Beautiful Arches!

We spent the weekend hiking Arches National Park. This place is AMAZING, and we had a great time. We hiked 17 miles in two days, and saw all but 2 of the arches. I took 150 pictures in the park because everything was so cool, but even the pictures just don't do it justice. It's so much better in person.

Our first hike was from the Park Avenue Trail Head. It was a short one, but there was so much to see. We saw the Courthouse Towers, The Organ, Tower of Babel, 3 Gossips, Queens Nefertiti and Victoria, and my favorite, Sheep Rock.

The 3 Gossips

Sheep Rock

Balanced Rock was a cool one to see. It's a rock bigger than 3 school buses balanced on a skinnier rock. I don't know how it stays up there!

Balanced Rock: See how small the kids are.

Next, we went to the Windows Section of the park. There was a ton of stuff to see here too. We saw the North and South Windows, Turret Arch, Parade of Elephants, Cove of Caves, Cave Arch, Ham Rock, The Garden of Eden, and Double Arch.

Bailey in the Garden of Eden.

Turret Arch

Sitting on top of Double Arch.

Our last hike of day 1 was Delicate Arch. This is by far the most amazing arch in the entire park. The hike getting there was so cool! The pictures don't do it justice. You really need to see this in person to appreciate it.

Delicate Arch: We are so small standing under it.

We started our second day with a pretty long hike. We went to the Devil's Garden Trail Head and hiked a 7 1/2 mile Primitive Loop. We saw 9 arches along the way: Tunnel Arch, pine Tree Arch, Landscape Arch (this is the longest arch in the world), Wall Arch (which had fallen down the year before), Partition Arch, Navajo Arch (one of my favorites), Double O Arch, Dark Angel, and Private Arch. This hike was AWESOME! After we left the area that had all the arches, we walked through the giant 'fins', and even across the top of some. It was so cool, and a little scary in some parts.

Landscape Arch

Sawyer and Bailey are standing in Partition Arch. It was way up a mountain overlooking a lot of the park. it was a gorgeous view, but I wouldn't let them get too close to the edge.

Navajo Arch

Sawyer is standing on top of one of the fins. We had to walk across the top of one. It was so cool. I didn't let go of Bailey's hand until we were off the rock. It was a VERY long way down on both sides.

Hiking through the fins.

Our last couple hikes of the day were short ones. We were pretty worn out by this time. We ended the day by seeing Skyline Arch, Sand Dunes Arch, and Broken Arch. We had a great time, and we're already planning our next hiking adventure.