A new day

Waking up at 10,000 feet after a horrendous evening of driving in the snow was beautiful. There were a few snow-capped mountains right there. I couldn’t believe how close they were. It really was a beautiful sight. It was still a treacherous 30 mile trek over the mountains to I-70. It was snow packed, but driveable. It was a wonderful sight when we saw I-70. We continued on our journey to Utah. It’s truly amazing to watch the scenery change as you head from the snow-capped Rocky Mountains to the deserts of Utah. It’s hard to believe that these environments could be so close together.

 At the beginning of the hike.  Everyone's excited!

 By 2:00 that afternoon, we had reached Arches National Park. We decided to do the most popular hike to Delicate Arch, the unofficial state symbol of Utah. It really is a beautiful arch. The hike is 1.5 miles up, but it’s a nice hike.

Everything was going really well until we reached the top. We were going around on this pretty small ledge with a significant drop, and I was getting pretty nervous. Then, we turned the corner to view the absolutely beautiful sight of the arch. The kids started getting excited and wanting to see it. But, we were on slippery sandstone at a steep decline. I really began freaking out. Having all four of the kids up there is just too much for me and Dave. Rachel is fearless and wants to get as high as possible. Zack surprised me because he too was fearless. And, he is pretty careless, in general. He just doesn’t think about what’s around him and what could happen. So, I was completely nervous. I truly couldn’t get myself to quit freaking out. Fortunately, for me, it was windy up there. The kids were a little cold, so Alex and Matthew wanted to head down. I took the two of them down a little ways, while Dave, Rachel and Zack went over closer. Even though it was not dangerous as I was probably assuming, I was glad to get off of that area. Amazingly, though, the kids handled the 3 miles roundtrip with no problems. They were all in good spirits the entire time.

Notice how it slopes downward in the background.  It went very far.

We decided to drive around the park to see what we wanted to do the next day. We stopped at Double Arch, where we could explore within a short walk of the car. The kids LOVED this area. They went crazy, climbing on all the sandstone structures. I had just read 127 Hours about the guy getting stuck in the canyon here in Utah. One quote in his book is that, “geological time includes now” talking about this rock coming loose even though it had probably been secure for a very long time. I couldn’t help thinking about this as I was watching my kids. They were jumping from rock to rock. Zack was standing atop a tall rock, lost his balance, and I grabbed him before he tumbled face first 8-10 feet on to another rock. It sent adrenaline through my body, and I just couldn’t get over the fear.

 I turned around to see Dave, Matthew and Rachel hanging out on a ledge that apparently had a sharp drop-off on the back. Rachel was standing up, trying to climb up further. I was truly freaking out. Alex and Zack headed up as well. I went up myself to see, and it did not comfort me.

Just to push me to my limit, the kids decided to climb this cave. It didn’t look all that bad, but it was rocky and slippery.

Matthew was definitely a little nervous climbing up. His legs were shaking at some of the points. But, he kept pushing ahead because he was determined to get up. At the top, Zack is just running around, disappearing beyond my view. This, of course, was causing me to scream at Zack to get back to where I could see him. Coming down is not always as easy as going up. Matthew had some trouble and started sliding down. It scared me and him, I think.

I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it through this park if the kids were going to be like this. It became a big joke for the kids to see if they were doing stuff that was “freaking me out.” We finally got to Moab, had dinner at Denny’s after 8:30, got what was probably the last hotel room, and fell into bed. Everyone else fell right to sleep. I, on the other hand, kept picturing my kids doing all the dangerous things and falling to their deaths. I could not get it out of my mind. The kids are pretty scary. They run down these slopes with a complete disregard for how they are going to stop or what would happen if they got too fast. They walk forward along sheer cliffs while turning around to talk to us or fight with one another. It is truly scary. I kept screaming at them to “Watch Out” and “Be Careful”. I must have said it hundreds of times. I was sure they were going to die.

At least, the scenery is beautiful!