Today we woke up in Moab. It rained all night and there were puddles of standing water everywhere. The place felt much less dusty than the day before. Everything was washed down and we were ready to get the day started with a trip to Arches National Park.
What we didn’t count on was the crowds. It seems like everyone is starting to move with us and the town of Moab is inundated with people, motorcycles, off-road all-terrain vehicles, more Jeeps than I could count and RV’s everywhere.
When we arrived at Arches, they had a sign out front that said “The park is full” and directed us to turn around at the traffic circle ahead and come back in 3 hours. Ouch. That wasn’t expected.
We pulled over and did a little reseach to find out that there is another arch that we could hike to that was not in the national park. We had discovered Corona Arch (also knows as little rainbow bridge) and Bow Tie Arch, which is right next to it.
It was a 15 minute drive from the national park to the trailhead and then we hiked 1.5 miles out to the two arches. There was a 500 foot elevation in the hike which was very similar to what we had been doing in Flagstaff but, the kids seemed to struggle with the hike.
It took us about 50 minutes to get out and only 30 minutes to get back. The kids go down hill fast, especially when there is a bathroom and an air conditioned Jeep at the end of the trail.
After the hike we drove back to Arches National Park and it was open! We drove about 40 minutes into the park and took in all the arches and rock formations. It’s really an incredible park.
We saw one of the rock formations that they call “the sheep” because it looks like a sheep (sort of). I pointed out “the sheep” to everyone as we drove through the park and Caitlin said, “No its not!” We all just looked at her and laughed. I told her that she’s going to have to take up her grievances with the park ranger because I didn’t name the rock. Lol.
We also saw balanced rock, the devils garden and the delicate arch before turning back towards home. I’m hoping we can come back when everyone isn’t blown out from hiking and excursion to few places. We’ll see how the week plays out.
Luke's Journey Across The USA 