A week in Utah (1 of 2)

Jonathan Little discusses life on on the Texas Holdem poker tournament trail and away from it. Speaking of trails Little took a break from crushing high stakes mtts and Sit'n go tournaments
to actually go hiking:


Life has been grand lately. Amie and I went on a weeklong trip to southern Utah to go hiking. I will give a quick summary of each day.

Day 1: We drove from Vegas to Bryce Canyon, which is a canyon full of hoodoos. We went on a short hike where we saw a cute little chipmunk get gobbled up by a raven. We ate at the Bryce Canyon lodge, which is also where we stayed. The food was just meh and overpriced. There were lots of deer walking around the area that clearly wernt scared of humans. It was cool.

Day 2: We drove to Moab and went hiking in Arches National Park. We went on the Devil�s Garden trail where we got to see 7 giant stone arches. While we were walking the trail, a snake attacked a chipmunk right in front of us. It strangled it and eventually ate it. It was wild seeing it happen right in front of us. Apparently chipmunks don�t live long. We ended up hiking the full 8 mile trail. When we had around a mile left, it started pouring down rain. We were supposed to stay at a campground in a tent while in Moab but we decided to get a hotel room because we were soaked and it would be no fun setting up a tent in the dark.

I called La Quinta Inn and they said they were out of regular rooms but they could give us the Jacuzzi suite for less than a regular room so I obv booked it. It was a nice room but was seriously lacking in the details department. It could have been really nice. We ate at a place called Bucks Grill house. Again, it was meh and overpriced.

Day 3: We went to Canyonlands National Park, which is also near Moab. We wanted to go on a 9 mile hike around Upheaval Dome but were advised against it by a ranger because it is a tough trail and it was going to rain soon. We instead went on an easier 6 mile long hike which was ok. We got rained on a little but it wasn�t too bad. We ate at Jay�s Pasta. My dish, some baked linguini in a sausage marinara sauce, was the nuts. Amie had stuffed shells which were not nearly as good. Bad beat. We walked around town a little and stayed in the tent. It was coooooold.

Day 4: We had booked a rafting trip but decided to skip it because it was raining. Sickly enough, they refused to cancel the trip despite a tornado warning being in effect. I am still a little pissed about that. We went to the Delicate Arch, which is on Utah�s license plates. It was at the top of a semitough 1.5 mile hike. Despite a fairly tough hike, there were tons of people at the top. Amie and I got some pics under the dome, which was cool. It was pretty hot on the trail, probably because there was no shade.

I got a little sun burnt, which isn�t surprising. After that, we decided to check out a short version of the Upheaval Dome trail. By the time we got out there, it was about to rain. The temperature went from pretty hot to very cold almost instantly. We saw the dome then ran back to the car. We were driving out of the park when hail started pounding the top of my car. It is crazy how it went from hot to cols so quickly. Utah weather is weird. We ate at Jeffery�s Steak House, which was very good. I would for sure visit it again.

To be continued...