Since Lucas is in 4th grade this year I decided we should take advantage of it and use his free national parks pass to visit Moab this year. It saved us quite a bit of money actually. We did two national parks and a state park in the two days we had. I was bound and determined to hike to Delicate Arch this trip; it's on my bucket list. We stayed home for the first half of spring break to let the kids breathe and have some relaxation at home, then we traveled south for the last half. It was a great trip despite the bumps and challenges we had that almost always creep up. This was the first time on a family trip that we didn't have any of the kids throw up! Even going through Price Canyon I was prepared with meds for the boys and we had no issues, yay!
Wednesday was a travel day and a night eating out and playing in the hotel pool. The kids couldn't wait for that part. Thursday was the big day we were going to hike the three mile hike to Delicate Arch. We got up early to beat the crowd, but we were met with some dark, low hanging, menacing looking clouds. We drove to the trail head and started the hike on a gravel path, but Hannah just couldn't go on. She had gotten sick the weekend Spring Break started and was coughing a lot, so Stephen took her back to the car to wait while I took the three boys. I had heard this hike was difficult and kinda scary in some parts, but it ended up being the most fun hike I've done so far. About halfway up it started snowing on us, and it just kept getting worse and worse the closer we got to the Arch. The last 1/4 mile was a path that you had to hug the wall on one side so you didn't fall off the cliff edge on the other side. At this point Zander started panicking. He doesn't like heights and he worries about his siblings getting lost or falling to their death, so I had to hold his hand and Grayson's hand the rest of the way up. It really wasn't that bad, but by the time we got to the top Zander was super pale and about to pass out from fright, so we took a minute for him to compose himself so he could actually enjoy seeing the famous arch. There is a big rock ledge you have to climb over and then walk down to the arch that sits at the edge of a cliff. It sits on a giant flat sandstone rock that slopes downward, so you really have to be careful walking to the arch. Zander wouldn't come with us all the way which was ok. He took our picture for us, but zoomed in up close so you can't tell we're at the arch, haha. We also had a nice older couple help us to take a picture with Zander in it too.
Looking back it was probably really dumb to take my small kids over the ledge all the way down to the arch in a snow storm. It's a good thing it sat on sandstone that has some grip and I bought all the kids new hiking shoes just for this trip because I knew there would be a lot of climbing big rocks. All the other families stood behind the ledge except for us, but we got there right before it started to get really bad. We got to see some of the petroglyphs on our way back down a different path. Grayson was getting tired by the end of the hike; I had to carry him part of the way down, but he did great. I am so glad I got to check that off my bucket list, but sad I didn't have my whole family with me. We'll have to go again sometime.
After Delicate Arch we took the kids to Sand Dune Arch. This place is every child's dream. It's full of soft, red sand, big rocks to climb, slots to squeeze through and of course another arch. But in the snow it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Such a bummer it was wet when we went to the park, but we still had lots fun and the kids climbed the rocks regardless. By the time we finished exploring the sand dune we got in the car after lunch time and headed back towards the beginning of the park to see other things, but it was snowing so hard we couldn't even see anything out of the windows, so we decided to call it, and left the park for the day.
Next we took the kids to Hole N' the Rock. This is now a museum, but it was erected in the 1950s by an LDS couple who used dynamite to blast holes in the side of the mountain and make a home in the rocks. It's around 5,000 square feet and really beautiful inside. We weren't allowed to take any pictures. They also ran a restaurant out if it, so locals and tourist alike would come visit. It was really interesting. After our tour the kids chose a souvenir to take home. Zander got himself a real meteorite, Lucas chose a slingshot, Hannah got a carved wooden frog that makes croaking sounds when you pet it with a mallet, and Grayson chose a giant pencil. He was pretty excited for that one. More swimming and hot chocolate and Jurassic Park movie that night.
Friday we got up early again and headed to Deadhorse State Park. Scott and Sydney told us it was a must see, so we made time for it, and boy are we glad we did. Deadhorse Point Lookout is one of the most photographed landscapes in the world, and it's not hard to see why. It's quite breathtaking, and I had no idea it was in our own backyard. We spent some time there looking around and climbing more rocks (that's all the kids wanted to do). Then we went to Canyonlands National Park and only did one stop at Mesa Arch because it started snowing again, and the kids really wanted to try and go back to Arches to finish the other places we didn't get to see the day before. Mesa Arch was really cool too because you can see Deadhorse through the arch in the background.
We ate lunch at a town park and then went back to Arches for the rest of the afternoon. It had stopped snowing for a while and we thought we had better luck going back to Arches, but by the time we got in and drove to Double Arch it started snowing again, but that didn't stop us! The boys were determined to climb the big high rocks. This was a highlight for all the kids. It was their favorite place to climb because they could climb as high as they wanted within reason. And again, because of the snow we called it a day and went back to the hotel pool and ate dinner out.
Saturday we checked out of the hotel and spend the morning at Moab Giants Park. It's a park with a playground, and life sized dinosaurs. It was cold and the wind was chilly, but the kids played for hours until lunch. The boys remember this place from the last time we took them, so they were looking forward to it. We headed home after lunch.
We stopped in Lehi at the Children's Hospital to see how Lucy was doing since she had surgery on her stomach to remove some magnets she swallowed the day before. We are so glad the outcome wasn't worse than it was. I'm sure that was really scary for Scott and Sydney, but they were all doing well and looking forward to going home soon. Lucy loved all the visitors and stuffed animals she got. We brought her a blue puppy and some juice. What a fun Spring Break we had!
No comments:
Post a Comment