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Our first trip to the desert of 2009 started with a long drive from Orem to Canyonlands National Park. We made our way to the Mesa Arch trail head for the first hike of our trip, of course Bowen (2 years old) was ready to burst out of his car seat and start running amuck around Mesa Arch. The trail is a very easy .5 mile loop so we had just enough time to stretch our legs and get warmed up for the weekend.

First photos of the Trip.

April and Bowen posed for some shots while Lanik harassed the tourists and climbed around on the surrounding slick rock.

We made it back to the car and made lunch for the kids then headed out towards our next hike. After a short drive we were at the trail head for Whale Rock near the Upheaval dome. The hike was short and sweet and offered great views of the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park.

View from the top of Whale Rock

After a quick stop at the green river overlook we wrapped up things in Island in the Sky and drove to Arches National park. April and the kids played at Sand Dune Arch while I hiked out to Broken Arch to take some photos.

Broken Arch

The light was perfect so we made a few stops on our way out of the park to take photos from a few viewpoints.

Garden of Eden

The kids had a great time in the hotel (this translates into April and I did not get much sleep), we got up early and dropped April off so she could run the Canyonlands Half Marathon. The boys and I drove out to the Devils Garden area to hike Landscape Arch.

We rushed back to Moab and sat on the side of the road waiting for April to run by. We cheered her on then headed out to the finish line.

13.1miles in 1hour 57min — very nice.

April and Brittany after the race.

After the race we ate lunch then teamed up with the Root family to drive the Kane Creek Road out to Hunters Canyon. We did a short easy hike to Hunters Canyon Arch then let the kids play in the water.

After Hunters Canyon Tyler and I headed out to Arches National Park. We had planned to hike False Kiva in Canyonlands but the clouds were not living up to my high standards so we decided to stick a bit closer to town.

First stop we made was at Eye of the Whale Arch, The Arch is not on the park map but well worth visiting if you have a HCV.

Next we set out to locate a good spot to shoot photos of the sunset… Delicate Arch was our first choice but after witnessing the masses in the trail head parking lot we moved on down the road to find a bit more solitude.

We parked near Skyline Arch and did a bit of route finding to make our way inside the Arch. The sunset broke through the clouds briefly and we were able to get some good photos. Just as the sunset peaked a family on vacation from Colorado hiked up to share our view from inside Skyline Arch and I took this photo of their son.

We made one last stop for the day in the Windows section of the park. Tyler and I spent about an hour playing with the LED wands and my other light toys in and around the North Window. The results were pretty cool.

The next morning we packed up the hotel and head out to the Delicate Arch Trail head. We met up with some of April’s friends from work and the Roots. Delicate Arch was packed with tourists as always, I took a few photos then packed the camera away for the rest of the hike down.

The drive home was pretty interesting with high winds, dust storms, rain, and a bit of snow. I cant wait to get out again and do some camping here in the next few weeks.