Utah to Grand Canyon - 7th April

We had breakfast at the hotel (me with wild hair from going to bed with it damp!), then set off on our day's journey to Williams, Arizona. It was a great day - very happy!!

We stopped off at lots of places along the way, including three or four times at the Natural Bridges National Monument. Scott and I wondered if we should make the detour there, and thought we might as well!
It's a bit hard to spot this first bridge...

Although the skies were blue it was a bit chilly, so we didn't hang around anywhere for too long. Here are the boys who came, saw, then legged it!

The last natural bridge was great! We walked a little way, and got to go all the way under the arch.
I also loved the smooth, worn, creamy stone that we walked on in lots of places. I just felt super happy, soaking it all in. It was also quite warm out of the breeze.

We then drove down the Moki Dugway - a gravelly road going down a massive cliff!

The view from near the top of the Moki Dugway was just incredible - a vast empty plain stretching for miles, with the odd red rock stack sticking out.

This picture kind of shows how high up we were!

The road itself was crazy - worse than the Alps! Ridiculous bends, and no fencing for most of it. We stopped the car at one point on the way down, and the kids and I very cautiously made our way up to a high rocky outlook place. I made the kids stay really close to the rock walls because the wind was strong and gusty.

I was relieved when we made it to the bottom, and out onto the long straight road we had seen from above. Not far away was Goosenecks State Park - a lookout point over where the Colorado River does some 'gooseneck' bends. It was pretty amazing.
There weren't many people there, but when we arrived, a woman said 'Is one of you called Harry?' Her family had been at Delicate Arch the day before when we'd been there, and had heard me calling Harry! I was a bit embarrassed, because that's when I'd been a bit stressed and Tom had been a pain! Oh well! We had a nice chat anyway, and they were interested in church (being in Utah etc). They were from Cambridge, but living in California at the moment.

We carried on driving, and stopped at Mexican Hat Rock. We took the car off road a bit, onto the red dirt around the base of the Hat and got out and had some lunch there.

Everyone was is good spirits, really enjoying it!

Tom singing 'We are the Three Amigos!''

We then had about a three hour drive to the Grand Canyon, past lots of Indian lands and towns, through Monument Valley, across the Utah/Arizona border, and past Cameron (where Scott and I stayed last time.)

It's just fabulous standing by the side of the road taking in this iconic scenery!

We could also see quite a few dust devils (little whirlwinds) across the landscape - cool!!

Stopping off at the border!

The kids were fine on the drive. Harry played Minecraft on my phone for quite a bit of it, with me pointing out each cool thing we passed.

This is typical of some of the homesteads dotted around the place. What a different life from ours back home!

As we got nearer the Grand Canyon, we started to see canyon land forming.

At Grand Canyon, we stopped at the viewing tower, which is lovely to be in - great views!

Taking a picture in one of the black glass Reflectoscopes!

We stopped off at another couple of smaller viewing places along the South Rim.

Our last stop-off point was in the Village. We were in a bit of a daft mood by then, and were like ''Oh look - another hole...'', ''You should be more respectful to holes!!', ''Well, it is a very nice hole''' etc etc! We could have walked along the edge trail for a bit, but everyone had pretty much got the idea, and were a bit tired by then, so we headed for Williams which was another hour away. We'd planned on having tea at Grand Canyon Village, but it looked packed (there was a lot of traffic on the way out of Grand Canyon) so we decided to hang on till Williams.
Scott and I said if we ever come back to Grand Canyon we'll have to do a proper hike down into it, to be able to appreciate it better.

We were starving by the time we got to Williams, so quickly dumped our bags in the Quality Inn (no lifts again!) and went to Pizza Hut, which I absolutely relished. The kids sat in one red leather booth, and Scott and I sat in the next one along.
I took these photos in the wrong camera setting, but they're of such good memories!

Lucy and Tom enjoying outdoor settees on our hotel forecourt!

Arches National Park, Utah - 6th April

We woke up pretty late and missed breakfast at the hotel, so had some bagels and things instead.

View of the pool from our landing.

We drove for about an hour and got to Dead Horse Point at 11am. On the way I saw the barn next to the petrol station where Scott and I stopped, and which I'd liked last time we came!
The weather was beautiful again, though pretty windy up on Dead Horse Point. Incredible scenery!!

The piled up wood is an example of the kind of barricade that cowboys used to create a corral for horses in the 1800's. The road just here is built on a really narrow neck of land (30 yards wide), with steep cliffs either side. They would just barricade across the whole of the narrow neck.

In the distance we could see the amazingly blue potash (salts that contain potassium) evaporation ponds.

The Colorado River.

Walking back to the car at Dead Horse Point.

Stopping to check out railway tracks!

We then drove past Arches National Park to Moab, and had lunch there at a Mexican place, sitting out on the terrace, watching the world go by on the main street through Moab.

We then drove back to Arches, and through the park, firstly past The Three Gossips.

Rock climbers on Courthouse Tower.

Then we had a wander round Balanced Rock!

I hated everyone standing under Balanced Rock!

We then drove to the start of the hike to Delicate Arch. It was pretty hot, and the hike was a decent one over desert and some quite steep rocky areas. It was a three mile round trip, but seemed more.

Jack found his own arch!

Interesting path!!

Harry reflecting Delicate Arch.

Some people kept hogging the space under the arch, so we couldn't get a picture of just our family there. I think everyone else was a bit fed up with them too!
The whole rocky ledge that Delicate Arch is on, is smooth and drops down to a big bowl in front, and falls away behind. The boys went off for a walk down to the bowl, and I was worried about them getting too close to the drop behind.
Tom had a total strop because I made the boys come back from the bowl area, and not go back to the trail by another way. All in all it was a bit stressful at Delicate Arch!

By the time we got back to the start of the trail, everyone was fine again, and overall it was pretty satisfying because the hike wasn't very easy, and the scenery was crazy!

We stopped off briefly near the end of the hike to see these few hundred year old Ute petroglyphs.

I loved this Wolfe Family cabin! This was their updated cabin (!), built in the late 1800's.

We then drove to Double Arch, and Lucy, Scott and I went for a walk around it, while the tired boys stayed in the car. It's monumetal!!

We also stopped briefly at Park Avenue. Wouldn't mind a hike down there next time we come!

The boys revived quite well when we got to the large sand dune near the entrance to Arches!! They rapidly disappeared up it like a bunch of dune monkeys!

Lucy, Scott and I made our way to the top of the dune a bit more slowly (It was ridiculously hard work - had to keep stopping!)

Scott trying to get back down in as few 'steps' as possible! He made it in 20, looking hysterical!

There were quite a few people there with kids (though we were the only adults who climbed up), and our kids were by far and away the most fearless (or daft!) At one point, Harry was running full speed, headlong down the dune, completely wiped out, rolled a bit then carried on running. It was hilarious - we were just killing ourselves laughing!

The boys went up and down a few times, and while I was at the bottom Harry came down again in fine form, and some of the Dads standing around congratulated him!

We went back to our car feeling quite fulfilled, and extremely red sandy!

We then drove about an hour and a half to the Quality Inn in Blanding, Utah, another little desert town.

We went to Blanding via Montecello, where we stopped off at the little Temple there.

Tom with the red dust stuck to his face, looking like he had bad foundation on!

As soon as we got to the hotel, we all dumped our stuff and hit the pool! After a couple of minutes we had the pool to ourselves, and it was just perfect - the perfect size, depth, and REALLY WARM! I've never been in such a warm pool! It was just wonderful after such a hot, dusty, tiring hiking day!
I loved watching Scott dive bombing in, doing mad swimming and handstands etc with the kids, then he and I enjoyed cuddling up and just messing around.

We left the pool at 9pm and I shared with Jack and Harry. I stayed up late doing my photos of the day, and putting them on Facebook. Didn't sleep very well, as the pillows were too fat, so I slept with none.