I've never been. This year I told Ryan a few months ago that I wanted to go no matter what! Even with a new baby. Originally I started looking up prices on hotels, then I decided to ask my friends if anyone would like to join us on a little trip, surprisingly every one really wanted to come. So we ended up tenting it up at a campground instead. I was a bit worried about how this was going to work with a newborn baby, but it turned out not to be too bad. It was definitely hard, but not impossible. The worst was up at night in the tent, trying to feed/change her as quietly as possible...and feeding her during the day, say when we were at the top of a mountain at the arch on the edge of a cliff...or perhaps the 10 "poops" she decided to do during 1 hike...but it all worked out in the end. We had SOOOOO much fun with our dear friends, the good company definitely made the trip the most memorable! The kids were in pure heaven the whole time too.
The campground was a bit cramped. Lets just say I could see hairy legs from the lady in her tent behind us. Ugh...anyway, we made the best out of it...all 5 of us families were all next to each other...so at least we had good neighbors :)
There was a bit of construction at the front of the campground with a big dirt hill. Dirt+Camping+Little Boys=Hours of fun.
The first "hike" of the day (if you can call it that) was Balanced Rock.
Noah is learning from his sister about posing when you go to take a picture. What a pose!
Family photo in front of the Balanced Rock.
The second hike of the day...I don't remember what this one was called??? But the kids had a blast rolling down the sand hill.
We hiked a bit in this narrow canyon, it was beautiful.
SAND!!!!
Point of destination. It looks like a birds head/neck or the nose of an airplane?? Do you see it? That is the Shipley ants on top of the cool rock.
3rd hike: The Double Arch. Short hike, fun to climb around on, amazing to look at. It's hard to really see the second arch behind the first one, but you just have to wonder how in the world this came to be!
We found a fun spot on the river to let the kids play after hiking (and clean the sand off of them!). It wasn't long before Jess was completely emerged, I couldn't resist and followed suit. Although I did it by cliff jumping a little further down where the river was wider, deeper, and faster, it was thrilling! So much fun, I wish we would have gotten a picture of us jumping off our little rock...in our clothing, ahhahaha!
The famous Delicate Arch that I have seen my whole life on the License Plates, but never in person. Pictures just don't give it justice. It really was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The hike was a bit harder then I thought it would be with the kids, and I got a bit nervous when we started the part where you are hiking on the 3 foot ledge off the side of the mountain, but they were troopers (for the most part), and it was well worth it!
It looks like you could walk right back onto solid ground here past the arch, but really you are on a red rock cliff here, and the Arch sits right on the edge above a several hundred foot drop. Its
soo amazing!
...Till we meet again Arches!