Day Eight
We spent the entire day in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM. We started the day by driving to Santa Fe (I skipped the cinnamon roll from Frontier Restaurant from the day before…but I was tempted!).
We walked around Santa Fe Plaza, visited a few of the local Chapels and Cathedrals, including the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and got to have an authentic New Mexican lunch at Cafe Pasquals.
The above is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis, which was a well-known attraction in the area, but I actually thought the small Chapel Loretto was a lot prettier (pictured below).
I got The Lady Enchilada at Cafe Pasquals for lunch. It was good but pricey!
After exploring Sante Fe, we headed back South (about an hour) to Albuquerque.
We took the Sandia Tramway up to Sandia Peak for an amazing view and yummy dinner at the mountaintop at the High Finance restaurant. The Sandia Tramway is the longest pedestrian tramway in North America. It took about 20 minutes to get to the top. Luckily, I have no problem with heights. But, I could see how it would be scary for those who do!
There was definitely a lot of snow on the top of the mountain! We took a short hike through the snow. That was a big change for this Floridian!
The view up there was amazing!
And the view was so cool at night too! This is downtown Albuquerque!
Dinner at the High Finance restaurant at the top was really good. We got to see the sunset from inside the restaurant while we enjoyed our dinner. Wes and I have been obsessed with spinach artichoke dip and we got one for an appetizer. It was probably the best I’ve had, ever!
By the time we took the tramway back down, we made it back to the hotel by about 9pm. Bedtime!
Day Nine
Today we got up bright and early with big plans!
We changed our plans today by heading North to Arches National Park in Utah. We have heard so many great things about Arches and Wes has been dying to go there. Instead of heading straight to the Grand Canyon, we decided this was a must-see stop, even if it was a bit out-of-the-way.
We went through Durango, CO on the way to Moab, UT and stopped for lunch downtown. Downtown Durango was really cute. I would definitely go back for a longer visit.
We arrived in Utah at about 2:30pm after about a 7hr drive from Albuquerque, checked into the hotel in Moab, UT and headed straight to Arches National Park.
(On a side note…if you are ever traveling with dogs and want to get a hotel, all the La Quinta hotels take dogs for no additional fee. The rooms have been really nice so far and pretty inexpensive. We are on the lookout for more La Quinta hotels at our next stops).
I am so glad we decided to take the detour to go here! It is incredible!
We took a 1.7 mile hike up to The Delicate Arch. It was a pretty steep hike and definitely tested my endurance. But, it was well worth it!
You turn a corner at the end of the hike and the huge arch is BAM! Right there! And it’s amazing!
It was so massive that it was hard to even capture it in a picture.
And, of course I did my #pushupandplank challenge at the arch!
After the hike back down, we were starving! We went to dinner in Moab at a local restaurant called Zax. Of course we got another spinach artichoke dip appetizer! It wasn’t quite as good ad the night before, but still yummy! The pita chips they use around here are so good!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to do some laundry and rest. I rolled my ankle a little on the hike so I’m currently putting some ice on it. I hope it’s not too sore in the morning!
Have you ever been to Arches National Park?
What’s your favorite National Park?
You can catch up on the other Roadtrip Series here:
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