A quick visit to Natural Arches National Monument

The last couple of days had us running ragged, so Saturday was made into an easy day. We slept in and then decided that our next destination would only be about four hours of driving. We took a route that allowed us to make a visit to Natural Arches National Monument. This spot is fairly unique in that it has one of the largest concentration of natural arches that you'll find anywhere in the world. It is a fairly small area compared to the other national parks that surround it, so it isn't very busy. We had a nice picnic lunch there, complete with a raven that desperately wanted us to look the other way for just a few minutes.

We ended the day in Monitcello, UT and spent a good bit of time swimming in the pool. The kids have been getting a bit burned out with all the park visiting and driving, so they really enjoyed the goof-off time. Tomorrows' goal is Arches National Park. Looking at the weather predictions it appears that we may actually have some hot weather to deal with. It would really be the first hot day of our whole trip! Anyone in Michigan feel sorry for us???

Here's just one quick picture of one of the arches in Natural Arches National Monument:


While driving around southern Utah we've been continuously surprised at the variety of rock formations. I suppose if you lived here it would all be commonplace, but for us Michiganders it seems like there is something new around every corner. I've got whole bunches of pictures for anyone who is interested in seeing them... heheheheh

This particular formation wasn't really all that spectacular, but as soon as I saw it it made me think of pictures that I've seen of a submarine performing an emergency surfacing maneuver. I wanted to post it here, so I found it and while I was resizing it I noticed that if you look near the base of the larger structure, you can see a gorilla face in the rock. Can you see it? Or is it just me? ;-)