You know what I love? National Parks. I love that there are so many in my back yard. I love that I can travel 6-8 hours and see so many beautiful places. For Independence day I packed up my family and we drove to Moab to visit 4 national parks over the weekend.
Thursday we woke up early and drove to Moab. I went on my bike ride alone and needed to wash my hair. This combination sort of set me up to be a bad travel partner. It didn't help that I was hungry. So I sort of lost it at lunch time when we didn't stop for lunch. I pulled together after we ate and arrived at our airbnb. We ate dinner once everyone arrived then we drove up to the hills near Moab and waited for fireworks. We sat up there for a few hours before police came and told us we were in the line of fire so we had to move. We didn't end up seeing many fire works because they started right as we drove down the hill. HA! But we had fun waiting for fire works with family.
Friday, we woke up early and headed to Arches National Park and hiked to Mesa Arch. I am so glad we woke up early and beat the crowds! It ended up being pretty hot as we started hiking back to the car. It was an easy 3 mile round trip hike that was fun and beautiful!
We did one more short hike then headed back to town for lunch and to swim while we waited out the heat.
After lunch we headed out to Canyonlands National Park. It was a short quick trip to just see the canyons that were gorgeous. We didn't do any hikes because everyone was hiked out. We just walked around the area and headed back home to eat dinner and play games.
Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Capitol Reef National Park. Half of our group headed home so they could prepare for the next week. Veronica and her family joined us in Capitol Reef. It was a pretty cool park. We picked fruit from the many fruit trees, ate delicious home made pies, and played near the river. It was gorgeous!
We stopped for lunch outside the park and then drove down to Bryce Canyon National Park. This park was so surprising! I had no idea how cool the canyon was going to be! And we were able to hike down into the canyon on a simple 3 mile hike! It was incredible! This was probably my favorite park of the trip and definitely Edward and Nolen's favorite park of the trip.
After Bryce Canyon we split off from Veronica and headed to our hotel for the night. We were all so tired that we just flopped on our beds and never moved again! Veronica headed to Zions and hiked there on Sunday. We woke up Sunday and headed back home. It was a long 8 hour drive that we broke up by stopping at horseshoe bend just outside of Page, AZ. I have always wanted to stop there and I am so glad we did. It was a 2.5 mile round trip hike to see the bend. It was SO HOT!
This was a fun trip and I am so glad Stephen was able to join us. It was a lot of driving and I know it took a lot to get everyone together but I am so glad we did it! This was our one big trip as a family this summer.
