Spring Break: Arches

After a breakfast of champions (gross!) we headed back to Arches for a final day of Southern Utah hiking.

We started at the Courthouse Wash, which is a short little hike, but we made a happy discovery as we hiked.  We bumped into the subject of one of our favorite paintings.  The Kathy Stats hanging above our fireplace.

There it is.  Our Kathy Stats.  I had no idea it was in Arches.  I'd always thought it was a painting from Canyon De Chelley.  Pretty cool:

Next we took the dirt road (it felt really long on the terrible road) to the Klondike Bluffs area to hike past the Marching Men to Tower Arch.  We did this once when Clara was a little puppy and Pop-Pop was with us.  It was beautiful.  The puffy clouds and perfect weather made it even better:

The last 1/3 of the hike is in sand.  Which is really not that easy:

Some RRL's did some exploring above and 

behind the arch. This arch had a cathedral like feel:

Our last stop was Broken Arch:

Clara is a RRL 2.0.  Clinging to the rock she climbed right up:

The climbers wanted to go up top:

Such a beautiful day (photo credit to Lu):

With a potty stop we were on our way back to Provo (so sad to leave that place but at least we had more fun in store):

That evening Rob and I met up with Emily and Weston at Black Sheep Cafe in Provo for dinner.  It was so fun to see them and catch up.  Mad I didn't take a picture.  

Spring Break: Canyonlands, The Needles

Wednesday Morning we woke up to heavy rain.  Our friends all had to be back to Reno for work, so they were leaving and we really debated bailing out because of the rain.  We called down to the Needles section and they said snow was forecast for the day.  So we debated some more, and decided to chance it.  So glad we did.  There was snow south of Moab, (lots more than is pictured here the further South we went).  But it was spectacularly beautiful and the drive into The Needles is one of my favorites. 

We stopped for a FREEZING picture at Newspaper Rock:

 I'm not sure there is a prettier drive than this one:

 We stopped briefly at the Visitors Center and decided to try a new hike.  Slickrock hike.  It was great.  The sky was spectacular:

 The soil grows a crust to keep it from eroding.  Cryptobiotic soil:

 After the hike we stopped for a FREEZING lunch:

 Then the weather warmed up a bit and we did some of the Chessler Park (2 of the 3 miles.  Threat of rain and mutiny on the children's park cut the hike short....sad).  This is my FAVORITE place.  This hike is just amazing and pictures will never capture it:

 The kids hiked up ahead and massively entertained themselves with some game they made up.  I don't know why they mutinied.  They were having a nice time.  Oh well:

The last stop of the day was to see this granary at Roadside Ruin:

SO SO glad we didn't bail out.