Day 2 of our Moab Adventure was going to be our "rough it - tough it" day. We planned to see as many arches as we could in one day so that we could explore other things for our final 2 days. We woke up at the crack of dawn ready to hike until we dropped.
I love that active duty military gets the free national park pass. We can go into any national park anytime at no cost. There are SO MANY National Parks in Utah!! This was our first time at arches so we were excited.
Everywhere you looked was gorgeous here. We kept getting out of the car to just take pictures with the beautiful scenery.
The first stop on our adventure was Balanced Rock. The kids enjoyed getting out of the car & exploring all around. We walked all the way around Balanced Rock, but we also veered onto other trails & hiked & climbed around a little bit.
After Balanced Rock, we found an area that had TONS of arches. First we went to Window Arches which were 2 arches right next to each other. You could look through both of them like windows & see the gorgeous landscape of Arches National Park. The kids enjoyed sitting, climbing, resting, & just being together here.
We hiked all the way around both windows, then headed directly across the way to Turret Arch. The kids really enjoyed the climb on this one. It was pretty steep to get into the arch, but they LOVED it.
After Turret Arch, we made our way around Elephant Rock to Double Arch. We spent quite a bit of time here. This is also the area that Indian Jones & the Last Crusade was filmed (the beginning part where Indiana Jones is a boy scout & runs out of the cave).
My boys made me nervous here. They are climbers & they got REALLY REALLY HIGH in the double arches. I'm not nervous when I climb, but it scares me to death when I see them doing it.
After double arch, we sat down near the parking area & had a family picnic. I had packed some sandwiches & fruit/veggies for them so we got well rested, fed, & filled up on water & bathroom breaks before we continued on to Sand Arch.
I think this arch was the kids' favorite. . . not necessarily for the arch itself, but for the fun around it. The whole area is covered in sand, so they loved rolling down the sand hills. Then to the left of the arch is a cave tunnel system that you can explore for hours (which they did). The climbed & crawled. . . got stuck, then unstuck, then would come back & go a different way. They had a blast here.
By this point, it was getting late & we were EXHAUSTED. Why we chose to do the hardest hike LAST is beyond me, but we refused to leave without doing Delicate Arch. I had no idea how hard that hike was! Not only was it difficult, but it was slightly terrifying with all the cliff edges. I'm not super scared of heights, but Trek is, & I could tell he was NOT liking having the kids so close to cliff edges. I'm not scared of heights at all, but even I was getting nervous with how steep the drops were. The hike itself has a lot of elevation gain (though it's a flat surface for the most part), it's exhausting after a day of hiking miles. My least favorite part was the direct upward hike on the slippery rock surface. You hike 100+ feet nearly straight up the side of a cliff rock.
The kids were EXHAUSTED.
But we made it to the top & made it to Delicate Arch. Once we got there, the kids forgot about how tired they were & they became crazy teens wanting to climb everything again.
Trek couldn't make it to the arch due to his extreme fear of heights, but he got some great pictures of us in the center. I don't blame him though. That arch is on a slant with 2 HUGE cliffs on either side, not to mention the crazy wind gusts you experience up there. One wrong step & you're gone. It was SO beautiful though.
Before the sun set, we made our way back down the mountain. We were all moving pretty slowly at this point. We were TIRED.
Once we got back to the car, we drove back to the hotel where I made some tacos for dinner & we watched some Doctor Who because we were too tired to do anything else. We went to bed early that night.
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