Glorious Arches National Park

Well, I'm a few days behind schedule on posting. We're now in St. George, Utah to spend a few days in Zion National park. But let's back up to our last day in Moab, Utah a couple of days ago.

We initially went to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah last Thursday but encountered a freakish unanticipated snow storm. That didn't deter us spending the day enjoying the Park but we elected to hold off taking pictures until there were sunny skies so you could better see the true magnificient of the sandstone formations. And boy were we not disappointed!

On our way to Arches we first stopped by a diner so I could get an ice cream fix...chocolate waffle cone--Yum! Once satiated with my chocolate fix, it was on to the Park. Once past the visitors center, it's a 34 mile drive from the entrance to the end of the park. However, there are several side roads off the main street and we went down each and every sidestreet to ensure we didn't miss anything.

Since we already had some 200+ pictures of the Moab mountains, including Canyonlands National Park, several scenic byways that included petroglyphs, we wanted to limit the pictures taken at Arches to only those we considered a must have. We still took 100+ pictures! It's that gorgeous. The rock formations are so unique it's difficult to describe them.

There are several huge arches in the park, along with various named rock formations including "The Three Gossips", and the "Garden of Eden". In addition, we took several pictures of the first rancher in the area, who resided in a small log home with thatch roofing. The house as well as his rudimentary corral is still standing. It's really fascinating to see structures like that...it's like going back in time 100 years. The original table and sparse furnishings were still in the home.

We also took a couple of small hikes up the mountains to get a better view of some of the formations. Well--I should clarify, I took on one of the hikes and only made half of that one and decided to just wait for Mark to complete the hike up for pictures. The second hike Mark took on his own...I decided there was no need to attempt the second hike, I was still trying to catch my breath from the first one! (After all, it was 7000 feet above sea level!)

I've posted some of the Arches park pictures in the most current slideshow on the left hand side of the blog. Our week in Moab wasn't enough to see all of the amazing scenery and parks, but it was time to move on.

We packed up this morning and continued our trek west to the Zion National Park area to spend a few days checking out the park. Unfortunately, we were going to see Bryce Canyon National Park as well but discovered we are too far away to visit right now. We had planned on staying in Kabab Utah, but after checking out the RV Parks in person, they just didn't live up to our expectations or as advertised, so we continued on another 80 miles to our current location in St. George, Utah.

We'll be in St. George, Utah through Saturday for sure and possibly a little longer. We're tentatively planning on heading to Las Vegas for a few days once we leave St. George. But we haven't given up on seeing Bryce Canyon National Park either. We'll be driving back through the Bryce Canyon area once we leave Las Vegas and plan on spending a couple of days in the area so we can visit the Park.

Well, that's the latest for now. We drove 400 miles today--way too many for me! That wasn't our initial plan, but once we decided to continue on to St. George, our travel day extended too long. Ok, enough 'blabbing'...it's late and I am exhausted. We had a great day today--and hope you did as well. Until later~