A Day in Utah

We began our day in Fruita, Colorado. There is a small dinosaur museum there, which is the reason we stayed there. I took Josiah in the morning, and the girls stayed wtih Patty. The museum was small, and not done to highest museum standards, but excellent for Josiah. I had read that there was a terribly loud roaring at the museum which might scare small children. Indeed there was. The roaring was near-constant, and unnecessarily loud. Emma probably would have been terrified.

Josiah the dinosaur expert was obviously very excited to go

We didn't know velociraptors were so small.

This life-sized animatronic T-Rex was ridiculously loud. 

We then headed over to Moab, Utah, which was to be our base of operations for the day. It was less than 2 hours from Fruita, so we were able to arrive early in the afternoon and check in.

At one of the scenic stops along the highway.

Our first stop out of Moab was to be Arches National Park. This is one that people rave and rave about. So how was it? It was definitely impressive. Patty and I were amazed with the scale and beauty of it. We took lots of pictures, but I'll just include 2 that have people in them too.

Look, both Ben and Patty in the same picture!

At the North Window Arch

I realized today that this our kids are still too young for this type of park. Most of the stops had short or long hikes to see more things or to see things closer up. Not only were our kids not interested in the hikes, they later didn't even want to get out of the car. So our park experience was limited due to our precious little ones.

Things heard (multiple times) from the kids:

"No more mountains!"

"Why do we just keep driving?"

"I hate mountains."

"It was interesting, but not that interesting."  

"Can we go back to our hotel now?"

One fear we had about the park was that it was going to be hot. When we first left for Arches, the temperature was 98 degrees. However, after we entered the park, some clouds and then eventually a storm blew in. We weren't ever caught out in the rain, but we did experience some high winds with blowing sand. The upside was that it the temperature dropped into the 80's, and eventually down to the 60's. 

The combination of the wind, rain, and our kids' lack of enthusiasm meant that we only spent around 3 hours in Arches National Park. By then, the kids were hungry and tired. But instead of taking them back for dinner, I had one more stop I wanted to make. The storm was passing, and the sun was returning to the skies. I had read excellent things about Dead Horse Point State Park, and since it was almost sunset, I thought it would be an ideal time to go there. It was a windy 30 minute drive in the wrong direction, but I really believed that it would be worth it. 

I was not disappointed. I was impressed with Arches National Park, but I was in awe at the view from Dead Horse Point. Again, these pictures can't really capture the experience of being there, but it's better than nothing. The two photos actually could make a panoramic left to right. 

Awe-inspiring

The sun set as we were leaving. We drove back to the hotel as the light faded, and finally got everyone to sleep. 

Tomorrow is another driving day, as we set out for the city of lights (no wait, that's Paris). I think maybe I mean the city of vice - Las Vegas. But in this case, I call it the city of price, since we got a bargain $29 room rate at the Orleans Hotel. On the way, we will definitely stop in Washington, Utah. That is the location of the first In-n-Out Burger on our driving path. We'll stop there for a quick bite, and head straight for Vegas (where we might have some more In-n-Out.)

Allright, quick post, with minimal pictures. Hopefully tomorrow Patty can do a longer one about this day with more pictures.