Red rock, sand, and arches

One of our very favorite places is Moab, Utah and Arches National Park. The girls had Thursday and Friday off this week, and David (G'pa) flew in from St. Louis, so we packed up the van early Thursday morn and headed down to southern Utah to see how much red sand we could bring back with us in our pockets and shoes!

We arrived at Arches at 9:15 am and headed straight for one of our favorite hikes, Park Avenue. At the end, we have a tradition of posing the girls with a monolith called the Three Gossips as a backdrop.

The girls also manged to "lodge" themselves into a crack.Don't worry...they got out.

Afterward, we headed over to Double Arch, a cathedral-like expanse where it's great to just sit and bask in the glow of God's creation.

Few locales I've been in have such a "sense of place" as Double Arch. Everytime I go I find myself stunned to silence at the majesty of these two arches joined togther. I simply sit under them and marvel. It is impossible to capture on film; it has to be experienced.

And, the alcove they create is really fun to climb in.

That evening we hiked in another section of the park to catch a view of the sunset, and especially the redrocked vistas to the east that get lit by that setting sun. On the way, we stopped by Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the park (over 300 feet wide!).

The next day we began by meeting some friends who were also spending some days in Moab. We went to the girls' mostest favoritest spot, Sand Dune Arch. It's not a fave because of the arch, though. It's because it's hidden in between some giant sandstone fins, and the area around and underneath is a giant sandbox! It is filled with the finest, softest, reddest sand, and perfect for hours of play.

You can also climb up to the top of the arch. Here are Anya and Emily with their friend Marissa (they're those little specs above the arch).

To end our two day trip, we and our friends hiked up to Delicate Arch just before sunset. It's about a mile and a half walk, climbing about 500 feet in elevation to a sandstone bowl with a majestic arch situated on the edge.

We brought some food along to enjoy as we watched the sun go down and the colors change as it did.

This is us with our good friends, the Robinsons (except Karen, who was, once again, taking the pictures). The great thing about hiking with another family is that none of the girls complain about how tired they are, or how long it takes, or how hot it is. They're having too much fun with their friends! And so much more enjoyable for the parents.

David and I with Delicate.

It really is an incredible sight.

We've hiked up to Delicate four times now, and each time I'm delightfully surprised by the immensity and grandeur of it when we come up those last few steps of the hike and finally see this glorious arch. Beautiful.

As the sun set, we hiked back down, jumped into our car and drove the 3+ hours back home.

And we managed to bring quite a bit of that red sand back home with us. Our dryer lint will be tinted a slight shade of pink for the next few loads.