The Exciting Eppersons: Arches

Mike had a Saturday off for the first time in months last week so we decided to go somewhere for the day. We haven't been to Arches so we decided to make it a family trip. We got up super early (like 3:50am) and got the car all loaded up and got the boys. We were in the car by 4:30am and we got to Moab before 7:30.

When we got to the park no one was working at the entrance even though the gate was open so we just went into the park. The entry into the park is beautiful!. You drive on switch backs up a cliff and then the park just opens up and it is beautiful.

I had planned a couple hikes that would be short and easy to do with the boys. We also didn't want to go too crazy since its so hot and Daniel tends to say he's hot just walking into the house from the garage. Our first stop and hike was Balanced rock.

The next stop was a hike to the windows section of the park. We did a mile hike to the windows and to the turret arch. Liam rode in the back pack but Dan hiked. We bought the boys each a back pack for the trip and each bag had a leash. These were awesome to have. Dan is pretty good about walking with us but he loved his backpack! He wouldn't go anywhere without it and it was great for him to carry his water and snacks :) The leash was really helpful with Liam though when he was out and walking.

Can you see Mike?

Standing in the North Window

We hiked to Double O Arch next and it was amazing! It is the largest double arch in the world. Daniel was so tired by this point that when we got there he just sat on a rock and let out a huge sigh.

Delicate arch is the most iconic arch in the park but it is a more difficult hike and longer. We decided that if we did this hike then we wouldn't be able to do anything else. We wanted to see the park so we opted to hike to the view point for the arch. It was really nice to see.

The last stop for us was the sandstone arch. This one was beautiful. Its not the biggest but its inside a little canyon which was really cool to walk through. We kept commenting that we want to come back to this canyon at night to see the stars through the slot. This was Daniel's favorite hike too. He was climbing all over the rocks. It was so funny because he gets scared when you sit him on a counter but apparently climbing rocks isn't scary at all.

Apparently he likes to climb

We had a great time! The park was gorgeous and we can't wait to go back and hike some more. I'm so glad we got to the park super early because we didn't have to deal with huge crowds. Their was a huge line to get into the park when we left. We even tried to pay but they just told us to pay next time we come :)

After the park we went for a drive up the Colorado River outside of Moab. It was a very pretty drive. We found a trail to see dinosaur bones but it wasn't well marked and we didn't feel like scaling the side of a mountain with 2 little boys.

The boys were exhausted on the way home. Daniel was asleep within minutes of getting in the car and slept the whole way home. Liam had actually taken a little power nap as we were leaving the park but he also fell asleep about a half hour into the drive home.