Our Last Day At Arches

On our last day at Arches, we made sure to get our picture taken at the entrance to the park and then we set off to see more...........what else? ARCHES!

This is Emma and Gable at Tunnel Arch. We didn't get a good picture of the actual arch, but they enjoyed climbing on the fence and thought that they looked pretty cute posing like this.


Gable and I at the end of the trail to Pine Tree Arch. There was lots of sand around these arches. I wasn't expecting that.


Gable buried his walking stick in the sand and made it stand up all by itself. He was pretty proud of himself, so we had to get a picture!


This is Landscape Arch which was my favorite. It is the largest arch in the world and probably one of the oldest. When we got to the end of the trail it was so peaceful and quiet there. A very contemplative place. Especially when you start to think how long before you ever got there, this arch was formed! I was surprised at the feeling I got there. This earth is an amazing place! What a blessing that we get to experience it!

These next pictures are of Sand Dune Arch. After we found it we stayed there and didn't do anything else. It was the best surprise of the whole trip.

The entrance to Sand Dune is cool. You can climb over a rock formation or go through a narrow walk way to get in. The kids chose to climb.

Robert, Sophie and I chose the walkway.

The arch itself is surrounded by rock and sand. It is like a hidden cove. It is shady and cool. A real oasis. The closer we got to the arch we could hear lots of people talking and playing. Everyone had their shoes off enjoying the cool sand. Kids were running all over delightedly playing. We could tell right away that this was a place to stay for a while. So we did!

Gable got buried in the sand.

Emma climbed the walls in a cave she found.

Gehrig found a way to climb up on top of the arch........

and brought Emma with him. (That part made me really nervous! I was glad when they came down.)

And Sophie made a new friend named Scarlett. Her mom first talked to us because we had the same Baby Bjorn and little white sun hat for Sophie as she did for her baby. We asked how old Scarlett was and her mom said four months. She told us she was born in May and we said so was Sophie and asked the day. Scarlett's mom said on the 28th and we said so was Sophie and then she asked what hospital and we told her and she said so was Scarlett! It was so funny to come all that way and meet that little baby there. Robert remember's seeing her name in the nursery. It makes me wonder if their paths will cross again sometime. Or if they were friends waiting in line before they were born. They are both the fourth in a family with 2 girls and 2 boys. And they were both born around 2:00. Sophie in the a.m. and Scarlett in the p.m.! It's a small world!

Gable and Dad on our way out of Sand Dune Arch.

We had a great trip. The smile on Sophie's face says it all!

Thanks for picking Arches Emma! Our next national park trip will be to Capitol Reef. We decided we wouldn't make Gable wait until fourth grade to pick one! We are having too much fun to wait that long!