Arches National Park

Arches National Park

Moab, Utah

Day 1

Wow!
Words can not describe this place.
I am not a religious person; but being here is what I imagine a spiritual experience must be like.

Today we hiked about 4 miles up to "Delicate Arch".

The scenery was so spectacular, and the kids were enjoying themselves so much, there was no whining. Even though Erik had some "new boot rash" which we quickly covered with band-aids to eliminate the formation of blisters.

The weather has been perfect!

80 degrees at the hottest today; not a cloud in the sky.

It is hard to imagine that anything could surpass what we have seen today in this park.

Originally, I anticipated a stay of 1-2 days here, but after this experience I think we will be here for 3-4 days.

Tomorrow we have a Ranger led hike through the "Fiery Furnace" section of the park. This section was closed to the public for several years due to too much human traffic. It is now open only to those accompanied with a Ranger, or with a special hiking permit.

Day 2

We meet Ranger Steve at 10:00 for a 3-hour tour through the Fiery Furnace. This area is only 1/2 miles by 0.5 mile in area. But, you could easily get lost and starve out here. The rock formations are called "fins" because the erosion has created these fins of rock than sometimes span the entire length of the "furnace" (1/2 mile). The distance between the fins is sometimes just wide enough for a human to squeeze through.

As we hiked through this area you felt like you were in an Indiana Jones movie (or at least where one was filmed).

The entire park is interspersed with arches (yeah, makes sense in Arches National Park). I guess there are thousands! The most recent one discovered was in 1988; and they expect more to be discovered as well.

Here is a shot of the trail through the "fins": it is very humbling here. We truly felt honored to have the privilege to hike through this area that very few humans get the opportunity to see.

Homeschooling: Damn this is time consuming! The "expectation" is that we will put in 5 hours a day. However, to do the lessons outlined correctly you could easily spend 8-10 hours a day. We are cautiously optimistic that this will get better as we get more acclimated with the curriculum, but we feel overwhelmed at times. Tomorrow we will take a break from our field trips and get caught up on schooling.

Hope all is well with those keeping up on our travels.

Great Grandma Ginny and Grandma Pat, we think of both of you often.

The Paton's