On Wednesday we left for Arches National Park in Utah. This was a short drive for us, about 2 hours. We were also out of the mountains at this point so the drive went rather fast.
Arches is a beautiful park. We were able to spend the second half of the day in the park. We did the drive through the park, stopping at the various rock formations. We did some smaller hikes from the various stopping points along the road. A nice family hike is the Park Avenue hike. Take the trail one-way and send someone back for the car (sounds like Dad’s job). We also visited the windows section this day; the hikes there were shorter. It was very hot, at least 100 degrees all day. There are many arches that are very accessible with very short hikes and I think we were able to hit about everything. Even with the heat, the short hikes make it easy to see a lot in a short time.
When we first arrived that day, we signed up for a hike in the Fiery Furnace.
http://www.nps.gov/arch/photosmultimedia/fieryfurnacegallery.htm
You need to sign up ahead of time for this hike and there is a small fee. We were able to get a spot in the next morning’s hike. The ranger led hike is also the only way to see this area of the park, but very much worth it. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Moab, just a short drive from the park entrance. This was a nice break from the heat and it had an indoor pool for the kids. The camping in the park is small and primitive (no showers or flush toilets). The hotel was a good choice; I had checked out all daily high temps for July at all the places we were stopping at ahead of time. I thought this was the only one that we really could use a hotel for and I think I made the right call.
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