Summer Vacation - July 4th Canyonlands National Park

July 4th was another busy day.  We decided to spend it in Canyonlands National Park. I think these pictures were taken at Shafer Canyon overlook.



Our next stop was Mesa Arch.  It was really pretty, but super crowded.  We managed to get a few pictures to look like we were the only ones there despite the swarms of people.

Natasha's picture from Mesa Arch

Natasha really liked how this road looked -- this is her photo

We stopped at several other overlooks.  They all started to kind of look the same.  At one place there was an older Chinese couple with their daughter.  I offered to take a photo of all three of them together and when I did it I said " yī , èr, sān," 1, 2, 3 in Mandarin. They acted surprised and started speaking Mandarin to me.  I  said "Wŏ shuō de bú hăo" which means "I don't speak well."  That just made them think I really did know how to speak, when the truth is that that is about the only phrase I know.  Jake understood that they were replying to me -- yes, you speak well.  Then he started talking to them and all the hike back the kids tried to remember bits of Mandarin they have learned and we had a broken conversation with the people.  It was fun and later we ran into them briefly again at the Grand Canyon.






Green River lookout


When we drove past the Whale Rock we decided to stop and hike up it.











That evening we bought a picnic dinner and went to a Moab school where we thought we would be able to see the fireworks and got a good spot.  It was nice to not have to buy and set any of our own fireworks this year.

Tasha's fireworks photos