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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.


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