Arches National Park: June 30 - July 1

Petroglyphs  - Capitol Reef

 As we drove from Bryce Canyon to Arches, we passed through Capitol Reef National Park.  We only had time to drive through the park.  We took one half mile hike to see the river "gooseneck" through the valley.  We also viewed some petroglyphs that were close to the roadside.  Pretty cool!
Here are the kids' impressions of what we did in Arches NP.
  

O-H-I-O - Landscape Arch

Lillian - I liked hiking to see Landscape Arch and to scramble up the rocks to see Partition Arch.  I also like walking up to Sand Dune Arch, because you got to walk between some fins that were close together.  There was lots of sand and you could see animal tracks.  I also liked watching the video at the Visitor’s Center that described the formation of Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.  It was amazing to see video footage of rocks falling off of Landscape Arch - which left it have a width of only 6 feet in the middle of it.  It was really cool seeing the sunset while we were hiking to see Delicate Arch.  Seeing the colors of the rocks, and the sunset was beautiful.  It was nice to spot arches on our own, without the aid of a professional having to show them to us.

The Windows

Elliot - I liked seeing the arches and learning how they formed.  It was neat to see pictures of pieces falling off of Landscape Arch.  I liked Balanced Rock - it was cool how it was still on top of a rock, but balanced.  I liked how we got to sit in Partition Arch.  It was fun to see different kinds of lizards on the hikes.  I also liked seeing the Windows arches and being able to stand in the North one.  I enjoyed sharing a couple of the arches with my stuffed bear, Cheeny.  It was really fun to play in the pool at the campground because it cooled us off ALOT, because it was so hot.

Balanced Rock 

Adrian - The first night we got to Arches, we set up camp and it was incredibly hot.  All we wanted to do was set it up and get to the pool.  Kind of a gross campsite, but the pool was great.  The next day we went on a loop hike to see a bunch of different arches.   We had a fun scrambling on the “path” to some of the lesser-visited arches.  We then went to Zax Restaurant to watch the Euro Cup final match pitting Spain vs. Italy.  Spain won 4-0.  (Lillian correctly predicted Spain would win the tournament.)  After that we went back to the pool, because it was 105oF.  We had a good time playing “Pool-qwan-do.”  We did a driving tour back in the park and saw a lot of arches and formations.  We enjoyed watching the sunset on our hike to the overlook of Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch