We woke up to snow covered grounds, but we didn’t let the chilly temperatures dampen our adventurous spirit as we quickly got ready for one of the best days of the trip: two national parks! The roads were clear so we decided to begin our day!
Canyonlands National Park
One week into our trip, we were headed off to visit our third national park. We knew it would be an exciting adventure! With temperatures in the mid-thirties to low forty degrees, we dressed warm before beginning our hikes of the day.
Our first stop at Canyonlands National Park was to the Mesa Arch.
The hike down to the arch was short and relaxing. Only a quarter of a mile into the trail, we turned a corner and were greeted by the beautiful arch overlooking a magnificent canyon. We took photographs…
…many photographs…
…and explored the area as always…
…before heading back to the car for our actual hike of the morning.
We drove along the winding roads through the park until we reached our trailhead: White Rim. The trail itself was 1.6 miles in and out. Because of the freezing temperatures and previous snowfall, the dips in the rock formations had puddles of icy water mix which proved to be fun to play with. The boys especially loved smashing the ice and picking up the large sheets of ice floating atop the water’s surface.
We wandered down the marked trail enjoying the mountainous views along the way. Thankfully, the trail was mostly flat and not too difficult of a trek.
As we walked the trail, we decided to build a cairn.
A cairn is a stack of rocks that line the trail to help hikers stay on the path. After picking up rocks along the way, we decided on our spots and built the cairns.
We had some friendly competition to see who’s cairn was the biggest.
Along the trail, hoodoos were occasionally located throughout. A hoodoo is a pinnacle of weathered rock that are shaped into interesting columns. Although we all tried to climb them, Ryan was the only successful one.
He took the opportunity to capture the moment with a memorable LEAP.
Actually, he did several memorable LEAPS, because it was difficult to time the photographs correctly…
We spent the rest of our time exploring and admiring the canyon views.
We enjoyed our short hike…
…and were excited to move on to our second national park of the day!
To hear about our experiences at Arches National Park, tune in tomorrow!
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