Western Trip 2014 - Arches Nat'l Park

The next morning after breakfast, we got an early start at the world famous 

I highly recommend it, it was our favorite thing while we were out there.

Here are some pictures, and while I haven't posted nearly all of them, 

this should give a good idea of what it was like and what we did.

Double O arch
You can see the top one of the two in the right of the picture.

Here we all are in the lower of the two arches

If you plan on seeing the best parts, plan on hiking, and bring lots of water.
When they say two quarts per person, it's no joke. You won't just maybe need it, you will need it.

A section of "Primitive Trail"
There were several sections like this, and trust me, it is steeper and narrower than the picture implies. In this shot I was looking down quite a bit, which makes it seem much more easy than it really was. It pays off, though. All the really neat things are up this trail.

Another picture of us, in a different arch.

Landscape Arch

Just a random cliff that Eliana ran up on top of.

You can get up on the "little" raised part at the end. I know. And it is bigger than it looks.

This was one of my favorite arches of them all. It led into a nice quiet sheltered little valley,
and the view out was absolutely spectacular.

A view out the arch, without us in the way.

A view down into the little valley.

Yes, there is water in the desert. Right after it rains, that is.
We got a huge thunderstorm the night before.

Private Arch, probably named that because nobody usually goes to the end of the trail and finds it. The trail is basically the same until the very end, at the complete other side of the formation, and not even on the main loop.

This is one of my favorite shots. The green grasses, then the yellow sand hill, with the red sandstone cliffs as a backdrop make it extremely colorful and interesting.

I think that this was one of the most amazing places we went on the trip, 

but there will still be some amazing things coming in future posts.