With our new view looking nothing like home, we all piled out of the Jimmy to stretch our legs, breathe in the fresh desert air and admire the view. After 5 days the view still made my heart gasp in awe.
Supper was prepard, tents were assembled, sleeping bags were laid out and we were finally off to Arches National Park.
Hiking 1 1/2-2 miles was nothing for our traveling jitters. John and Stephen ran around in circles, climbed over every rock and peppered Josh with questions. Hiking up large rock and enjoying each others company... we rounded the bend and there stood the Delicate Arch.
Hiding from view till the last second, and shimmering in the receding suns glory was the first sandstone arch I had ever seen in person. I couldn't help but marvel. You couldn't have planned it better.
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| We serve an awesome God |
Day #2 - Off roading/arch exploring
I'll let the pictures do the talking. Except to explain that the picture below does in no way give you a peek at what that poor Jimmy endured. This mild bit of sand was easy compared to the large rocks, steep inclines, daunting boudlers, deep sand... several times I thought we were stranded. And as I walked behind the vehicle and watch the wheels bounce and tip... all I could do was pray that we wouldn't be stranded in the middle of no where with a broken vehicle.
Some of my favorite people right here folks!
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| Whale's Eye Arch |
Climbing and wishing sandstone wasn't quite so brittle.
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| Matching! |
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| All of creation gives testimony to the Creator. |
Yes, we are in ^ the picture. Look hard.
Classic side-of-the-road eating/truck repair/river wading/relaxing.
Day #3 - Slot Canyons (my favorite!!)
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| Love this picture! This was one of my first views of a canyon. |
Words cannot describe how COLD this water was. Imagine to coldest water you have ever experienced - times that by 100.
I felt so hikerish as I walked with my shoe strings tied around my neck. And I was ever so grateful for my new quick-dry shorts!
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| xoxo |
COLD.
This kid ^ was crazy limber and flexible.
This time around we literally had to swim through this water. This was the reason I came on this trip. I wanted to swim through freezing water and shimmy through slot canyons and come back home with great stories. Check. check. and check.
It was cold.
And I screamed. Very loud. The breath was seriously sucked straight from my lungs. It was invigorating. And scary.
Stephen was the brave soul who stayed back with Emily. And surprised us as we started to pick our things.
Yes. I felt like we just have been on some cool movie or something. (yah, it wasn't crazy impressive, but don't rob my glory moment.)
Love these two ^^ people.
Day #4 - Mountains
We couldn't drive through CO without a quick climb up a mountain.
It wasn't really a "summit", but it was the highest the younger boys had ever climbed. And it was cold, so that counts too.
We were rained on and snowed on in our little tent homes. Thankfully for Josh we had nice gear, sleeping bags and tents. Safe, dry and happy we hunkered down for a blissful nights sleep.
We drove through a snow storm, rain storm and dust storm all in one day.
Scampering over sandstone, hiking through canyons, swimming in FREEZING water, climbing mountains, sleeping in tents, eating out of canyons and....
When can we do it again?!?
So fun, Anna! Those canyons look especially epic. And yay for adventuring with family. :D
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