Arches, Utah

We are back in Utah again. We seem to be nipping in and out of it constantly. But our plan was never to stay in Colorado for long as we have to start heading north in order to see Yellowstone and Oregon before we leave for home in 5 weeks time. Right now we are spending five days in Moab, Utah, a beautiful scenic area which has experienced some variations in weather since we arrived!

The RV park we are staying in is a Passport America one that have been kind enough to give us a cheap site for $12 a night. PA price is usually $14 a night and full price is $28 plus. Our site doesn't have a sewage dump, hence its cheapness, but they let us dump our slosh in another site, so that's fine. We are leaving here on Saturday and heading north to Salt Lake City, where we may end up sleeping in a Walmart or something, as it will be Memorial Weekend, and the whole of America is going camping! We had a nasty moment when we went to the dump station and some idiot had filled the dump with rocks (unknown to us - apparently its not the first time its happened) and so our 3 days worth of bathroom water, poo and a nice amount of morning sickness splurged out of the sewer in a fine gooey stinking mess, just like something from the Robin Williams film "RV". I felt sorry for the poor person who had to clean it all up. Why on earth is someone coming into the park and filling the sewage with rocks though?

Anyway, our main reason for coming to Moab was to visit Arches National Park. We had heard it was a match for Zion or Bryce, and since we loved them so much we couldn't miss this one. The day we chose to visit Arches turned out to be a record breaker in the heat stakes. The hottest May day Utah has had for many many years, it was expected to hit 105F/38C at one point. As we drove through Arches stopping at each lookout point we had to take a photo, take in the view, and then hastily head back to the cool air conditioning of the RV. It really was hot. Extremely hot. A lot of the places we have already visited are so hot now that we've realised we actually planned a pretty good route, weather wise.

Despite the extreme heat, and my tiredness and mild morning sickness, we all really enjoyed the beauty of Arches. This place is definitely worth a visit. The kids completed their junior ranger programs and went on some mini trails (the heat stopped us from doing any big hikes). The beauty of Arches National Park is not just the 2000 or so arches that are there, but the amazing view across the petrified sand dunes to the snow capped La Sal Mountains, and the awesome spectacular-ness of the large rock formations. The pastel colours in the sand stone rocks, against the green foliage and yellows and oranges of the spring flowers, make the scenery at Arches look like a water colour painting. We stood looking out over the land so many times, just thinking that it looked as if someone had painted it. It didn't seem real.

Funnily enough after that really hot day we have been experiencing days filled with rain and snow! But more about that in my next blog post.

(The rest of the photos to go with Arches are in Utah Album 3 and Utah Album 4).