Moab, Utah, to Springdale, Utah
By Svara Jayasinghe
After Windows we headed over to the Delicate Arch. The hike up to Delicate Arch was marked as strenuous but also seemed to be the most popular hike because the parking lot was crowded. Although, we were a little apprehensive we decided to give it a try. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into! The first bit of the hike was mild and was paved. This changed quickly enough and we had to climb up the face of a rock. This part was strenuous and tiring, especially for our mom and dad. They were very slow and rested every five seconds! Our dad allowed us athletes to go ahead and we quickly lost sight of them. We eventually made it to the top of the rock and expected to see the delicate arch. But we quickly realized that there was even more hiking to do. We continued walking and climbing for ten more minutes and had to navigate a small ledge on the side of a huge rock. It was a little scary being on a ledge where you could see the steep drop but we eventually made it to the end. We waited around 20 minutes at the end before our mom and dad eventually caught up to us. We sat looking at the arch, taking pictures, and had a snack before heading back down. It was a little easier this time because we were going downhill, but it was still challenging to navigate the steep descent. On our way up and down, we saw many families who were dragging small kids. Clearly, they didn’t know what they were getting into either.
Day three of our trip! We woke up at around 5:45 in the morning ready for a day of hiking at Arches National Park. Simran and I quickly got dressed and went down to the lobby of our hotel to get some breakfast for the whole family while Kiran slept in. Again, the breakfast was to-go and we ate in our rooms to keep away from people. We always wore a mask. We had planned to leave our hotel at around 6:40 A.M. to get to the park by 7:00 because we had heard the park would be crowded during Thanksgiving. As usual our family was late and we didn’t end up leaving the hotel until 7:15. All of us were a little worried that the park would be crowded but thankfully we made it early enough and not many people had arrived yet. The first hike we went on was called the Balanced Rock and it was more of a simple walk than hike. The three rock formations were really beautiful and we got some good pictures. Next, we headed over to Windows the second hike that we had planned for the day. We started off on a paved trail and then decided to take the primitive trail which was not paved and was off the beaten path. The trail was marked cairns which are piles of rocks that the park rangers had put out to mark the trail and to help hikers stay on track. This part of the trail was fun and beautiful and we all really enjoyed it. The hike was moderate, not too tiring, but not too easy either. We got some great pictures of the view and some cute pictures of the family as well.
All three of us at Delicate Arch!
(Images by the Jayasinghe Family)
The Delicate Arch hike took us around 3 hours. About 2 hours to go up and 1 hour to come down. Once we made it back down, we just rested in our car drinking water, eating, and resting our tired feet. We all sat there for around 15 minutes before deciding to move on to the next trail, the Devils Garden. There were two trails that we could take. The primitive trail, which would take around 7 hours, or the double o trail, which was pretty short and only around 2 miles. Obviously, we took the 2 mile one. We were extremely tired and barely had any physical strength left after our strenuous hike up Delicate Arch. Only my sisters, me, and my dad went on the Devils Garden trail because our mom was too tired and didn’t feel up to going. She rested in the car. The four of us took some pictures of the beautiful nature and quickly did the hike as we were all tired and we wanted to get back to our hotel. On our way back to our hotel our mom wanted to stop at the gift shop at the Visitor’s Center. The three kids stayed in the car. Once our mom had finished shopping we got some drinks at the Starbucks located inside the City Market (which believe it or not is the only Starbucks in Moab!) and then went back to our hotel to rest. We relaxed in our hotel room and watched some movies before going to pick up some dinner.
On our way to get dinner we also stopped to visit some friends from our swim team who had come to Moab. This was a complete surprise. Our parents and Simran wanted Mediterranean food but Kiran and I wanted pizza, so we ended up getting both. We got pizza from Domino’s and got Mediterranean food from Sultan Mediterranean Grill. After we drove back to our hotel room we lounged while eating before eventually deciding to go to sleep because we were all very tired.
