Lots and Lots of...Arches!

So yesterday morning, we said goodbye to our family and friends in Denver and embarked on the National Parks leg of our adventure.

The first part of the trip was the drive on I-70 from Denver to Moab, Utah, the site of Arches National Park. The good news is that we didn't have any car trouble and the better news was the scenery. If you've never driven on I-70 through the Rockies and into Utah, it is really something special!

Lake Dillon (Summit County, CO)

Utah Countryside off I-70

The normal route from Denver to Moab calls to take I-70 to US route 191, but thanks to sound advice from our extended family, we drove on the scenic byway of Utah State Route 128.

Scenery off Utah SR-128 

Scenery off Utah SR-128 

Upon arriving in Moab at around 6 PM, we checked into our hotel and immediately went to Arches National Park to check it out. With the sun fading and our stomachs growling, we spent about an hour exploring and then grabbed some dinner, but we did get some nice shots in the interim.

Sign at entrance 

Park Avenue Section

Arches National Park

This morning we woke up early and got out of the hotel at 7:30 am (early for us at least) to take a hike on the most popular Delicate Arch Trail. Since Arches National Park is a desert, it is extremely hot during the summer and the last couple of days were no exception with the high temperature over 100!

Description of Delicate Arch Trail

The hike itself wasn't too terrible despite it being classified as a strenuous one, but it definitely helped that we did it early in the morning! Although some portions of the hike were a bit challenging, it paid off with a magnificent, close-up of Delicate Arch.

That's me under the arch!

After the Delicate Arch hike, we took a much less strenuous 1.5 mile hike to Landscape Arch, which we were told is the longest arch in the world!

Landscape Arch

At that point, we were baking so we decided to take a ride over to Canyonlands National Park, which was about an hour away. 

Canyonlands National Park

La Sal Mountains from Canyonlands National Park

After touring Canyonlands National Park, we headed back to Arches for the remainder of the day.

Like any other place with magnificent scenery, pictures don't really do it justice, but I think you can still appreciate the sheer size of these rocks that were shaped over the last 150+ million years.

North Window 

North and South Windows

Double Arch

Balanced Rock

Arches National Park and La Sal Mountains

La Sal Mountains from Arches National Park

Tomorrow we're off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming with an 8 hour drive in front of us. After a night in Jackson Hole, it's Tuesday through Friday at the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. Because we're staying at the properties inside Yellowstone, Internet access may be shoddy so we may not be able to publish another blog post until next Saturday when we get to Mount Rushmore (or perhaps even until Minneapolis on July 22nd!).

If you miss us, give us a ring! I'd imagine we will at least have cell phone service (or maybe not!).

Until next time!