Arches

By the time we got to Arches we were underwhelmed by more rocks.  We drove the drive, we hiked the hike, we saw some stuff...we called it a day.  We are not "serious" hikers so the hours long hikes deep into the park did not appeal to us.  Turns out that while this may be the largest concentration of arches in the world (I think I read that???) there are arches outside of the park, and pretty impressive ones too, including this one which we saw about 30 minutes outside of the park on our way  to Mesa Verde (I think it was called the Wilson Arch):

 

So, yeah, if you have the time and energy, by all means go to Arches.  If not, find another arch or two along your route and call it good.

 So abutting the road that leads right into Arches National Park is a huge hill (dare I say the base of a mountain) where the sand/dirt is bare of any vegetation.  Children (and not a few adults) entertained us while we waited in the entrance line by hiking up the incline and then rolling down it.  It was quite the site.  I am certain that some of those kids will remember that hill more than anything else that they did on their vacation.  Josh was itching to get over there himself.  In retrospect we probably should have found the time (and let's be honest, energy) to get him over there to experience it himself.  It looked fun.

 With the exception of a couple of hours the morning we left Mesa Verde, the weather was picture perfect all week.  Clear skies with scattered clouds, crisp but not cold (mostly shorts and sweatshirt weather)...I can imagine that in the summer it gets brutal hot here but we had a great experience.

 balanced rock within Arches National Park