Arches... Part 3

We woke up to a chilly 30 degrees... which was fine... the coldest we've ever camped at night has been 28 so we weren't in complete shock... but oh man does it take forever for the coffee, hot cocoa and breakfast to heat up when your huddled around the stove!

Walker kept himself busy playing "superhero" and jumping of the big rock..

We talked to the campground host and found out that there was going to be 50 mile an hour winds that day... had to do a quick once over with the tent... pull the posts... lay it flat and re-stake it and hope for the best. We decided to do a long hike first before the weather got too bad. Here are a few photos...

Walker heading up the path...

These paths were totally different than the previous trails... I guess these arches are the more "popular" ones so the paths were all defined with rock steps.

Turret Arch...

By the time we got up into the North and South Windows Arch it was blowing so hard that we had to sit down for it felt like you'd be blown right off the rock.

It was freaky sitting under the arch and looking up to the very large cracks in it...

Across the road and onto the Double Arch... just look at the size... see how small the people are inside?

Again the wind picked up and started blowing all that sand around... thank goodness we all had glasses on and we learned to quickly put the cameras away, turn your back and close mouth.

Headed to the Visitor center at the beginning of the park... Walker fell asleep on the way and so we had our lunch in the car and watched the gusts of wind blow while Walker napped... poor Ainsley got a little scared for the whole car was shaking. I love all the National Park visitor centers... they always have little movies to watch that are just the right length for even the kiddos to enjoy.

The kiddos had enough of "eating sand" so the rest of the day was spent driving around to the rest of our "must see" arches and me hopping out to take pictures... you can tell just how much sand was in the air... look how grainy the pictures are.

The Three Gossips...

Court House Towers...

The one formation that was on Walker's list was Balanced Rock so we all did the short walk around it..

Poor family looks like they are going to blow away...

One of the arches on my list was the Delicate Arch... it was too far of a hike with the kiddos to get right up into in so I settled for a look out area... I still had to hike the half mile by myself but it was better than the 3 mile hike... definitely next time though.

We called it a day and headed back to the campground... glad to find that the tent was still secured... started setting it up and found out just how windy it was... the inside of the tent was covered with sand... imagine taking a gallon of paprika and sprinkling it around, that's exactly how it looked.

The temps started to drop and by the time we got the tent all cleaned out and back up we were starving... could not for the life of us keep the stove burning. So we snacked on stuff in the tent. About 7:30ish we were all getting cold and tired... the wind was relentless and at time collapsing part of the tent. At that time we put the kiddos in the car with sleeping bags and decided it would be best for everyone if we headed into town. So it's now dark... snowing... cold and windy and Stewart and I are taking down the tent and shoving it into the very full car... whatcha think?

We headed to Moab and checked into the first hotel... the hotel guy says, "You got skunked huh?" I'm sure we were quite the site. I think we all agreed the shower was the best part of the day... we had sand everywhere. Walker had a good 1/3 cup in his shoes alone.

Next morning we were eating hotel breakfast and listening to the news... at that time 8ish it was only 22 degrees we were glad we packed it in... that would have been just too cold for the kiddos.

Headed out for home and ran into this...

All in all we had a great first camping trip of the season... one more picture on the way home.