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Published: August 11th 2013
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Our last hike. We roused the kids at a decent hour, and headed to Arches National Park for our final hike of the trip. Our objective was Delicate Arch, one of the many naturally-formed sandstone arches throughout the park.
Arches was very different from all the other parks we've visited. Desolate is the word that comes to mind - vast expanses of terrain that closely resembled the desert driving we endured moving from CA to AZ to UT. Large stretches of emptiness were dotted with shapely mounts, descriptively named for their attributes - Balanced Rock, Sheep Rock, Courthouse.
Arches is one of Todd's favorite parks. He is enamored with the rock formations and arches. Billy and I were less impressed, and Sean, Maggie & Tommy chose not to weigh in.
The "hike" turned out to be as much of a rock climbing adventure as a hike, much to Sean and Tommy's dismay. However, Billy and Maggie enjoyed scaling several different kinds of formations along our way toward Delicate Arch. It sits on the far side of a great sandstone basin, which Maggie was perturbed we would not allow her to descend into. But as we watched the looming,
darkening clouds on the horizon grow closer, and felt the tell-tale winds pick up speed, we cut short our stay at the arch and turned the troops back toward the parking lot.
The 80 minute hike out took only half that time going back, as going downhill is always faster than up, and as Todd and I were pressing everyone to make better time as visions of the enormous 12% grade rock slope we had to descend turning into one giant slip-and-slide under a good heavy rain gave us an adrenaline rush to get off the mountain as quickly as possible. We stepped onto the man-made sandy path just as the first drops began to fall.
From Arches we grabbed lunch in Moab, UT before heading east toward Denver. We still had not secured a place for the night, but were able to find a campground in Granby, CO, just outside Rocky Mountain National Park, that could accommodate us. Our trusty GPS found us a shortcut through the foothills of the Rockies, which not only gave us a beautiful, back-country scenic drive through the Rockies, but also enabled us to dub our RV an ATV as about 25
miles of the route was an unpaved, unmarked, dirt and gravel road. Nothing near as hideous as our late-night misadventure in Awahnee, CA, but close. Billy, of course, was irritated no end that even on this no-man's land road we still did not encounter any wildlife. Until, that is, we were fortunate enough to watch two doe gracefully bound over a pasture fence. That appeased our budding zoologist a bit.
Before settling in for the night to the unsettling sound of welping coyotes in the distance, we stopped for dinner at Maverick Grille, another Yelp find that promised an interesting array of game options in addition to the standard American fare. Unfortunately, we made more of an impression on the restaurant than it had a chance to make on us, as shortly after our arrival Sean, who had been complaining of an upset stomach, proceeded to retch multiple times on his way to the restroom. That's a first for us - being in a public place with a projectile vomiting child and not being able to make it to the toilet in time. Suffice it to say Todd and I, both having worked in the hospitality industry in our
younger years, left a generous and apologetic tip for the waitstaff who had to clean up our son's mess. Sean, thankfully, seemed to be on the mend almost before leaving the restaurant, having emptied the contents of his stomach, and fell asleep in the RV in the parking lot as the rest of the family finished their meal.
So, our second to last night in our RV finds us next to Granby Lake, with coyotes in the distance, and well-positioned to collect our final set of badges, magnets and other souvenirs tomorrow morning as we cruise through Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it's south of Denver for a night of packing and organizing and strategizing for how to get 30-feet of stuff and people into a 12-foot minivan. THAT will be impressive.
Marcia
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The Other Baldwin Family
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"The Golden Arches"
"Hello and welcome to the Golden Arches! May I take your order please?" Marcia- "Yes, I would like a large order of anything I don't have to cook or store in a small confined kitchen which travels at 55 miles per hour and holds 30 feet of materials which I now must fit into an even smaller confined space for 600 additional miles." Todd-"I would like the Sequoia sized nature hike, with extra miles on the side." Maggie- " I would like the vegetarian sandstone basin. The special extra deep size please, with extended vertical climbing." Tommy- "Can I please have the "Big Chopper" with no hiking or biking sauce." Billy-"I would like the "Wildlife" bowl, with bison, elks, birds, snakes, mountain lions and a large order of "doe"nuts!!!" Sean-"Could I just please have the room stop spinning a moment so I can collect my thoughts? ......Ok much better. I will have everything everyone else is having please. Oh, and make that to go! Thanks!!!" ......hey, you are all such "special orders"...love you all...oh, and have a nice day!!!