Utah: Arches National Park

We are going to leave Moab as one tired family. Last night we were out late'ish climbing at a spot along the Colorado River and this morning we dragged ourselves out of bed for another early arrival at Arches National Park.

This time our goal was to actually explore beyond the Fiery Furnace and see the famed arches. While our Fiery Furnace experience was one of remarkable solitude, that did not happen with today's outing. We rolled into the parking lot at the Delicate Arch trailhead a few minutes before 7a and it was packed. We lucked into one of the remaining spots, unloaded and hit the trail, along with throngs of other folks.

The path to Delicate Arch is only about 1.5 miles, but it felt much longer, steeper, sandier and rockier than the guidebook described. I don't even know how long it took us to get there, but I do know we've never taken so many rest breaks on a 1.5 mile trek. Even at 7a, the sun was already pounding down on us and Holden only became motivated to hike by the promise of shade. We have gone HARD the last couple of days, and it was clear that both boys were feeling that fatigue in their bodies. But since this was our last full day in Moab and there aren't any more timed entry tix available, we soldiered on.

Arriving at the famed Delicate Arch was one of mixed emotions. It was rewarding to see it there, somehow standing with a golden glow despite that fact that everything around & within it has eroded over the last hundreds of millions of years. It was especially interesting & beautiful to see how the arch framed the view of the vista in the background. And Nate noticed a large bird's nest on top of the arch from his vantage point up higher on the wall, which really delighted me thinking of the birds' disregard for all our nonsense.

The disheartening part came from observing the masses of people who were there just for their Instagram moment -- grown adults striking multiple poses that were somehow weirdly all the same. A few made cranky comments about others cutting in line for pics and it really threw the whole vibe off for me.

And yet! When my recently photo-adverse 9-year-old said he wanted his pic under the arch before we left, I of course happily played the role of Instagram Mom and stood with him while he waited in line and got the sweet snap of him flexing his muscles. At least he chose a different pose than everyone else! And I'm glad he has that memory of being under the arch in such an iconic place.

The hike back was mostly downhill and we were all much less grumpy, even though the sun had heated things up since our initial trek to the arch. Once back to the parking lot we flipped the AC on high and gladly cooled off during the drive to the next set of arches.

We drove to the Devil's Garden and hiked a 2-mile segment to Landscape Arch, which quickly became my favorite. The distance it covers and the relative frailty of the thin sandstone strip stretching from end to end is remarkable. It also helped that the crowds had thinned considerably. We could also see another arch on the same rockwall but didn't venture down any further to scope out a better view. We were all feeling the heat and fatigue in earnest. On the route back we hit Tunnel Arch & Pine Tree Arch.

I would definitely love to come back and explore more again. Will plan for a cooler time of year and probably skip Delicate Arch next time.Read more