If you can only go to one National Park in Utah, that park should be Arches, hands down. We again left Lani in the room (thank goodness I had booked places that were really close, and thanks to my dad for suggesting it). We got to take advantage of the many fabulous short hikes that wouldn’t be available to us (in Canyonlands, we had to take shifts to go out to lookout points). We didn’t have enough time to do the 3 mile hike to Delicate Arch (and lets face it, my ankle wouldn’t have held up anyway). We did get to hike to the viewpoint for Delicate Arch, walk around Balanced Rock, and do the super short hike to Double Arch.

Balanced Rock:

Delicate Arch:

Brad had to leave me at the first area that you could see Delicate Arch and go the official viewpoint as my ankle was killing me. When he came back, of course he found me knitting:

There’s something so humbling and calming about knitting in such incredible surroundings.

Double Arch:

We rushed back to the hotel – checked out with not a second to spare. After collecting all of our stuff (we’re so excited that we get to pack two cars now, and by “we” I mean Brad), we went back to Arches to do some of the driving stops we didn’t make in our original effort to make the most of our Lani-free time. It turns out that if you’re much higher than the freeway, and cars are going by, Lani thinks that they’re animals that clearly need to be put in their place. It took me a while to figure out it was the cars and not some random rabbit somewhere. Anyway, more great Arches sights:

Then the 6 hour drive to Denver. We got to see Rob (yay!) and meet his girlfriend, and also pick up the shinynewcar:

Love it. I was super happy to drive away in it this morning (besides saying good-bye to Rob). Of course, then the 8 hour drive was mind numbing, but what can you do?

Lani calmed down a bit today and actually slept in the car. She also found some interesting positions:

We had dinner tonight with some of my extended family in Lincoln, and tomorrow we’re off to see Brad’s dad. So, kind of the end of the trip posts – I do intend to post what little knitting I’ve done soon, though.

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