Noah's Excellent Adventures: Tower Arch

February 17, 2017 Arches National Park

The kids had a long President weekend so, we decided to make the best of it. It is also our annual winter Moab trip. We met grandpa at the Rustic Moab Inn on Thursday night and went out to dinner at Susie's Branding Iron Restaurant it is on the south side of town a little further then I expected but the food was good. In the morning we went to the City Market and picked up the requisite giant sandwich. We headed into Arches with the goal of hiking to Tower Arch this was the only hike I was planning on and if we had time and energy we would do another. At the trail head I saw that there was a shorter hike to the arch via a 4 wheel drive road I thought we would go check this out after we did the main hike. I believe the hike is about 3.4 miles round trip and it is a spectacular hike. The kids did well and we enjoyed the sweeping views. Once we got to the arch Oliver seemed tired so we decided that grandpa and I would hike back to the Land Cruiser take the three mile 4 wheel drive road and pick them up at the other trailhead which was about .3 miles from Tower Arch. (best laid plans) We quickly hiked back and drove the short distance to the turn off for the road at first it was a nicely graded road it then became an extremely rocky road. We slowly navigated the rocks until we got to a sketchy section of the road going uphill full of rock ledges. Not willing to risk damage to my Cruiser and with Jalaine and the kids waiting for us, we took off on foot. The road climbed up and over a rocky bluff landing on a nice sandy road. It was a beautiful hike and the sandy section would have been a joy to drive. We passed a rode coming in from another direction and speculated where it came from. About ten minutes later we saw a stock 4runner coming from the direction of the arch and thought no way he came over that hill. We later realized the road was the Eye of the Whale Road that begins at Balance Rock. Just as we got close to the trailhead Jalaine and the kids came walking up the road relieved to see us, it seems they had had an adventure of their own. They had missed a sign and had walked down a wash for about forty five minutes. After a short moment of panic realizing they were going the wrong direction they backtracked the way they came and found the turn and the parking lot but were worried we had gotten there and would be searching for them. It all worked out well and even if they had stayed in the wash they would have ended up on the road we were on. All together again we hiked the two miles back to the car, Oliver having to be carried for a little bit here and there. It was a great day and an adventure. The sky was mostly overcast but we saw no rain. Since we missed lunch we ate the giant sandwich for dinner. The next day we woke up to rain but we were heading out anyway. After a burger at Ray's in Green River we drove to St. George for My Uncle Denny's birthday party and Sunday we went to Brianhead and spent the night and Holden did a little snowboarding. It was a fun weekend.