We went to Arches National Park today. We went to hike the 'Devils Garden Trail'. As part of it we saw 'Landscape Arch' and 'Double O Arch'. All the kids did so well on the hike.
The hike to Landscape Arch was pretty easy and was pretty fun. We got there and took a ton of photos. All the kids kept going with their buddies and would usually stick to them but sometimes they would trade but everyone had to have a buddy.
From Landscape Arch there was a trail to continue on to Double O Arch. It was only a 4-5 mile hike but it was a lot of steep inclines/declines. We walked on the spine going to Double O Arch which one side was about 50 ft drop and you'd only get broken bones. The other side was a drop off cliff to sudden death. Holly, Dad and I were all walking together over the spine and we just couldn't stop laughing at Dad. He was hilariously funny. He was beyond terrified but he kept going because all 12 grand kids did it so he had to. In the middle of the spine, you had to jump over the body width crack in the spine to the other side. Man, I just about peed my pants laughing at Dad hyperventilating and saying so many funny things. That totally made the whole terrifying trip worth it!
When we got to Double O Arch, Pap Pap, Katie & I stayed on the trail above the little valley to go into. It was really steep and I was pretty scared to do it. So the 3 of us just waited at the top for everyone while they explored down below.
On the way back, Lili was limping pretty bad so I asked her what happened. She said she had a blister that hurt really bad. Poor thing! She wasn't going to say anything, she was just sucking it up and not complaining. So once I found that out, she had a lot of rides the rest of the way back. It was maybe .25-.5 of a mile left when we found out.
Once we got back to the trail head, everyone went potty and filled up their water bottles. We got in our cars and went to go find a shady place for lunch. We found a really pretty area but it had flooded from all the rain from the past few days but we were still able to cross all the water from climbing on the tables. But there were tables didn't have water under them that we could all eat at. Then the kids went exploring and playing.
Dad, Mark, Katie and Dave's families were all done. Some of them had blisters too and didn't want to go on and do the last spot we were going to do. They just drove through 'the Windows' area.
So Sean's family and our family went over to hike 'the Windows'. However, because Lili's blister was so bad, she was carried the entire way, between all 4 adults but mostly by Quique. Once again, we took a ton of photos. Lili was so brave too. She wanted to hike up with her cousins so she got down and hiked up all the while grinning and bearing the awful pain from her giant quarter size blister.
Once we were finished, we stopped at the Ranger station so the kids could get there Jr Ranger badges. We got there with 5 minutes till they closed. We barely made it. The kids turned their books in and got there badges.
Since we were all completely exhausted and hot, we decided to stop at McDonald's and get more ice for our coolers and get ice cream cones. Once we got there Sean's family decided to just eat dinner there, so we did too because our kids were so hungry. We won't be eating at McD's in the years again. Ice cream sure but not food. It's just awful!
Once we got back to camp, everyone went swimming. It was fun watching everyone have so much fun. Lili got over confident with her swimming skills and inhaled half the pool. She threw up all over the place, poor thing. Once she calmed down and could breath properly, she was allowed to go back in.
We all sat around talking in the middle camp area. We weren't permitted to have a fire so we couldn't make s'mores or marshmallows, or be warm. We did make apple crisp in our dutch oven on our volcano, which turned out pretty good.
We just enjoyed the stars, stories and company. It was fun but everyone was so exhausted from such a big hiking day.
