Arches Vacation

After Thanksgiving Dinner- Ben, the kids and I headed out on an adventure. We were trying to find somewhere close to go explore that we'd never been. We decided to give Arches National Park a try. Thursday night we drove as far as Price, and stayed in a hotel there. Friday morning we got up early and drove to Arches National Park. We got the kids the Jr. Ranger books, so they could earn the badges. Roo was so excited- usually he's too young for them- but Arches starts at age 4- so even he could do it.

First we went on a short hike out to Balancing Rock. Any time there was a rock that looked somewhat climbable- 3 boys were up on top of it in a matter of seconds.We took a hike out to Delicate Arch. What a view. and (yikes! Hang on tight Roo!)Some Indian Petroglyphs on the way to Delicate Arch.

Hiking up the trailThe boys all completed their Jr. Ranger Badges- The Ranger is swearing them in as Jr. Rangers. We spent the night in Moab, and got up early Saturday morning. We set out on a l-o-n-g hiking trail- called Devil's Garden trail. This is Tunnel Arch. I think this was Double O Arch- or rather the bottom half of Double O arch."But Mom, I'm tired of carrying the water backpack!" Says Doodle.Yes- this was the TRAIL! Up the cliff. Hang on tight (again) Roo!

What a view- a sidewalk in the sky. Just don't get too close to either edge of the sidewalk. Ben sketching at a rest stop along the trail. We each took our sketch pads, and will include our drawings in our nature journals later this week.The end of the trail! We made it- Dark Angel rock formation.We'd planned on trying a couple of more short hikes Sat. Afternoon- but after this one (which was marked strenuous) and totaled around 7 miles (yes- even 4 yr old Roo hiked it- all but maybe 1/4 mile on the way back down when he rode on dad's shoulders.) We were all pretty exhausted. So we went for a ride, and found some more ancient Indian Petroglyphs. They don't show up too well in the pics- but we thought they were amazing.

Sunday morning we found a church, and went to Sacrament meeting before hopping in the car and heading home. It was a great adventure, and we're looking forward to more hiking adventures.