Red Rock Road Trip - Arches National Park

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

We got an early start and were on the road by 6 a.m.  As we were getting on the freeway, Ben noticed that we had forgotten to bring our license plate map game.  It wasn't worth the 15 minute detour to go home and get it, so we decided to just make a list.  It took us all the way to Lehi to get a list of 50 states.  We need to work on our geography skills.  Emily was our scribe.  I loved her creative spelling of the state names (i.e. Keneticate).  We stopped in Layton to get some hot, fresh donuts from Krispy Kreme.  We made it to Arches around 10:30.  Our first objective was to do the hike to Delicate Arch.  By the time we got to the trailhead, ate some lunch, took a potty break, and got everyone slathered with sunblock, it was almost noon.  It was HOT and the hike was tough, but the kids were troopers.  Nate made a deal with Abby that he would carry her once we got to the slickrock if she would walk the rest of the way without complaining.  It worked.  She trucked along with the rest of us without whining.  We were grateful for the squirt bottle to help keep us cool and happy that my camelback really did keep our water cold for the whole hike.  I laughed at myself for making an effort to do the girls' hair before we set out.  Between sweating and squirting themselves in the face with water, they looked like ragamuffins by the time we got to the top.  We saw some older people starting up the trail when we were on our way down.  When I said something to the kids about doubting they could make it, Ben said “Bishop Foulger could make it and he’s 70.”  Ben wants to be just like Bishop Foulger when he grows up.  I think that would be wonderful.  We drove around the park to see a few of the other arches/rock formations and did some short hikes.  The kids were impressed with the cool arches and loved playing with the fine grained red sand. 

After spending the day in the sun, we were all very ready to get to our hotel and go swimming.  We had the pool pretty much to ourselves.  It was great to cool off after a long day.  Nate's friend at work is from Monticello and told us to try out the pizza at Wagon Wheel Pizza.  The food was just okay, but Abby made it memorable by knocking over a tall glass of root beer.  Fun times.