Moab, UT - Arches NP, Canyoneering, UTVing

Afterward, we drove back towards town to Arches National Park to check out its visitor center and admire many of the arches and sandstone formations near the front of the park (with the lovely guidance of Mr. Dave, of course!). We got a kick out of the Three Penguins that from above greet every visitor entering the park. Some other favorite rock formations of today include Park Avenue, Three Gossips, and Balanced Rock. The vast landscape of petrified sand dunes with the snow-capped La Sal Mountains in the background is certainly an ironic combination and stark contrast of scenery. It’s easy to see why early Spanish explorers in this desert in an August so long ago believed the white-capped mountains were covered in salt (la sal) rather than snow!

We ate yummy wagyu beef burgers and played with complementary wax Wikki Stix during dinner at Trailhead Public House and Eatery in Moab before driving back home to rest up for another day of explorations.

Day #97 (November 5, 2022): The word that comes to mind when thinking about Arches National Park is fun. It is such a fun park. The whole time you are in the park, whether driving or hiking, your eyes and imagination team up, searching for images, shapes, and animals playing hide-and-seek in the rock formations all around you, similar to clouds in the sky. Each person may have his/her own interruption of what they see. Trails are, for the most part, straight-forward, and because your interpretations morph and change as your angle changes, there’s always something new and different to see. Today we hiked Windows Trail to admire the North and South Windows and Turret Arch; Double Arch Trail to admire Double Arch and the Parade of Elephants (Emily’s favorite animal-inspired formation); and Sand Arch Trail, a brief trail that leads to the coolest all-natural sandstone playground surrounded with the finest, softest sand (an absolute must do for any family with kids of any age). The adventure, imagination, and fun that this park ignites definitely has put it on our Top 5 Favorite National Parks to date!

Of the over 2,000 arches in Arches National Park, the most famous and most recognizable arch is the Delicate Arch. Unlike many of the arches that can be admired from the car or by a short, flat hike, the delicate arch is best admired after a 3.0-mile roundtrip hike. There, visitors can take pictures underneath the iconic arch. This is listed as a strenuous hike, and that is accurately classified. Let’s just say, it will definitely increase your heart rate, no matter how fast or slow you choose to go! Nonetheless, it is well worth the effort. After snapping photos, we sat on the rock nearby, catching our breath and admiring its beauty. God is so good! His creativity and genius is abundantly displayed in Arches National Park!

That night, we ate delicious personal pizzas and fettuccini alfredo at Antica Forma. For such a small town, Moab offers numerous highly rated, locally owned restaurants. It’s quite impressive (and delicious) really!

Day #98 (November 6, 2022): Dead Horse Point State Park is absolutely beautiful. Its location to Canyonlands’ Island in the Sky can’t be beat. However, we have learned that 4 days is the max our family of 6 can go without sewer and a source of fresh water. (Quick note to any future campers: any water used has to be brought in by you. And, there are no public facilities to help you stretch your water supply.) We have successfully stretched our fresh water and have thoroughly loved camping in such a beautiful spot on the top of a canyon. The scenery here is incredible. But, with our water reserves almost gone, our sewer tanks close to full, our laundry bins full, and the strong urge to take a shower, it is time for our family to move closer into town to OK RV Park, where we paid to fill our water tank upon arrival 4 days ago.

After parking the rig, we loaded up our bikes; Chris and Neil dropped Emily and the girls off at the top of the Moab Canyon Pathway so they had an 8-mile ride downhill. Chris and Neil rented e-bikes and started in town, biking 8-miles uphill before turning around and biking the 8-miles back downhill.

That night, we celebrated Emily’s birthday at Moab Spitfire Smokehouse with amazing wings (our favorites: honey garlic & Alabama white), fries, and poppyseed coleslaw. Yum!

#99 (November 7, 2022): For Emily’s birthday (yesterday), Emily’s wish was to go canyoneering. So, after morning schoolwork, our guide, Peter, from Moab Canyon Tours picked up her and the kids from the RV and drove them to some nearby Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. We hiked, climbed, bouldered, and scrambled up and over rocks, and then rappelled down. It was so much fun! It is by far, the most adventurous thing any of us have ever done. Peter was fantastic at tailoring the entire trip to a comfortable yet challenging level for all 5 of us. In addition, it was an especially windy day. In fact, estimating 40-50 mile per hour gusts, Peter said it was some of the strongest winds that he had been in in quite a while! So, that added all the more challenge to our day! The wind at the top was so strong that it could knock us off your feet. Thankfully, Peter kept us buckled into his safety line and we stayed seated as we waited for our turns to rappel down Cable Arch one at a time. On our drive home, Peter stopped and showed us some petroglyphs on a large boulder called the Birthing Rock. When he dropped us off at the RV, 4.5 hours later, we were exhausted but elated to have conquered fears and risen to challenges. What a fantastic birthday present!

#100 (November 8, 2022): Chris’ big wish for Moab was to rent a UTV and go on an off-road adventure. We drove on Hurrah Pass OHV Trail at the bottom of the canyon that Dead Horse Point State Park overlooks to Catacomb Rocks (aka Wind Caves). The kids loved exploring the tunnel-network of caves and wished they had more time to explore, but we didn’t want to be late returning our rental.

It’s hard to believe we have been on the road for 100 days; it has been an absolute blast! The kids enjoyed celebrating with a pre-COVID treat: self-serve frozen yogurt and toppings bar, a treat that we haven’t experienced since before COVID.

Afterwards, we drove back inside Arches National Park to hike 1.9 miles to Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the world, and the last major arch that we wanted to see before we left Moab. We have decided to leave the quite popular, but difficult-without-a-guide hike through the Fiery Furnace for another time when ranger-guided tours are offered. Evidently, these tours are in very high demand, and reservations sell out months in advance, which is good to know. Driving back home, we enjoyed the rainbow-colored sunset behind the beautiful sandstone and snow-capped La Sal Mountains, and then, even more spectacular, the brightest moonrise over the sandstone formations. Chris captured the moment exquisitely!

#101 (November 9, 2022): Cold, rainy day = stay home day! As much as our family loves adventures and exploring, we also cherish our days to stay home, rest-in, and catch-up. These much-needed breaks help us enjoy our adventure days all the more. After a virtual music lesson and our daily schoolwork, we made metamorphic “rocks” from Starbursts, all the while staying dry and warm inside our tiny house together!