of weeks of tourism and exploration. I joked with them that they should just stay through Thanksgiving and have it with us. They laughed saying there was no way they would still be in Utah for Thanksgiving. This being the beginning of October...Kenny and I were able to take a day off of work and headed down Thursday evening to meet up with Mom and Dad.
We went to a local restaurant that was super yummy. I love eating at local restaurants...they are usually so good! We stayed the night in a hotel and woke up early the next morning to cram all we could into Arches.
My parents have a free (or at least it was super cheap) national pass to all of the parks because they are 'senior citizens'. It was fabulous! It got us in for free :)
This is a pic of one of the first sights we saw
when we entered the park. There were many
formations that had names...but we weren't
able to pick out all of them. Guess we needed
a tour guide :)
when we entered the park. There were many
formations that had names...but we weren't
able to pick out all of them. Guess we needed
a tour guide :)
Then there was balanced rock. I'm not sure how long it will
be around for as it looks so delicate!
I am really glad we were able to see it and walk around it
I am really glad we were able to see it and walk around it
Then we visited the 'window arches'. They were pretty cool. There were two of them right next to each other. I told Kenny to smile...big!
More pics....
This is the back side of the window arches. We did the little nature walk around them.
When we finished the nature walk, we headed towards 'double arch'. It was across the parking lot from the window ones. I can't believe how close they all are to each other!
Another pic...
One of my favorite arches is the sand dune one. This picture is right before you hike into the arch. It is behind all of these rock formations and then it opens up to a sandy area with the arch. It's really beautiful!
We had to walk through this narrow area. I had to get a picture!
And then shortly past that was the actual arch...love it!
After that we headed to the end of the park where the campground is.
From there you can hike for miles to other arches. We heard that there was
a really cool arch a few miles in that had two arches on top of each other. We were
trying to make it to Delicate Arch (the most popular one) before sunset, so we felt
pretty rushed. However we were able to see two really cool arches on this hike. It was definitely worth it! This one is Landscape arch.
It has a large part that fell off of it not too long ago. It was actually supposed to be named Delicate arch, but the two arches names were switched and they just stuck that way. It didn't seem dangerous, but there were really cool places to hike like on this. It was a huge rock with cliffs on both sides and you had to walk across it.
Here is the double O arch with the two on top of each other. Pretty impressive!
Then on our hike back here is another picture of the interesting rock formations we walked on.
And of course...me and Kenny :)
From there you can hike for miles to other arches. We heard that there was
a really cool arch a few miles in that had two arches on top of each other. We were
trying to make it to Delicate Arch (the most popular one) before sunset, so we felt
pretty rushed. However we were able to see two really cool arches on this hike. It was definitely worth it! This one is Landscape arch.
It has a large part that fell off of it not too long ago. It was actually supposed to be named Delicate arch, but the two arches names were switched and they just stuck that way. It didn't seem dangerous, but there were really cool places to hike like on this. It was a huge rock with cliffs on both sides and you had to walk across it.
Here is the double O arch with the two on top of each other. Pretty impressive!
Then on our hike back here is another picture of the interesting rock formations we walked on.
And of course...me and Kenny :)
After we made it back to the car we put the pedal to the metal and raced to the hike for Delicate arch. It was a pretty cool hike as part of it was on the slick rock. We got up there as quick as we could. Here is a picture of Pops hiking up the slick rock.
There were cairns all along the way to show the trail as you can see it could be quite difficult to know which way to go!
And here is what we saw at the summit! It was pretty cool as the trail winds you around so you can't see the arch until you get to the top.
It was very important to get up here for the sunset as the colors are very bright then.
I love this family picture! It sums up our whole experience!
The next day we decided to try our luck out biking on the slick rock. It was really quite fun.
We biked on the BAR-M trail. It was kind of slow at first and then it got really fun doing the slick rock.
Mom wasn't able to join us on the slick rock with her back, but she was able to find other parts of it while we went on one of the trails.
Kenny biking:
There were cairns all along the way to show the trail as you can see it could be quite difficult to know which way to go!
And here is what we saw at the summit! It was pretty cool as the trail winds you around so you can't see the arch until you get to the top.
It was very important to get up here for the sunset as the colors are very bright then.
I love this family picture! It sums up our whole experience!
The next day we decided to try our luck out biking on the slick rock. It was really quite fun.
We biked on the BAR-M trail. It was kind of slow at first and then it got really fun doing the slick rock.
Mom wasn't able to join us on the slick rock with her back, but she was able to find other parts of it while we went on one of the trails.
Kenny biking:
Dad biking:
And then me:
We finally got to the end of the trail...as we ended up getting really tired and were excited to be done. This was the end of the trail, but we still had about 20 min to ride to get back to the car.
I am very glad we didn't go in the summer...it would have been blazing hot!!
We had a fabulous time...even though we were exhausted. We made sure to sit in the hot tub that night!
We decided on Italian food that night. It was sooo good! We had to wait for a table...and we wanted one of those outdoor tables. So while we waited, we took photos. Ironically, this picture is one of my favorites of us! I used it in our Christmas card this year!
And another...not my most flattering though :)
Our fabulous dinner!
The next day was our last, we headed home that afternoon. We decided to visit Dead Horse State Park. Unfortunately mom and dad's national park pass didn't get us into it for free :( It had an interesting story associated with it. It is a point of land that has a narrow walkway to it and then it opens up into a larger flat area. The story is that cowboys back in the day corralled horses past the narrow piece and then made a fence along the narrow part. There were cliffs on all of the other edges so the horses stayed corralled there. Unfortunately the story is sad and they supposedly died there of thirst as they could see the river below but couldn't get to it. I don't like that story!
This picture is looking down from the 'horse' area. Mom and dad looked into a long bike trip that winds down through this canyon. Maybe next year :)
What a glorious trip! I am sooo glad we went! Thanks Kenny for taking work off so we could go down. And thanks Mom and Dad for making this possible!! It was one of my most fun vacations! Let's do it again!!
And then me:
We finally got to the end of the trail...as we ended up getting really tired and were excited to be done. This was the end of the trail, but we still had about 20 min to ride to get back to the car.
I am very glad we didn't go in the summer...it would have been blazing hot!!
We had a fabulous time...even though we were exhausted. We made sure to sit in the hot tub that night!
We decided on Italian food that night. It was sooo good! We had to wait for a table...and we wanted one of those outdoor tables. So while we waited, we took photos. Ironically, this picture is one of my favorites of us! I used it in our Christmas card this year!
And another...not my most flattering though :)
Our fabulous dinner!
The next day was our last, we headed home that afternoon. We decided to visit Dead Horse State Park. Unfortunately mom and dad's national park pass didn't get us into it for free :( It had an interesting story associated with it. It is a point of land that has a narrow walkway to it and then it opens up into a larger flat area. The story is that cowboys back in the day corralled horses past the narrow piece and then made a fence along the narrow part. There were cliffs on all of the other edges so the horses stayed corralled there. Unfortunately the story is sad and they supposedly died there of thirst as they could see the river below but couldn't get to it. I don't like that story!
This picture is looking down from the 'horse' area. Mom and dad looked into a long bike trip that winds down through this canyon. Maybe next year :)
What a glorious trip! I am sooo glad we went! Thanks Kenny for taking work off so we could go down. And thanks Mom and Dad for making this possible!! It was one of my most fun vacations! Let's do it again!!
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