The whole family got together over the Memorial Day weekend. We decided to meet halfway between the kids in Utah and the rest of us in Colorado and New Mexico. So we stayed in Grand Junction, CO and did Arches National Park in Utah and Colorado National Monument.
We hadn’t done either of these before and were a bit skeptical if there would be enough to do in Grand Junction. But we really had a good time. We walked a lot. Hiked a lot. Saw lots and lots of pretty rocks and cliffs. We ate very well, too. We generally just looked like a traveling circus.
Here are some pictures. (Sorry for all the vintage edits. I’m passively checking out some new software and techniques. So let me just make myself sick of it)
Ok, here are the pictures and commentary:
We drove the hour and half it takes to get from Grand Junction to Arches. Brett and Cambria weren’t awake quite yet.
Here is the road we drove on. It wasn’t the regular way to go, and we were questioning mom’s choice to take a deserted road.
But the road went along the river, and turned out to be incredibly beautiful. (I promise proper photos eventually)
The first place we stopped was near The Organ. We took pictures.
We all took pictures.
But the first place we hiked around was Double Arch.
Channing wanted cool pictures of them standing in the arch. I failed.
We made sure to take a selfie with the arches.
And Brett joined us.
We then took a sibling picture in front of the arch. Again, I failed.
Then we took artsy pictures. Like this one of the underside of the arch.
And one with flowers.
Then we hiked up from Double Arch to Windows Arch. It was hot. (We lost Mom and Dad because they were trying to find a place to park.)
Here’s a window arch. And Channing.
And Brett and Cambria, with the window view.
At the gate, the ranger told us that Delicate Arch, the one on the licence plates, was closed because of flooding they had that night. Too bad. So instead of hiking to it, we hiked to a view point of it. So we hiked, and hiked.
And this was the lousy view of it. Notice that they must have opened Delicate Arch, because there were lots of people there.
But we still took pictures.
Next, we made our way to Devil’s Garden. And guess what, we hiked.
And hiked.
When we got tired of hiking, we rested. And then started hiking again
Oh, we also took a family picture.
When we got to where the hike ended (along with the thousands of other people) we looked at the arch. Then hiked back.
And rested.
