Today seemed like a bit of a whirlwind, but somehow we managed to fit in Colorado National Monument and Arches NP.

Colorado NM is best seen from the rim road, so a quick drive with a number of stops at overlooks, 2 short hikes (one was a little over a mile), and a quick perusal of the Visitor Center fit the bill.

Around noon, we arrived at Arches, explored some of the more picturesque scenes such as Park Ave (because it looks like an avenue of high rise buildings, of course), balanced rock (near which Edward Abbey lived while working in Arches as a Park Ranger), Double Arch (see pic). The kids loved climbing around in double arch and didn't want to move on. We offered to leave them there, but they declined.

The highlight of Arches was the hike up to Delicate Arch, which is the iconic symbol of the park. The hike is an amazing but only moderately strenuous hike up a huge sandstone dome, and along a trail carved out of the side of a cliff. The best time of day for this religious pilgrimage is just before sunset in order to see the sunset on the arch.... and I do mean pilgrimage, as around a hundred others made the journey, and the view of the pilgrims traveling up the slopes ahead of us was a sight that I didn't expect in Arches.

The sunset and post sunset light on the arch was perfect for picture taking, and awe inspiring for sure. The hike back in the near dark was equaling inspiring, as Arches is a very dark place at night. The gorgeous night skies were a thing to behold.

We finished off the night at an RV park on the south side of Moab, and explored downtown Moab the next day. Fantastic Mexican breakfast at Zak's and a stop at Pagan Mountaneering for some supplies.