On Saturday we got an early start and headed into Arches by 9am. We wanted to get all the way to the top of the park to explore Devil's Garden. This area has a number of arches on a 7 mile "loop" trail. We weren't sure how far we'd go...we just headed out to explore. The first arch we came to was Tunnel Arch.
A short hike to the next one was Pine Tree arch. There was a pine tree growing right under the arch and that is why it was named that. We took pictures inside the arch and soon learned that you can't see any faces in the shade under an arch. So as we were leaving Kim and Katie had the idea to take a picture in the sun. I think it turned out great!
Another hike and we found ourselves at Landscape Arch. I think this is one of my favorite arches. It's really long and just looks kind of fragile because it spans such a huge distance. In face, in 1991 a huge piece of the arch fell off and came crashing down. Now they don't let you go in this arch...only view it from a distance. You can't help but wonder if it will collapse completely in the "near" future...maybe 200 years!
We were having so much fun exploring that we decided to keep going. We hiked and hike to the next turn off and headed to Navajo arch.
We spent quite a while exploring the area around Navajo arch. There was a slot canyon that Evan and Mayce figured out how to get up and get on top of the bluff. They were up exploring and making a Go Pro video of the amazing views they had from up there. We waiting and then worried about them getting down and with good reason. There were some jumps and scary moments for them to get back down, but they loved it! While we were there we decided that we needed a big group picture and we asked a poor passer by to take our picture...on 3 different cameras. I think he did a great job!
From Navajo arch it was a long way to the farthest arch...Double O. Everyone was doing pretty well and most of us decided to push on. It was some tough hiking, but again, once we reached Double O, it was worth it! We were getting pretty hungry by this time (3 1/2 hours in...about 1pm!) and discovered that we forgot the pack with the snacks in it. Luckily, Kim was prepared with just about everything in her backpack and we scarfed her homemade energy goo (which was delicious!!) and decided to continue the loop onward that eventually lead back to the car.
The hike back was supposed to be the "easier" way and maybe it was, but we were getting tired and hungry at this point!! The little kids did amazing on this mega hike, but needed a little help near the end!
The "easy" way ended up having one of the scariest parts of the hike. There was a narrow ledge taht you had to ease yourself across and there was no room for error. Luckily there were some people there making their way at the same time as us and it was a group effort to get everyone through safely.
After another 1.5 hours of the "easy" way back we arrived tired, hungry, and sore to our cars. It turned out to be a 5 hour adventure and an estimated 7 miles! Phew! It was again perfect weather and such a beautiful experience...but we ate our lunch and headed into Moab for some ice cream! We deserved it!
All in all it was a great getaway. We had a fun night around the campfire and a great game of whiffle ball at camp as well....no pictures. It made for a good mix of work and play for our Spring Break 2015!
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