Arches National Park... Part 1

Found this quote on an ad from Nature Valley Granola Bars...

"What better way to discover life than to get away from it?" Love it... this is why we pick up and head out so many times to a campground... explore our surroundings... or just take a drive. There is something magical about being "one with nature" and sharing it with those you love. On that note, this past weekend was the weekend for the Arches National Park Camping trip!

We had planned to leave Saturday morning... early! On Friday morning we were printing out our directions and noticed that the 6 hour trip that we had originally planned was all of a sudden 8 hours long! Not sure how we missed that one but as luck would have it Stewart was able to take a half a day off from work and we ran around like idiots throwing things in the car and headed to Provo, Utah a 4 hour drive. Kiddos were super excited to stay in a hotel.

We even found a Cracker Barrel just down the road... which made us parents really excited... haven't been to a Cracker Barrel in years! The joys of Sweet Tea!!

This was our first time visiting Provo and if money grew on trees I think we would move there in a heart beat... it's beautiful... the mountains are so close and truly are stunning. Here was the view out the hotel window.

We left Provo Saturday morning early for the remaining 4+ hour drive. Along the way we stopped at various "look out points" as we made our way through Utah. The landscape was so different than anything we had ever seen... unbelievable and I had so much fun taking pictures.

The more we drove the more we all kept on saying, "This looks like Radiator Springs" (from the Cars movie)

The closer we got to the Arches the redder the rocks and dirt got. Just outside of Moab the color of the rocks was almost purple.

We decide the best thing was to head to Moab (about 10 miles from the park entrance) and grab some lunch, gas for the car and batteries for Walker's camera which had died along the way.

So Welcome to Moab...(sorry for the blurry pic... snapped it out the window as we drove by)

As we had lunch in Moab... the boys were smiling as they spotted Jeeps... which is like every other car in Moab.

We drove back to the park entrance...

and we all started with the, "ohhs and aahhs." Walker was busy snapping pictures and saying, "Oh wow... these are turning out great!" It was a steep climb up the road...

Just as we thought we'd seen the best of the park... you'd drive around another corner and see something even better. Pictures can't not describe the size of it all but I hope you get the idea.

One thing that I was really surprised at was the mountains in the backdrop had no idea that big, beautiful La Sal mountains would also be park of the landscape... in my head i was thinking desert... and very flat.

The drive to the campground is about 45 minutes and boy were we glad that we had a reservation since the campground was already full by noon.

I'll leave part 1 of the trip here. Stay tuned for Part 2 (Camping and hiking) tomorrow.