Aches National Park

June 25-28, 2013: the kids had a great sleep by the Colorado river. We woke up early and headed into the park to hike to Delicate Arch, a 3 mile round trip hike. We hit the trail around 7:30am. Caseybhas done an amazing job hiking every step of the way. There was some trail and mostly slick rock hiking which is fun. The arch is really outstanding at the top. We played around at the top checking out the views all around for about an hour and taking in lots of water and snacks. It was in the 70s when we started and getting into the 90s when we got back to our car around 10:45. We went to the visitors center so the kids could get their junior park ranger workbooks and learn a bit about the area. We tried nap time in the tent which was shaded but still very hot. After naps we went swimming in a pool and had dinner in town. We had to keep the kids out of the sun, as it was about 105 degrees. Later on, around 7:30pm we headed back into the park and did another, shorter hike to Windows arches. It is so beautiful in the park in the early mornings and evenings. We had a great sleep and woke up and did it all over again the next day. We got to the trail early and set out for Landscape arch and Double O arch. This was a really cool hike, walking along slick rock and on the tops of "fins", the narrow rock ridges. The kids were exhausted, Molly fell asleep in the back pack on my back and Julia fell asleep with James carrying her. Casey soldiered on and made it all the way. We got back to the car around noon and it was almost 100. We went into Moab for lunch and bought a bunch of life jackets and tubes. We got into the river at our campsite and floated for 3 miles. James and I were nervous about how the rapids would be. There were no real rapids but just some swiftly moving parts. I swam along holding Molly and Julia's tubes and we did just fine. The kids would hop out and swim in the slow parts and ride the tubes in the fast parts. It was a great way to beat the heat as we actually had goosebumps. We saw a mountain goat mom with a brand new baby walking along the rocks. We hitch hiked and all got a ride in the back of a pickup back to our camp site. We had a BBQ dinner of hot dogs and sausages and went to bed. It was much hotter the last night. In the morning on Friday we packed up our campground and drove to Canyonlands National Park. We did a short hike to Mesa Arch which had a spectacular view.  Now we're off to the next stop!