Arches National Park

Ever since I was a young child I have wanted to go to Arches National Park. I always saw the Delicate Arch on the license plates and wondered how big it actually was. Spencer's dad was joking with me before our trip and said it was about three inches tall and they just make it look bigger in pictures. Then I had to go and see if for myself. We are trying to fit everything in before we go on our trip to Europe. When we come back I will be working full time and it will a little harder to take time off for a trip to Moab.

We got up there late Friday night and had just enough time to climb to the Delicate Arch. We were just sitting and enjoying looking at the arch when I started to hear the people next to us speaking German. I never know if I should talk to them or just let it go. The problem is I like to stare at people and it had got to the point where I had to say something or it would have been awkward. I asked them in English if I could take a picture for them and they had no idea what I said. Spencer decided to try in German and they were so excited. We started talking to them and found that they were from Dresden. They gave us their address and phone number and said they would love to show us around when we are there and we can even stay at their place if we wanted. This seems to be happening a lot lately. I love to hear real German. The wind started to pick up right after we got done talking to them. We had time to take a few pictures and then head back before it got dark.  I am here to tell you that the Delicate Arch is bigger than three inches tall. It was so fun to see because you don't see it until you come around a long corner. Now when I see those license plates I will know what it looks like in real life.

After we made it down the mountain we headed to the cabin to get some sleep. It was so perfect because we didn't have to set up camp. We just walked in and layed down. That is my kind of camping! We were all pretty tired and watched a little Game Show Network before going to bed. The best part was when Christina came in the morning and said it smells like rotten bananas and blueberries in here. We all started laughing because we didn't smell anything, but because she is pregnant she can smell everything.

We got up early the next morning so that we could get a permit for to hike the Fiery Furnace. Then we went back to cabin and ate a quick breakfast before heading out. It ended up being the perfect weather for hiking. It got a little warm towards the end, but the morning and early afternoon were perfect.

Balanced Rock. It is almost as tall as the statue of liberty!

Skeleton Eyes Arch

The Turtles Arch

Now this is a funny story. We were in the Fiery Furnace and Spencer wanted to take a picture in one of the caves that was right by a big ledge. We decided that it would be too dark so he was trying to get the camera to go back in the case but it was getting stuck on something. He ended up dropping it and it fell down a 20 foot cliff that was it a small crevice that was in between two rocks. The next thing I knew he was in that crevice trying to get the camera, but it was out of his reach. The only things we had to work with were: Spencer's belt, medical tape, and dead sticks that weren't very long. The only way that we could get it out was to push it along a 30 foot long crack in the rocks. We pushed it as far as we could with the stick and had to come up with something else.

Right about this time the ranger walked by with the guided tour and told us that we can't gather sticks and we can't put tape on the sticks and that we should just give up because we weren't going to get it. Our camera was gone. That is when I lost all my hope. He was no help at all and all the people with him looked at us that we were crazy, except for the one guy that was willing to send his seven year old son down there to get it. haha. We weren't giving up! We had a new idea to used the tape as a rope and made the belt into a chaise (I think that is what Jason called it?), which is just a hole that we could hook the camera in and pull it down farther. Spencer hooked the camera in the belt with his stick and we all went silent. Spencer's whole body was asleep by this time from being in the crack and he was sinking deeper and deeper. He was not coming out of there until we had the camera in our hands. This was our last chance! Jason pull it slowly until he got to a hat that was also stuck in the crack and pull as hard as he could to make it over the top. We did it!!

Then Christina took as shorter stick and got it out the other side. It was truly a miracle. We would have lost all our pictures from the time that we got our new camera in Feburary. I need to be better about taking them off so that doesn't happen again. All that Christina said was mission accoplished and I am starving! Then Spencer said this to the ranger, he said no and we said yes. It was so funny because he was being a bully, but in a nice way. He wanted to run and catch up with him just to tell him that we got it. The camera wouldn't turn on when we finally got it. I think there was a lot of sand that was stopping the lens from opening. It is getting fixed right now and hopefully we will get it back in time for our trip to Europe. It was a success either way because we were able to get our pictures back. It was well worth the hour that we spend looking down that crack! That is the story of the Fiery Furnance, the crazy maze that I thought we were never going to get out of, that turned into a miracle of getting our camera back.

The amazing taped stick. We had to tape four of them together to
make it long enough. This is the only picture that we got because
 the camera was in the crack and everyone was so focus on getting
it out!

There is even construction in the mountains. What?

We needed a break and decided to head over by Landscape Arch to see if we could find some shade. We were lucky and found a table in the shade! This day doesn't get much better. We were talking about it after and here are the lucky things that we came up with:  we got the last cabin so we had a place to stay, met Germans, it was really dusty when we were driving up and cleared out just in time for us to hike Delicate Arch, got the last table to eat lunch and it was even in the shade, we made it out of the Fiery Furnace (no one else did that started with us), and we were able to get our camera out. I think we were just meant to go to Moab this weekend. 

Double Arch 

Landscape Arch. This one is as long as a football field. Then the Parade of
Elephants. 

We had such a good trip with Jason and Christina. They will be moving in a couple months so we are trying to spend as much time as we can with them before they leave. Christina even did all the hikes without even complaining. I would have been done after the first hike if I was pregnant. We figured it out that we hike about 10 miles if you add all the hikes together. That is a lot of hiking!