Two hikes on the Tanque Verde Ridge Trail in two days

 I came back from Moab motivated to get a couple hikes in before my next trip. Yesterday (Friday, 4/24) a friend and I set out to hike the Tanque Verde Ridge Trail to the Tanque Verde Dome. I've hiked this trail numerous times, but because of time constraints never made it to the dome. I was finally going to get to do that. But my friend had some work commitments come up, so we decided we needed to turn around a little over halfway there. As I thought about it, I realized I had nothing on Saturday, so I got a different friend (who had to work on Friday) to join me. I am so grateful I finally got to do this hike. It's a great one. I love elevation gain (coming down, not as much. But with two poles I've learned how to protect my knees). Both days we hiked pretty rapidly. The views are amazing!

These were my setpes at the end of Friday. 

This is how far we made it on Friday

We saw this Collared Lizard sunning on a rock

Linette and me at one of the many good viewpoints. 

I saw this house and it looked pretty big, so I zoomed in for a picture. 

These were my steps after the hike (before lunch). As of typing this (3pm) I'm at 16,277. So I anticipate having a lot of steps today, since I'm going to a church function and that always means lots of steps. 

Here's our completed hike. It felt incredibly good to finally do the whole thing. It was also fun to do it quickly - we hiked faster than this shows, b/c I didn't pause it for our breaks. I do love a fast, climbing hike. It makes me feel alive!

My friend today, Jessica, pointed out this cute little cactus and said the fruit is very tasty, like a tart strawberry. She told me all cactus flowers and fruit are edible. I didn't know that. 

We saw another collared lizard today! This was was more brilliant in color (you can't really tell from the pictures. Yesterday's was more green, this one more blue. 

Jessica at one of the viewpoints. 

One of the views from the top of the dome. We had a clear 360 degree view of the valley and it was very cool. 

Jessica pointed out that we could see Picacho Peak! I had never seen it from Tucson. I zoomed in to get this picture. 

Jessica and me with the crested saguaro in the background. That crested saguaro is one of the reasons I wanted to complete this hike. It's at the saddle right next to the dome. 

I love these two pictures, and how the sky turned out. 

Bottom line, I'm very grateful that I live in Tucson, that I can hike, and that I had two days in a row to do these hikes. If all goes as planned, I'll get one more hike in next Friday with a different friend. We are planning to hike at Agua Caliente park. I've never been there. Should be fun...stay tuned. 

Moab April 15-18, 2026

My friend Debbie and I have talked for years about hiking in Moab, UT. We finally made it happen. Jon found a week with a timeshare open, and we spent four days and three nights enjoying the beautiful scenery.

It's a nine-hour drive from Tucson, so Jon and I took two days driving, staying in Holbrook, AZ, the first night. Last time we were there, with PK and Lois, we ate at a little Italian restaurant, and loved it, so we decided to go back. It was fantastic again. I got the salmon piccata (same thing I got last time) and Jon got the clam linguini, which he said had the perfect amount of spice. We will definitely go back next time we're in Holbrook. https://mesa-italiana-restaurant.menu-world.com/

We got to Moab Wednesday afternoon, and Debbie arrived shortly after (she lives in Ridgeway CO, so had about a three-hour drive). We went to dinner at Moab Brewery, which we also highly recommend. 

Thursday Debbie and I got up early to hike the Grandstaff trail. It is known for the Morning Glory Natural Bridge, 243 ft, the sixth longest natural rock span in the U.S. But the whole hike was spectacular. 

Here is an example of many "cut outs" I've seen around Moab, where rock slabs must have fallen out. 

This is a view of large rocks that we thought looked like Star Wars stormtroopers. 

This is the Morning Glory bridge at the end of the trail. There were a couple groups rappelling down from up top. We enjoyed watching them for quite a while. 

One of the rappelers. 

We thought these stairs made a nice picture. And see the creek - we probably crossed it ten times on this hike. 

We saw so many flowers on the trail, and I took quite a few pictures. This was one of the best pictures, and I always love blooming cactus. 

One of the amazing rock formations. 

Crossing the creek

Debbie on the trail. 

While Debbie and hiked, Jon drove through Arches National Park. He had sprained his ankle the week before while fishing in Williams, AZ. So no hiking, and not much walking for him on the trip. 

Skyline Arch

Petrified dunes and La Sal mountains in distance

Devil's Garden

It's called Double Arch

View of Moab from park entrance

On Friday Debbie and I hiked the Fisher Towers trail. She had hiked it when she was in Moab about ten years before. She remembered it as one of her favorites, and really wanted to do it again. I'm so glad we did! We debated whether to do it on Thursday or Friday. Thursday was supposed to be warm and windy, while Friday was expected to drop down to almost freezing. We were glad we made the decision we did. Fisher Towers wouldn't have been nearly as wonderful in the heat, and it snowed, so we got to experience that!

View from the parking lot. 

Getting ready for our hike. 

This rock formation caught my attention while we were hiking back. I debated posting a picture, because of the phallic resemblance. But as we hiked, it kept changing colors, and the rock balanced on top intrigued me. We saw many similarly balanced rocks, but this was the coolest. 

I knew there was a ladder on the trail, but didn't expect how scary it looked when we got to it. The ladder disappeared into a crevice. It looked like we were going to have to climb halfway down and jump across. My fear of heights came out big time. But once Debbie climbed down and found it was actually quite simple, I followed and it wasn't a big deal. 

The bottom of the crevice. Easy to walk up the crevice and climb up the other side. 

The ladder from the other side doesn't look as scary. One of the interesting things about the hike was that it said in the AllTrails notes that it isn't suitable for dogs b/c of the ladder. But we ran into several people with dogs. Some handed the dogs down the ladder. Some hiked up and around the crevice. 

These pictures don't show how enormous all these were. It truly was spectacular. 

This is one of the pictures that shows how small we were comparatively. 

I took this (above) picture on the way back. We didn't hike to the end of the trail (Debbie had been there before, and was recovering from previous illness, so we decided to be prudent and turn around). Our turn around point was a "finger" at the left side of the base of the right-most formation. Again, this gives you perspective of the enormity of the formations, and also how far we hiked. We did 3.86 miles, 1614 ft elevation game. 

Jon drove through Canyonland NP Friday, on a parkway called Island in the Sky.

On the way back to Tucson Saturday, we stopped to see some petroglyphs.

My overall impression of Moab - wonderful! It rivals Sedona. We loved the variety of restaurants, too. This wasn't the highest season, so it wasn't as crowded as Sedona usually is (people in the Sedona tourist industry once told us that Sedona only has two weeks of "low-season", in January. 

Our next trip: We leave May 9th to visit the girls in Spokane, and babysit while Rebekah and Anna go to a baby gear conference. Jon will stay about a week, and I will stay until May 30th or so, when I will fly home with Rinleigh so she can attend Vacation Bible School at our church. Then fly her back to Spokane. So I'll be busy May 9-June 9.  Here are a few pictures the girls have shared recently. You'll see the big news about their next family addition.

Elodie's 2nd bday, April 5 (Easter Sunday this year)

Rinleigh's 5th birthday, April 15

I'll hopefully have some great picture of all of us once we get to Spokane.