Skip to main content

Hiking to Delicate Arch

For the past several years we have done the same thing for spring break.  We drive to Green River, stay in the Comfort Inn and swim in the pool, then go somewhere to visit the next day.  There are quite a few fun and beautiful places to visit that are less than an hour away:  Goblin Valley, Arches National Park, Little Wild Horse Canyon, Canyonlands, Dead Horse State Park, etc.  We have enjoyed visiting all of those places.


This year we decided to visit Arches again.  My favorite destination hike at Arches is hiking to Delicate Arch.  It's quite possibly the most famous landmark in Utah.  It's on our license plates, for heaven's sake!

The Forest Service calls this hike strenuous.  I would not call it difficult for teenagers, college students, and other people in good physical condition.  But for the rest of us, it's challenging, especially if you have small children with you and it's hot.  It's a 3-mile hike round-trip with a 480-feet elevation gain, although that is a deceptive number because you go up and then down again before you really start going up.


Parts of the trail are stroller-friendly but other parts--like this one--are definitely not.
The big hill which is really a giant rock was definitely a cardio workout for me.  My six-year-old who is somewhat delayed with her gross motor skills and has bad lungs spent a lot of the hike on the shoulders of her brothers and father.  But no one else seemed to have any trouble.  When we have hiked the trail before even the younger children have done well.

The big hill just keeps going on and on

The view at the top is great.  There are lots of places to sit despite the crowds that you will almost always find on the trail.  This is a popular destination.  We started hiking around 11am and there were plenty of people on the trail.  Parking is actually a little bit of a problem because the parking lot fills up pretty quickly, but down the road you're allowed to park on the street.


The hike down was definitely easier but by that point my feet were pretty tired and so were Camille's.  We have hiked this trail three times as a family:  2001, 2009, and now 2014.  This time was definitely the warmest with highs in the 70's but thankfully there was some cloud cover.  It's definitely easier when the temperature is cooler.  I don't think I'd do it in the summer--the average high in July at Arches is 100 degrees.

I enjoyed seeing a few wildflowers--it's incredible how they can bloom on rocks.

Water helps a lot.  They recommend at least a quart per person.  I'm not sure a quart is really necessary when you're hiking in cooler temperatures--we each had about a pint--but definitely take a quart in the summer.

I also highly recommend snacks and hard candy to keep the younger hikers happy.  The hike takes 2-3 hours and kids always get hungry.  We had some lemon drops and those were extremely popular.

It was a good hike!
 
My only complaint about the whole trip was my springtime hayfever seemed to get kickstarted as soon as we got to Green River and I spent a lot of time blowing my runny, itchy nose and rubbing my itchy eyes.  But really I can't complain.  I'm glad we went.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting Susquehanna: The Priesthood Restoration Site

On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River.  This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize.  This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night.  It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania.  However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet.  I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy.  Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all.  She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate.  Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in.  Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios.  She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities.  One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not.  Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable.  Wha...

Hansen Family Plot in the Provo Cemetery

On Memorial Day this year, our family went to the Provo Cemetery, as we do almost every year. We spent some time at the Hansen Family plot which contains the grave of my 2nd great-grandparents, Peter and Mary Hansen. They both emigrated from Denmark with their spouses to Utah. My grandfather lost his first wife Ane to cholera on the plains outside of St. Joseph, Missouri, along with three of his little boys within a very short time--about one month. It's a sad story but it's also one of admirable resilience. He brought his one surviving son, Jorgen, to Utah. He married his second wife Maren (Anglicized to Mary) some 9 years later in Utah  She had been married before but lost her first husband at an unknown date. I wish I knew more about her but she left very few records, although I could do more research! Peter and Maren had 6 more children together. The youngest two were twins, Enoch and Ephraim. Ephraim is my great-grandfather and is buried in California. He is the father of ...