Today we go to another place I have never been to: Moab, Utah, and Arches National Park.
The drive through Colorado was generally green, and there were many ranches with fat cattle munching happily. It seems that more rain falls into those valleys than in eastern and central Wyoming. The valley walls were sometimes red, sometimes dirty brown, sometimes a pale green earth.
The change from cool, grassy land to warm, desert planes seemed almost immediate upon entering Utah. Of course, Utah has almost as much variation as California, and a desert here does not translate into desert everywhere.
What Utah does have is color. Perhaps Colorado and Utah should think about changing tag lines.
Arches National Park is unlike anything we have ever seen. We got our free entry, after all, we are members, and were immediately treated by soft piles of hardened stone, bright red spires sprouting from bright greenery, large, arched caves, and sheer walls of red stone. Bryce Canyon was so sweet and gentle. Arches is showy and dramatic.
They say this area was once an ocean, and these formations came about through erosion as waters subsided. That is one explanation, at least. They remind me of drip castles that children make on the shoreline. But there is a little arch forming at the base of an enormous wall, and how did THAT one come about? This is a place one could stare at and wonder about for weeks and months on end. We must return to this place.
There were many arches to explore with trails going right up to them. The kids could climb to their heart’s content, and they found that scrambling up to an arch proved more than satisfactory, as there were often tiny caves, high shelves, and interesting formations to be found high above ground level and out of sight of those who remained on the ground.
Today I realized that my children have not changed their clothes for several days. Since we have stayed in a hotel each night, and have not taken the trunk off the hitch platform, we cannot open the back hatch of the car. Shoot. Sometimes you question your ability to parent well…
Sunshine found a rock shaped like a heart. It gave her such joy, and she carried that rock around for an hour or so until it was time to leave the park. Not wanting to end up in even the most adorable of stone prisons, though, she left the rock in the park for someone else to find joy in.
Time and land flew by as we made our way to Tuba City, Arizona. I am thrilled by small things in life, and that we are staying in a town named in Tuba makes me smile. There is once again a thunder storm predicted, and so we are at a hotel. The hotel has roll-away beds available. You’d think we were going to sleep in Disneyland, there was so much excitement over the bed, the unfolding of it, finding blankets for it, and the discussion over who would get to use it. In the end, it was decided that the boys would get the roll-away bed, as the regular queen bed is maybe more comfortable and should be given to the girls. In reality, the boys never did want to sleep in the queen bed. They would rather smash together on a really fun twin bed than sleep on a boring queen bed. So everyone is snoring away now, and all are dreaming of their kittens and chickens and pups, and everything else they will find at home tomorrow!
Recent Comments