Because we came up early, we were able to squeeze in a half a day exploring The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. The entrance to that district is about an hour south of Moab, and I felt, totally worth the drive time.
Our first stop was right before entering the official Canyonlands border, to a place called Newspaper Rock. It has a parking lot, and a very short (less than 20 yards) paved trail that takes you to a rock face covered in petroglyphs that date all the way back to the time of Christ. The kids had a fun time getting out their notebooks and sketching some of their favorite pictures. We also tried to guess, or make up, a story to go with some of the pictures. It was a really cool spot.
Just past the petroglyphs, the trail continues down into a little gully. My kids played around down there for a few minutes to stretch their legs.
Stop number two was the Cave Spring trail head. This is a 0.6 mile round trip hike. It's mostly really easy, but you do have to climb up two wooden ladders. Ruby could do most of it herself, there were several places where we had to help her scramble up or down a steep-ish rock face.
At the very beginning of the hike, you walk past an old cowboy camp.
The trail follows along under the rock overhang, some places are cut in deeper than others. There is a spring at one point (probably how the trail gets it's name). It didn't have a lot of water in it when we were there, but I imagine it will once the snow on the mountains melts and makes run-off.
After reading the trail desription online, I had wondered if the parts with ladders would be too hard to do with a baby on my back, but I shouldn't have worried. The ladders are really well secured, so they don't wobble. And every part of this hike was easy, and safe, even while carrying a baby. :) There were plenty of rocks of all sizes for kids of every age and skill level to climb on and around, and all of us had a great time.
On our way out of Canyonlands, we stopped to do a very short walking trail called Roadside Ruin. The trail lead to a granary used by Native Americans to store their grain out of the way under a rock ledge, where it would stay dry and out of sight.
Then we made the long drive back through Moab and up to Arches. We got up there a little later than we had been planning on, since the park closes at 7pm right now for road construction, we weren't able to do all the hikes on Thursday that I thought we'd do. But we did get to do two really fun ones.
The first one was Double Arch, and it was SO cool. I had Cal on my back and Ruby as my hiking buddy, and the three of us were able to get most of the way to the top, all except for the last very tiny bit, so not a hard hike at all. Aaron took the four older kids right up to the saddle, under the second arch. I would say this is a pretty family friendly hike, all my kids were able to find a place to climb or play that was "at their level" skill wise, and I felt 110% safe climbing around with the baby on my back.
Also, Aaron's parents randomly happened to schedule a trip to Moab the same weekend as us, without either of us knowing the other was doing it. So that was kind of funny. They decided to come meet up with us at Double Arch.
After Double Arch, we said goodbye to CHuck and Debbie, and headed across the parking lot to The Windows, but halfway there it started to be really windy and threatening to rain, so we decided to go back to the car.
We drove down to the Balanced Rock pull-off, and it wasn't as windy there, so we decided to get out and walk the loop around. It was also very easy, and mostly flat. But the kids found big rocks along the trail and at the base of Balanced Rock that they could climb on, so everyone was happy with this hike too. :)
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Because sometimes your lips dry out and you need chap stick and you can't wait until you're all the way over the seat to get it. |
By then it was getting late, the park was closing, and it was time to head back to our cabin for dinner and bed.