Arches

What a fun trip this was! Our family took a little adventure trip down to Moab this past weekend, not only for the Moab 1/2 Marathon, but for some FABULOUS site-seeing. We had so much fun! Brett's whole family came with us-- all his siblings and their families, except Steve, were there. And the best cheerleader of all, Marla, (Brett's dear mom) came too. Total, we had about 30 people. It was a riot! We left later in the afternoon on Thursday, and stayed at a hotel in Green River that had a pool. That was the ONLY reason we decided to go on Thursday and the only reason we stayed in Green River, Utah-- the pool. Well, we were sorely disappointed! The pool wasn't even heated! The river would have been just as well! We spent most of the time in the hot tub and then went up to play Guitar Hero and the kids played Game Cube. They were in 7th heaven! After we met up with the rest of the fam on Friday morning, we headed into Moab and went to our first stop, Arches. This place is seriously amazing. It is just breath-taking. The pictures above and below are of us at the trail head of Double Arch and right at the Double Arch. It is incredible.







The kids had a BLAST climbing and exploring all over in this wonderland. There were little caves and lots of heights for them to conquer. Some of them made this mama a little nervous, but overall, I did ok.

Here we are at Landscape Arch. Landscape Arch is in the Devils Garden section of Arches National Park. It has the greatest span of any natural arch so far documented and is unquestionably one of the world's greatest wonders. Landscape Arch is an arc natural arch eroded in Entrada sandstone. Arc natural arches are considered old and near the end of their lifecycle. It is hard to believe that a piece of rock like this can exist. In its thinnest section the arch is only 6 feet thick, yet it supports a span of rock 290 feet long. Indeed, this arch could collapse at any time: any day, any year, any decade, or any century. On September 1, 1991, a 73-foot slab of rock fell out from underneath the thinnest section of the span. The rock that fell was probably not structurally important to the arch. In fact, by reducing the weight of suspended rock, the arch is probably now stronger. (This info taken off the naturalarches.org website).

Here are the kids with their Rushes t-shirts on (perfect for the race) infront of Delicate Arch. The famous arch that is on the Utah license plate. What sweet kids and what a sweet view!