MOAB, UTAH

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Arches National Park

By: Jaycie Lillie, 5/3/23

At Arches National Park we learned that there are over 2,000 arches within the park. We couldn’t see that many, but we did see a lot of them!

We watched the park film before hiking and learned that we should not step on the biological soil crust (AKA living dirt!). This soil crust has been living for thousands of years and helps keep the soil from eroding which allows the plants to take root and grow.

After we completed our Jr Ranger books (and earned badge #109) we set out on some hikes to explore the park. We first hiked to the largest arch in the world, Landscape Arch. We couldn’t walk under it.

On that same hike we saw another arch, Pine Tree Arch.

There were arches everywhere in the Windows Section!

North Window Arch:

Tunnel Arch:

North & South Windows:

Turret Arch:

My brother and I liked to climb up into the arches.

The famous Delicate Arch we didn’t hike to. It was a 3-mile one-way hike and we didn’t have that time. Instead, we hiked 1 mile to an overlook to view it from a distance.

Lastly, we hiked to the epic Double Arch! This one was the best in my opinion.

We climbed up high underneath it to get some beautiful views! Below is how high we climbed.

I had a lot of fun climbing and exploring at Arches. Thanks for reading!

Jett’s Wild Flight: Canyonlands National Park – Day 1

By: Jett Lillie, 5/4/23

At Canyonlands National Park, we sat on a rock as we listened to a park ranger talk about the many layers of rock like layers of a cake, yum! Cake, Canyonlands – they both have layers!

Around the rim of the canyon is white rim sandstone, which is… you guessed it… White! You can see the white rim sandstone in the below photos:

At this lookout we were standing on the Chinle layer of rock... it was a pink colored sandstone.

We could see a lot of the layers of rock from several of the lookouts.

Later that night, we had a Full Moon hike led by a different park ranger.

The moon was a full moon and was so bright it could light our way. But because it was so bright, we couldn’t see many stars or the milky way. But we did see a weird string of lights in the sky! At first, we thought it was a UFO and looked like a space train. But after researching it, we are fairly confident it was a new Starlink satellite being launched into the atmosphere. Super-duper crazy!

Jules’ Journal: Canyonlands National Park – Day 2

By: Julianne Lillie, 5/5/23

Since we didn’t go to sleep until early this morning, we slept in a bit. I had a 10am work call, so after it ended, we hopped in the truck & headed to the Needles District of Canyonlands. It’s the southern portion of the park and has its own separate Visitor Center, which unfortunately was 1.5 hours away from our campground. On our way, we saw a sign for Newspaper Rock and decided to stop and check it out. It was a massive rock covered with hundreds of petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings), some dating from B.C. time to A.D. 1300.

By the time we arrived at the Needles Visitor Center, it was noon, and we were hungry! So, we quickly stamped our passport and found a spot for a picnic! After we were full, we headed out on the scenic drive and stopped at Pothole Point to hike that short 0.6-mile trail. We got a great view of the Needles and discovered there were still 2 large potholes full of water. We even found several living creatures in one of them… including a snail!

The Needles:

The Potholes filled with water:

The desert wildflowers were all in full bloom! And it was crazy to see little green gardens scattered across the rock.

We also saw a beautiful budding prickly pear cactus!

We then stopped at Wooden Shoe Arch lookout – it totally looks like a wooden clog shoe!

Then we headed to Cave Spring Trail. This was an interesting 0.6-mile loop trail! We first came to an old undisturbed Cowboy Camp.

Then found a cave and a natural spring with ancient pictographs (rock paintings).

Natural spring:

Pictographs:

Then the trail led up 2 ladders and we looped back around this time on top of the rock/cave.

We had beautiful views of the landscape on the return trip!

We also found neat examples of mudstone and ripple rock that we learned from our geology talk the previous day.

On our return trip home, we stopped at Wilson Arch to stretch our legs and climb up to the base of it.

Jett ran up the entire way... and collapsed at the top! So dramatic!

It offered spectacular views from its base!

My kids just love to climb and scramble all over these rocks! We enjoyed the fresh air and soaked in our last scenic views of Canyonlands before we headed back down.

We then made it home around 4pm, just in time to do match lessons, laundry, & start prepping for our travel day the next day.

And since it was Cinco de Mayo, we found a local Mexican restaurant in Moab to celebrate! Jaycie stayed back at the RV to get in some extra “friend time” talking on the phone. So, it was just, Jett, Jason, and I. The food was delicious!

We then headed home for our nightly sunset stroll and enjoyed our little bat friend one last time. (He had been flying around our campsite the past few nights feasting on all the bugs each evening!) We are excited to head out tomorrow for Salt Lake City area to meet up with some of our family!