trail was only 1,2 miles. It was also mentioned to be one of the most photographed places in Colorado. In the parking lot were caution signs, that please note this hike is DIFFICULT and please have good shoes and enough water with you.

We started walking easy paved road from the parking lot and though that well, this is still not too hard. However when we got to the beginning of the actual trail, it turned out that it is 1,2 miles straight up with an elevation of our 1000 feet. Challenge accepted! It took us an hour to get up, with few stops on the way and looking quite carefully where we put our feet. The trail took us across a forest in the canyon to a beautiful "Hanging" lake which was created from waterfalls coming from the top of the canyon. The place was really beautiful and the water was very clear.

And there goes the trail.. Somewhere..

"be aware of falling rocks"

"if you go on that tree I will take a picture"

Bear proof drink machines in the parking lot

Going down took a bit less time, but was not too easy either as we needed to carefully check where to put our feet. Now our knees got some good practice. We put Moab, Utah as our destination to the navigator. Luckily by accident we decided to stop in the Colorado National Monument before this, as it was an incredible place. The pictures don't do justice here. We were waiting for some big statue or similar, but instead we found a big national park -type of thing. And again, free entrance and $10 saved :) across the "monument" went a 23-mile long road which we took stopping here and there. R was categorically jealous of all the people doing the road with bicycles.

The driver..

.. and the cameraman

Not for those with fear of heights

After this we drove to Moab, which is a city in the "desert" of Utah. The city is focused on mountain biking, hiking and other canyon stuff. We found a good motel, but did the mistake of choosing a diner recommended by Tripadvisor. R told later, that any place where the average age is over 80 is not a good one. This is based on the obvious fact that old people don't have taste ;-) Also the diner did not offer any beer, which was either because of the state we are in or then because diners don't serve beer.

We are starting to be halfway our trip and so far everything has been going very well. Only damages are one burned nose, one burned back, one blocked ear (maybe? how do you test that really?) and maybe 2x highered cholesterol :)

P.S. To get over the bad dinner, we bought a small box of animal crackers from the gas station. And one beer for R.