A Whirlwind Trip to Arizona/Utah and the National Parks - COMPLETED 4/1/15 - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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What great memories again! What a shame about the wind that morning, but wow, what amazing photos you got as a result.
I love all the photos from Arches, but the one thing that struck me (and I may have said this previously) is how tall is Alexa now? My goodness, she is looking so grown up. I feel positively ancient seeing those photos...
Beautiful views and formations. Sorry about the cold and wind. Watching the sun through the sand was interesting. One has to wonder how the arches are still standing.
Great updates!! I can relate to the windstorms not being fun when mixed with sand/dirt..... Love the Arches pics; looks like yall seen some arches that we didn't
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Marnie, I'm so glad you are back finishing this report. What a great couple of days. The sand blowing made for some incredible photos. Love all the arch pictures. Some great pictures of Colin & Alexa together as well as incredible landscape shots.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 – I thought fiery meant “hot” and lots of hikes!
We got up and headed upstairs to breakfast at the hotel. http://canyonlandsinn.com/ They had a good spread, with eggs, bacon, make your own waffles, etc. Once finished, we packed our bags for the morning, as we were headed out on the Fiery Furnace Tour, which is a tour with Park Rangers at Arches NP. You can read more about it here. http://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/programs.htm You have to reserve in advance, and there are all sorts of warnings about the conditions/exertions. But once we got there and saw others in the group, I realized we (more likely me) would be fine! We also woke up to a light blanket of snow, so we put on the waterproof pants and jackets, and packed the hats and mittens. So much for the Fiery Furnace being hot!
We met up with our ranger (there were about 40 of us, my kids were the only kids) and we headed off. It’s about a 3 hour hike into the rocks. You have to climb, scoot thru, jump over things, etc. so it’s not just your everyday walk in the park and the reason behind all the warnings. You also had to walk single file, so as not to disturb the wildlife in the area.
Matt’s pictures:
After the hike, we went back to town to eat lunch at Pasta Joe’s, that was right next to the hotel. We took a rest/nap, and then headed back out to Arches to see some more sights. First up was the Devil’s Garden Trailhead to go see Landscape Arch.
Then we drove over to the Delicate Arch viewpoint. We decided not to do the hike today, as with all that we had already done, exhaustion was setting in as you can see from some of the previous pictures!
We then left the park, in search of food. First stop was the local food store so that we could load up on sandwich supplies for our trek to Canyonlands NP tomorrow. Then we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at Peace Tree Juice Café again. And par for the course, the food was good, but the service was lacking. At least they made a great mojito! Then it was off to bed, exhausted from all the hiking we’d done today!
Coming up next: Canyonlands NP and the long hike to Delicate Arch!
That was a very strenuous day! I can definitely see the signs of wilting as the day wore on. I love the photo of Colin resting against the Delicate Arch sign! Amazing area.
I took a group tour of the SW USA back in 1998 and visited many of the sites we've seen so far in your TR including, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Monument Valley, Bryce and Zion Canyons. Many of the photos look so familiar as I visited at the Grand Canyon among others Mather Point, Desert View and had dinner at Bright Angel Lodge one evening there. I even watched the sun set from outside here one evening. Quite spectacular!
One of the highlights for me was when I was in Las Vegas I took a helicopter flight to the bottom of the Grand Canyon for a memorable Champagne lunch at the bottom of the canyon besides the Colorado River. It was such a wow moment! It wasn't cheap, but worth every penny of it.
When I was in Monument Valley we stayed in Page, Arizona at Lake Powell. So many great views here and from where you were too. The cruise I took on Lake Powell was something quite amazing! I even took a one hour flight over Monument Valley for even better views. Your hikes must have been spectacular, seeing this in the photos.! Especially, the hike at Arches!
Looking forward to more and I plan to give you more insight in these areas I experienced! Your TR is bringing back some great memories for me!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Very interesting hike. I was exhausted just looking at the pix. Not sure I could have done all of the climbing especially the area where you have to stand on one rock and lean into the wall. WOW. And snow to boot. BRRRRRRR
I took a group tour of the SW USA back in 1998 and visited many of the sites we've seen so far in your TR including, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Monument Valley, Bryce and Zion Canyons. Many of the photos look so familiar as I visited at the Grand Canyon among others Mather Point, Desert View and had dinner at Bright Angel Lodge one evening there. I even watched the sun set from outside here one evening. Quite spectacular!
One of the highlights for me was when I was in Las Vegas I took a helicopter flight to the bottom of the Grand Canyon for a memorable Champagne lunch at the bottom of the canyon besides the Colorado River. It was such a wow moment! It wasn't cheap, but worth every penny of it.
When I was in Monument Valley we stayed in Page, Arizona at Lake Powell. So many great views here and from where you were too. The cruise I took on Lake Powell was something quite amazing! I even took a one hour flight over Monument Valley for even better views. Your hikes must have been spectacular, seeing this in the photos.! Especially, the hike at Arches!
Looking forward to more and I plan to give you more insight in these areas I experienced! Your TR is bringing back some great memories for me!
Thanks Dave! We wanted to get to Page, Lake Powell, and Bryce/Zion, but there just weren't enough days in the vacation. If we had 2 weeks, we probably could have fit it all in!
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What a shame about the wind that morning, but wow, what amazing photos you got as a result. 
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Then it was off to bed, exhausted from all the hiking we’d done today!
We wanted to get to Page, Lake Powell, and Bryce/Zion, but there just weren't enough days in the vacation. If we had 2 weeks, we probably could have fit it all in! 
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