About 310 miles northwest of Zion, Utah, is Moab, Utah. We left Zion about 9 AM and headed for Moab, trying to escape driving in the heat of the day. (When there’s a high of 110 predicted, you want to get out as early as possible.) I had booked a Moab Sunset Discovery tour for the family through Moab Adventure Center. After driving all week, it was nice to have someone else do the driving for once. So once we arrived at the Canyonland RV park in Moab, we rushed to shore up power and get the AC running for the dogs.
The boys and I quickly walked the dogs and got them back in the RV. Casey and Tyler played in the pool for about 10 minutes to cool off and then we all walked a half mile (once again in 100 degree heat) to get on our tour shuttle bus. None of us really had any idea what to expect for Arches National Park. Holy Cow! It was just amazing!! I had no idea there were 2,000 – 3,000 arches in the park. And the park was only made a National Park in 1971.
The night finally cooled down a little and we toured the park for 4 hours. Our guide David took us to amazing picturesque spots. We even got to hike and explore a little. There were so many trails that we wanted to hike, but we only had about 10-20 minutes at each stop. By far, the most amazing stop was the Double Arch stop. We hiked to the arches and then our group got to climb inside the gigantic arch. Kirby, Casey, and Kerry even climbed up one of the arches to get an incredible view of the sunset.
These natural arches are caused by years and years of erosion, some are small and some are huge. While at Double Arch, David surprised us all by hiking all the way up, about 50 feet, and then playing “How Great is our God” on his saxophone.
Then, he took us up the other side of the trail so we could all watch the sunset over the arches. That sunset was the most beautiful sunset I have every seen. If you ever have a chance to watch the sunset in Arches National Park, do it! Kerry and I hope to go back to Zion and Arches and stay for much longer so we can really experience the beauty and magnificent of these National Parks. Tonight was worth all the miles, work, stress, money, and excessive heat. What a blessing to see God’s work; to see rock arches that are millions of years old; to sit with your beloved family and watch the sunset. Tonight was one of the best nights of my life.
