Birthday Getaway - Arches National Park

A few years ago Michelle and I decided we needed to take more trips as just our family. It seemed that all of the vacations we took were with extended family. (Don't get us wrong, we love those vacations.) But we weren’t really taking any vacations with just our kids. We also figured that rather than looking at distant places, we should experience more of what Utah has to offer – to go to places that people come from around the world to see right in our own backyard.

So for Spring Break this year we booked a hotel in Moab and set out this past weekend for Arches National Park. It also so happened that this weekend was my birthday.

What a great way to celebrate!

I took Friday off work and we headed South that morning. And I have to add how cool traveling is now that the kids are older and we don’t have to worry about entertaining them the whole drive. We arrived at Arches soon after lunch and headed right into the park and to the first few natural arches in the park – the North and South Windows and Double Arch. I think Double Arch was my favorite because of how thick the arches are and how cool it is to see two arches meet together like that.

We were so impressed the whole trip with just how amazing all the arches and rock formations are. Photos just can’t do justice to the size of these amazing natural formations.

After hiking a bit in the park Friday afternoon, we headed into Moab, checked into our hotel and swam in the pool. And the kids had a blast. The hotel had a cool twisty slide into the pool and the kids played on that a ton.

Then we took a walk down Main Street, had a good pizza dinner, and kicked back in the hotel. We flipped through some of the channels on TV and I got a kick out of what we ended up watching – The $25,000 Pyramid. Brooke loved it and even the next day was hoping to catch it on TV again.

On Saturday the weather was very overcast and we started out with the hike to Delicate Arch. That was our favorite hike of the trip because the scenery and terrain were just so neat. We liked hiking on the slickrock and were amazed at the arch. Again, it was just amazing to see the arch live after being familiar with photos of it. The surrounding area wasn’t anything like we had imagined. We had pictured an open rolling area around it with the arch out on the end. But it turns out that it’s on the edge of a type of natural bowl and drops off deep just behind the arch. Awesome stuff!

We then stopped for a picnic (finding a spot with the least amount of wind) and the kids climbed around on more rocks. Climbing all over was another highlight of the trip for all of us. That’s one of the things I just love about Southern Utah – so many things to climb around on. Even after long hikes, Caleb always had enough energy to climb and jump all over.

Our last hike was to Landscape Arch. It was pretty windy at that point so we didn’t go any further on the trail to other arches or to Dark Angel, but we sure enjoyed the scenery.

Once again we went back to the hotel in the late afternoon to swim and then head out for dinner. Since we were celebrating my birthday, we didn’t want arguments about what everyone wanted for dinner so we headed to the Moab Diner (trying to get a small town experience). And the kids loved it because they had such a variety to choose from. Brooke had pancakes and hash browns, Trevor had French Toast, Jaden had a burrito, Caleb had steak, Michelle had a salad, and I had a breakfast burrito – everyone was satisfied.

Then we went to Cakes & Cones for dessert and my birthday cupcake. While Brooke was hoping to watch the game show again, we caught the start of a movie and ended up watching Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

What a way to celebrate my birthday!

Sunday morning we went to one of the local LDS wards for church and then headed home. On our way we drove out to Dead Horse Point State Park for lunch and the amazing views of the canyons and the Colorado River. It was still a little cold and windy, but we didn’t get rained (or snowed) on at all and had a great time.

Here's to beautiful Utah!