I am sitting here on the side of a mountain in Arches National Park and I am still pinching myself at all the sights we have seen today. Arches, Snow capped mountains, elevations of 11,000 feet and the list goes on.
We started our day at 545 this morning as we rolled out of Colorado Springs and out to Moab, Utah. We managed to keep our kids asleep for two hours while we drove. A blessed success. Then they awoke somewhere around Vail, Colorado and were greeted with the sights of ski resorts, evergreen trees and snow capped mountains. The neatest thing was when we looked out the car windows to see the sights we had to look up to the sky to see the tops of the mountains.
The landscape did a complete 180 today as we left green mountains to the evergreen covered mountains, then to the grey rock covered mountains, and then in eastern Colorado right past Vail the red rocks started. We couldn’t stop looking at these amazing rock formations out the windows. I kept trying to get Greg to really focus on the road as we seemed to be flying down the mountains from 11,000 feet elevation at the Loveland Pass, the highest vehicle tunnel in the World, to a moderate 4600 where we sit now. I was really trying to work the imaginary brake pedal on my side of the car all day but it didn’t seem to be slowing us down. Eventually I just had to close my eyes. A few Hail Marys were certainly being said and afterwards Greg did admit that was the hardest drive.
We arrived in Arches at the hottest time of the day to the neatest campsite. We are in a secluded area in the very back of the park in Devils Garden. We have a great pull through slot and views where you can see for miles. Its a bit windy here and the shade feels great but the sun is still pretty hot. We were so eager to be out of the car we made our kids hike to a few of the arches with us. They were not fans. We didn’t quite make it to all of the arches we wanted to see but the red sand that you walk on is buttery soft and when you walk in between the arches its eerily quiet.
Our campsite is situated overlooking the mountains and I plan on sitting here tonight and searching the night sky for some shooting starts with my family. Hoping for a big show tonight!