Spring Break Trip – Day 3

We went here

And it was AWESOME! Seriously words and pictures cannot do it justice. If you have never been here – plan a trip right now! This is why we love national parks, it doesn’t get much better than this!

We started out the day by hiking to Delicate Arch. That would be the famous arch that you see everywhere like on the Utah license plate. It was a 3 mile hike and rated as strenuous in the guidebook, remember we were hiking with a baby (a rather heavy baby) and a five year old. But we are adventurous folks so we said “what the heck” let’s give it a try. And . . .

This is what we hiked! This is a picture from the parking lot (a little out of color picture, we’ll fix that later with good ol’ photo shop) but anyway we hiked from here to the VERY top of the hill/mountain. Yes we walked all the way across that flat rock stuff (called slick rock FYI) and around that big cylinder rock at the top. Here let me show you exactly what we did.

We are headed towards that large expanse of flat rock (aka slick rock) in the top left

And this is what it looked like when we got there! That is Don and Tanner right about in the middle to the right. And how did we know which way to go you ask, well we followed these little rock piles called cairns.

It was Tanner’s job to look for the cairns. We didn’t get lost – good job Tanner! So we hiked all the way to the top to get here. . .

Absolutely incredible views and yes that is a big cliff just to the left of them that my dear son could tumble down . . . but it was all worth it to see THIS

DELICATE ARCH

And we had the whole arch to OURSELVES! Usually there are tons of people up here and you get tons of people in your pictures. It was seriously one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. And yes that is Don, Tanner and Brynn underneath the arch and yes that is a VERY big canyon right below them. I was hyperventilating at this point and poor Tanner was in tears because we made him walk across the scary edge to go under the arch - hey this was a once in a lifetime photo opportunity!!! He will thank us one day. Editors note: Grandparents your grandchildren were in no danger at anytime, really, well unless they tripped. . . which they didn’t! And by the way if you are scared of heights this hike it not for you! This was looking down when you were standing underneath the arch :0) And yes Don did all this with Brynn in the backpack on his back!

Look that’s Tanner and I!! Seriously everyone has got to do this sometime in their life – don’t wait – go now! Fortunately we had the whole arch to ourselves, unfortunately we couldn’t get any family shots of us all because you know I couldn’t do the self timer thing and run to get under the arch in time, fortunately we all survived, unfortunately it was very windy (a very cold wind) on the top of this plateau which didn’t help the height issue and the thought of getting blown into the canyon so we couldn’t take a lot of time to just really sit and enjoy this experience (Brynn’s little cheeks were bright red and Tanner was crying remember) so we got our pictures and hustled right on out of there. But I hope Tanner remembers this experience (if he doesn’t need therapy from it) and Brynn we have the pictures to prove you were there! It truly was an amazing adventure. And we lived to tell about it!

So after our 2 1/2 hour hike to Delicate Arch Brynn took a 3 hour nap (and she didn’t even do any hiking!) So we took a nice leisurely drive, had another car picnic, Tanner completed his junior ranger activities and just chilled in the car until she woke up. Again when traveling with a baby never plan too much! Then we took a short 1.2 mile hike to here.

Landscape Arch. It is one of the longest arches in the world, over a football field long, and one everyone must see if you are ever here because it could collapse at any time. A large (like HUGE) chunk of rock fell from it 18 years ago and the rest could go at any time!

We ended our day with yes, another junior ranger badge. And Tanner definitely earned this one after all the hiking he did today, he really was quite the trooper!

An amazing, amazing day! We are planning on coming back tomorrow to do one more hike to see window arches and then go to Canyonlands National Park – do I foresee another junior ranger badge on the horizon??? And please a warmer (no wind!) day.

PS - I must add this big event. After hiking all day Don and Tanner went to the hotel pool and hot tub, because you know if you are a kid it doesn't matter how tired you are if there is a pool around! And Tanner swam (with a little dog paddling) all the way across the pool by himself!! Go Tanner! He was pretty darn proud of himself!