Day Hike + Night Cruise - Moab, UT

Hi all, Dianne here.  There are lots of good places to hike with dogs around Moab.  One hike that we'd read about and was recommended to us by our good friend Sue was the Negro Bill Canyon Trail.  We set our alarms, packed up, and set out to be on the trail by 7:30 a.m. to beat the heat.  Just in case the dogs got hot before our return, we brought along their new doggie shoes and cooling vests. 

Bandido and Tequila were so excited!  Not only were there lizards to give them a thrill around every turn, but swimming minnows in the clear stream to pounce on.  

Parts of the trail were very narrow and closed in by vegetation (including some poison ivy that kept us on constant alert), but amazingly no mosquitos, gnats, or biting flies.  The surface was soft sand in parts, and slickrock in others, including a bit of scrambling here and there.  

Tequila proved herself as a great little hiker on any terrain -- she bounds up the rocks like a mountain goat, and actually jumps better than Bandido, even with his longer legs.  

This is a perfect hike for dogs!  We were shaded by the canyon walls for most of the hike, and we got to ford the little stream about ten times each way.  

The trail ends at Morning Glory Natural Bridge, where a natural spring seeps out of the rock wall and forms a shallow pool.  It was so large I couldn't get the entire bridge into one shot.  

Here's a few shots from underneath:

View from directly below

We let the dogs sniff around and play in the pool of water for a while before we started our return trip.  

Hey!  Is that a minnow?  What is a minnow, anyway?

Toward the end of our four-hour hike, the dogs were starting to get tired and hot.  

We soaked their new cooling vests in the stream and put them on.  There was still enough shade that we didn't have to put on their shoes due to hot sand.

I think the vests really did cool them off, because they didn't run for shade, dig a hole, and lie down like they did on our last hot hike.  
Now for the night cruise...

When Roger did his research on the Moab area, one of the things he really wanted to do while here was take the Canyonlands By Night & Day night boat ride and experience their sound and light show.  We arrived at their dining room for a delicious western-style dinner, then boarded an open barge for a cruise on the Colorado River at night.  

Somehow, Roger and I ended up with the best seats on the barge (very front row on the side).    The boat ride began with an interesting talk about the history of the area, and Dee, our guide, pointed out some interesting rock formations in the shadowy twilight.  

When it was truly dark, Dee sat down and a recorded narrative about Moab's history played over the boat's loud speakers, timed with lights aimed at the canyon walls.  That part was a little cheesy, but we did enjoy the boat ride on the Colorado River, and experiencing the canyon in the moonlight was nice.  

The pet photo of the day shows Bandido and Tequila doing a synchronized sniff near the natural bridge on our canyon hike.