If only everyone thought like Utahns do

A quick detour over to Colorado, and we’re already back to Utah. This state is awesome…but, I’ll talk more about that later. On the way to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, we stopped at the Wilson Arch (which is in Utah). And, I know I am only a Wilson by marriage, but this Arch was amazing. We thought it was better than any of the ones we had seen in Arches National Park. You could climb on it too, which you aren’t allowed to do in the National Park. I only wish there had been someone else there who could have taken a picture of all the Wilson’s on the Wilson Arch, but we had it all to ourselves, as usual.

2 Wilsons in the Wilson Arch. Can you tell which ones?

We've seen some amazing purple sunsets in Utah.

Mesa Verde is unique, in that, it is the only National Park in the U.S.A. that exists to feature something that is man-made rather than God-created. The park features ancient cliff dwellings that the Anasazi Indians built right into the rock. We were very impressed with these architectural miracles and even paid extra to go on a tour of one of them (Cliff Palace). 

You could go underground into the cliff dwelling...very neat.

Kai and I at Spruce Tree House.

Anasazi Cliff dwelling..Mesa Verde, Colorado.

However, we ran into a glitch on that tour because Kai had a bathroom emergency, and not the kind that you can deal with on the side of the trail. So Andy and Kai had to miss the tour. And I had to convince a rambunctious 2-year old, a baby, and Miss Annika to sit quietly on a cliffside while our long-winded Park Ranger taught us all about the Anasazi. Soren was remarkably well-behaved, and thankfully he never fell off the cliff, but I was very thankful when the Ranger finally wrapped up his talk. Sometimes you can be TOO passionate about something, and this guy felt a deep connection to the Anasazi. Plus, there’s always the people in the group that are just WAITING until the end to ask questions and hear themselves talk. We survived; Andy came back to rescue us, and we headed out of Colorado, back to Moab, Utah. We stopped again at the Wilson Arch, because I wanted more sunset pictures of it.

Wilson Arch and Purple Skies.

The Wilson Arch.

We spent another wonderful day in Moab, picnicking, homeschooling outside in the sun, shopping for souvenir stickers and used books, playing in the park, and waiting for Andy’s bike to be fixed. When the bike was finally fixed, we headed South towards Bryce Canyon National Park. We stopped in this town called Richfield for a playground break and Soren happened to notice the public swimming pool  next door. He was asking us to go swimming, so we peeked in to see if it was public swim time. Turns out, it was. And it was only 1$/person. And there were only 2 kids in the pool, so we had almost the whole thing to ourselves. It was dinner time, and we didn’t get out of the pool until almost 8 p.m., but the spontaneity and fun was totally worth it. We fed the kids sandwiches and put them to bed late, but they were blissfully happy about how their evening had played out. That is one of the things I have really enjoyed about this trip: when the kids ask to do something, we can usually say ‘yes’. We don’t have anywhere we have to be, and for once we have an abundance of family time available to us. It is such a precious gift.

Checkmate.

Spontaneous Family Swim.

Bryce Canyon National Park knocked my socks off. I was considering skipping it because we had already done one national park in Utah and were going to do Zion National Park as well, but I am SO GLAD we didn’t. It was breathtaking. We did a difficult, yet amazing hike down into the canyon and walked among the huge hoodoos. Annika earned her 5^th Jr. Ranger badge and a great day was had by all. When we left the park, Andy graciously agreed to watch all the kids at a playground while I went for another epic bike ride. It was one of the best road bike rides of my life. Tonight we are staying right outside Zion National Park, and this is probably our last night in Utah. What an awesome state this is! They just seem to LIVE for recreation, and definitely know how to take full advantage of their beautiful surroundings. We have loved it here. The only thing it needs…more waterfalls!

Sawyer standing on the salt flats.

Sawyer and I at the Arch.

Weird Hoodoos.

Looks like a fake back-drop.

Checking out Bryce Canyon.

Rock tunnel. So awesome.

One of my favourite pictures of the day. This was from the bottom of the canyon.

Thor's Hammer