It's Memorial Day weekend in the USA and the whole of America is kicking off summer by getting out in the countryside. We'd been warned that Arches parking was inadequate most days - and this weekend it would be terrible, so we had breakfast at 7am and entered the park at 8am.
Arches National Park is another stunning landscape - red sandstone has been formed into a series of arches, weird rock formations and at times gravity defying balancing acts.
Our first stop was North and South Windows. The picture below gives you the idea.
The people with their hands in the air are Ken (with Jack), James and Olivia.
One thing I've not commented on so far is that France must be empty at the moment - all the French people are in the USA. Everywhere we go there are busloads of French....today was no exception so we sped to the next site to get ahead of them.
Having got ahead of the French and sneaked into the last parking spot, we started the 1.5 hour hike up to Delicate Arch. A great hike up over the sandstone mountains.
The kids did great and we were rewarded with another stunning view.
Next onto Sand Dune Arch, a picnic lunch and lots of clambering on rocks.
Yes, that is James and Emma on top of the Arch. They got up OK - leaving Olivia half way....but getting down was not so easy...
And what of Jack. Well during lunch I had the great idea of sitting him in his back pack to feed him - "Who needs the pram!". It was going well until he tipped forward and smacked his face into the rocky ground....
Look closely for the scars...
Arches was impressive. On paper it's a lot like Monument Valley - but in reality it was much more fun. Great hiking, amazing rock formations. Good day.
After collecting another Junior Ranger Badge we jumped in the car around 2:30pm with no end destination in mind.
Due to lots of recent snow falls we are skipping Rocky Mountain National Park - most of it is still closed or snowbound. So we are heading towards Boulder - this afternoon I did a quick 300 miles East and we now in Frisco - just past Vail. We went from 82 degrees of desert landscape to pass through Vail Pass at 10,600 feet and at least 8 feet of snow around us.
Tomorrow we are heading to Keystone were 25 ski slopes are open for the weekend for skiing and snow-tubing. Should be fun.
It's been a long but good day.
Ken
You must be shattered, the scenery looks spectacular. I must put it on my list!
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