After lunch.....

we got on the road again traveling north.  This time we took a road that we have been on many times between Amarillo, Texas and northern Utah.  However once again we made a stop where I have never been before----

A hint:

 

I am sure you guessed it--

Arches National Park

 

Again. my apologies to my other kids,

we should have stopped and visited this awesome part of the world.

 

 

We arrived well into the afternoon so our idea was just to take a brief visit to see if we wanted to make a trip down some other time.  At the first stop, Ben and I hopped out for a 1 mile walk through a canyon and we were hooked.  We tried to stop everywhere and see everything we could before it got dark.  We had to skip some of the longer hikes but we stopped and looked and walked as much as we could----and I definitely would go back again and again.

 

It was fun to hear all of the foreign languages of the people sightseeing by us.  It is hard to imagine sitting in France and saying, I want to go see this amazing spot in Utah, yet people come from all over the globe.  And I didn't see it in person until I was 60---that is terrible.

 

Ben and I took the hike through a canyon.  It was very striking and beautiful.

 And a bit hot.....

Amazing what sand and dirt and wind and rain can do.............

Because it is a canyon formed by a river, part of the ground is slip rock which was left by the seasonal rains.  The patterns and variation was impressive.

 

And then there are the big boulders.  I assume they fell there but perhaps they were brought by water in the past.  We were the only ones on the trail for much of the time and it was quiet which made it perfect to marvel at the rocks in every direction.

Then we were back on the road again.................

 

 We took the short hike to North Window

 It was windy under the arch.  I heard someone gasp as they looked through the arch just ahead of me.  Even with that heads up, I too gasp as I saw the valley beyond.  It was well worth the short walk.

Everywhere were unusual sights--rocks of every shape and size and color............

Delicate Arch---- 

We didn't take the hike because we hadn't done enough research to know if Jena could manage it.  This was from a viewing area down below.

We got to the end of the road and Gary told me to hop out and take pictures.  It was getting late and we knew that we were running out of day light.  However after Ben and I got out and took some pictures, we met up with Gary and Jena as they were able to get a parking spot for the RV.  We deicded to walk down the path towards Landscape Arch.  I have never been in slot canyons before and the first part of the trail was a little like slot canyons.  We hiked as far as we dared but didn't quite make it to the end before we decided we needed to turn back or risk running out of daylight.  It was pretty dark by the time we got back to the parking lot but it was a pretty time of day to see the moon in the sky and the changing of the colors from the sunset.  A hike left for another day and time.

 

 

This plant was blooming when we came out of the canyons
but it had been closed during the day light.  I knew there were
plants like that but it was fun to see.

We hopped in our RV and headed north and then west until we made it to Green River State Park where we ate salad and leftovers at 11:00 pm before going to bed.

This was the first and only time the TV
was on while we were on our trip.
We watched "Frozen" briefly before going to bed.



 

Tuesday, we (meaning Gary) woke up bright and early and started the drive back home and we arrived around noon--just in time to clean up and start back into our Tuesday routine of school (me), Institute (Jena) and bowling with Allan (Gary).

 

And that was the end of an amazing week of traveling.  We live in such an amazing world--how lucky we are.