Moab 2011: part 2

The next day in Moab we went to Arches National Park. We'd been there before and the kids have been begging us to go back ever since.

We saw a few new places, felt the nice, warm sun, ran into friends from Salt Lake (and high school - weird?)

First stop: Sand Dune Arch

This is Jack at the entrance of the short hike to Sand Dune Arch. I love being in those slot canyons. So cool.

Right before the arch it opened up a bit more and there were some great places to climb. The ground was also all sand.

Little Henry did great in this backpack on every hike. But he did get his first sunburn. We forgot his sunhat.


And here's the actual arch. It was definitely one of our favorites so far. The boys climbed around and could have played in the sand for hours. They could have gotten up on top of the arch, but you're really not supposed to do that - so they didn't.

Next stop: View to Delicate Arch

You can hike to Delicate Arch, but it was at least 3 miles, so we opted for the view hike - which was only a mile or so. This is a photo of the arch from the hike we didn't take (not my photo.)

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Luke and I hiked together and Dan went ahead with the older boys. He kept using his binoculars to look for them.

Here is our view of the arch - far far behind the boys. You can see there are some people out further than them but we didn't go up to the edge.

In all that dry desert there are a surprising number of plants, but this was the only flower I came across while hiking. Pretty.

Last stop of the day: Double Arch

Here are the guys in the parking lot - waiting for the rest of us. This is a pretty short hike up to the double arch on the far left. Can you see it?

Seriously - you should be careful in the winter here because if you aren't - your head could spin around to the back and you might end up doing the splits.

Another view of Double Arch on the hike there.

Climbing around once we're under the arches.

Those are 3 of my boys up there inside that arch.

And one more thing: I told you that the boys earned Junior Ranger badges in both parks, but I didn't tell you about how horrible the illustrations are in the booklet. Actually - the inside pages weren't nearly as bad as the cover pages. SO bad. I could do a better job - and I'm not an illustrator. Am I right?

p.s. To see photos of the last time we went to Moab - go here and here.

Moab 2011: part 1

Last week was our Spring Break and we decided to take another trip to Moab. The boys love going there to climb the rocks and swim in the hotel pool.

This time we started off by going to Canyonlands National Park. We'd never been there and it was pretty cool. A lot different than Arches. The boys earned Junior Ranger Badges in each park - so they learned a lot and had a fun time doing it.

First stop: Gemini Bridges (on the way to Canyonlands).

We took a short hike to a big hole in the ground. This bridge was on the other side of the hole. You can't see it from here, but there's another bridge directly behind this one.

Here are Dan, Sam, and Charlie standing on this same bridge. Kind of scary.

Even scarier - when we got over on that bridge to look back at where we were just standing - we kind of freaked out. It looked like the ground below was going to fall right out from under us.

Trying to keep Luke entertained so he wouldn't fall off a cliff.

Next stop: Mesa Arch (inside Canyonlands)

It was a short hike to this arch, but you could go right up to it and there was a huge drop off. The kids were running around and didn't really get how dangerous it was, so Dan and I were kind of totally freaking out. I got a few photos and we left right away.

At least there were some good rocks to climb on and this one where Charlie was sitting is the perfect little seat.

Next stop: Whale Rock (inside Canyonlands)

This is what Whale Rock looks like from the parking lot. Too bad there's not a person in front for scale. It's pretty big. We climbed up on top of it. The boys LOVED it.

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Here are Sam, Charlie, and Jack on top.

Here are some more of us on top.

Some great signs on the way to Moab.

This sign was for a Chinese Restaurant right by our hotel in Moab. A scoop of what? We never found out.

Redrock in Moab

Moab photos

Right when we got to the hotel we went swimming. Everyone loved it and even Luke was jumping off the side. Then we had a lovely (not really) dinner at Denny's.

Everyone was so excited to sleep in the hotel but no one wanted to share a bed. Jack told me before we even got there that he'd rather sleep on the floor than sleep in a bed with Sam and Charlie (but there was a couch there so he slept on that). Charlie claimed this chair (apparently he didn't want to sleep with Sam either.)

Here is Sam, happy to have the entire queen bed to himself.

We found another chair to put next to Charlie's so that he wouldn't really have to sleep in just one chair. (We also tried to persuade him to sleep in the bed with Sam, but he wasn't having any of it.)

Here's everyone ready to go hiking in a pair of Dan's old, broken glasses.

Jack wouldn't put on the glasses and didn't want to be photographed either.

Moab (Finally)

The day Luke got admitted to the hospital was Easter. The next day was the start of our spring break and we were planning to go to Moab. The plan was to get a hotel with a pool so the kids could swim, only stay one night, and go hiking the next day. We didn't go that Monday as planned, but the doctor said we could try Wednesday.

Wednesday we packed up, got in the car, and drove down to Spanish Fork (where it was very lightly snowing). Spanish Fork is where you head east and start going over the mountains. The snow got heavier and heavier as we went higher and just as we passed the summit we got stuck behind a line of cars we couldn't see the beginning of. We found out there had been an accident and it would take at least an hour to clear. By then it was 6:30 pm and if we went around the long way we wouldn't get there until 10 pm or so. So we drove home.

We finally left the Sunday after Easter, when the weather was perfect and so was the drive. We just took the kids out of school on Monday. It worked out great.

I'll put the pictures in another post or two.