We went on a small trip for Fall Break, the weekend before last! The first day of Fall Break we had a lovely day staying at home and hanging out and getting ready for our trip. Daniel had to work that day, so we left the next day, Friday. We got up and left first thing in the morning after we got ready for the day and drove down to Arches National Park. It was a beautiful drive down. The leaves were all changing in the hills and mountains we were driving through. It was snowing a little bit while we drove, and it was just so pretty. There was one pass through the mountains that was kind of scary to drive. It was very snowy and icy. But once we got through that, it was all good.
Once we got to the national park, we stopped first at the visitors center and walked through the museum and gift shop before heading into the park. We drove into the park and stopped at different fun hikes and stopping points. It was little cold and rainy that day, but we had umbrellas and jackets, so it wasn't too bad. We went on a cool hike right near the entrance to the park, Park Avenue trail, where we hiked down into this canyon. We didn't do the whole hike, because it was pretty long. But it was the favorite hike of the day.
We also saw
- the Balanced Rock and hiked around it and took pictures.
- Double Arch and Parade of Elephants
- Window arches. This hike was a little over a mile, and we did it, even though the kids were kind of done with hiking and walking around arches and rocks.
There was a little trouble with our hotel booking in Moab, which we had to stop and take care of before checking into a room in our hotel. When we finally did, everyone was tired, hungry and grumpy, including me. We found a place to go get dinner downtown in Moab. We went to a local restaurant and ate some delicious food, and then went back to the hotel and put kids to bed. We had 2 rooms that first night, because of the mix up, and it was kind of a stressful night of sleep for me, because we had the kids in one room and Daniel and I were in the other. The rooms were right next to each other, but I was worried the whole night about them being in a hotel room all by themselves all night.
In the morning, everything was fine, so I didn't need to have worried so much. But we did find out that they stayed awake and played and talked for quite a while at the beginning of the night before they finally went to sleep.
The weather was beautiful the second day at Arches National Park. Our main activity that day was hiking out to Delicate Arch. The hike was almost 3 miles round trip, much of it climbing up big hills of sandstone. The kids did great, for the most part. Jack did complain quite a bit, as is his way with hiking. But we all made it in the end. And it was such a cool arch to see! I can definitely see why it's so popular and well-known. The whole backdrop for it is magnificent. It's located in this little sandstone bowl, and it just rises up on one edge. It's very cute. Probably my favorite part of going to Arches National Park was doing the hike and seeing Delicate Arch and hearing Jack call it "the Utah Arch." :)
We were basically done with National-park-seeing that day after our big hike. So we drove out the park and went to see the Colorado River and walk across a cool bridge on the outer edge of Moab. And we hit a grocery store for dinner and a few extras for the rest of the trip.
Camille's birthday was on Sunday, and we went to church in the morning and had a birthday lunch out by the hotel pool: black bean burgers and chips and drinks. That afternoon, we drove out to Dead Horse State Park and walked around and took pictures; and then drove into Canyonlands National Park. When we got there, it was just sprinkling the tiniest bit. We went to the visitors center to see their exhibits and do a little souvenir shopping. The boys talked to one of the rangers, as well, and Jack got set up in their junior rangers program, which is just a booklet with activities for them to do. But Jack was promised that if her completed the booklet and brought it back to show them, he'd get a cool ranger pin. He was SO excited about it and wanted to get started and finish it right away. By the time we were done in the visitors center, it was pouring outside. We ran out to the car and started driving through the park, but the weather was so bad that it was hard to see anything. It was very cold and wet, and we did get stop and get out of the car at some of the lookout points, but it was so misty and rainy, we could barely see things. Sometimes, some of our party would just stay in the car (mainly the boys). We didn't stay there long because of the weather. We just drove back to the hotel for dinner and rest. And that was okay.
The next day, my birthday, we packed up the car and headed out in the morning for our last day of exploring. We went back to Canyonlands National Park. The weather was perfect! Cool and clear skies and sun. We drove through the park and stopped at different points to see things. We did a few small hikes to see different formations and views, and we took a bunch of pictures. We had a picnic lunch outside and just enjoyed being there. We left to go home about 4 in the afternoon.
On the way back, since it was my birthday, we stopped for dinner in Price, Utah. I picked out the place, and I was kind of feeling this little Asian restaurant. It had decent reviews and at least 4 stars. When we drove up, it looked like a dump, just so much ghetto. But people were eating there, so I thought it'd be fine. Plus, with Asian restaurants, sometimes hole-in-the-wall places are the best. But man! I was so wrong! I might venture to say that I have never been MORE wrong. It was so awful! We ordered a variety of Asian dishes, and it came out within 10 minutes ... not a good sign. And it tasted so bad. Kind of like frozen food that they just heated up and then heated up again. So not good. The kids didn't complain at all; they liked it, actually, and I'm glad. Because Daniel and I were essentially choking it down. I think at one point Daniel even thought to himself, "Is there anything in the car I could eat?" It was kind of humorous. And what was with all those people who gave that place 5 stars and good reviews??? Liars, all!
It was a fun and beautiful trip! The perfect way to spend our fall break.
