Adventures at Home: MLK Day at Arches National Park

Since I had Monday off of work and I ended up not going on a big trip this week, I decided that I wanted to do something fun and adventurous for the holiday. While I do like to travel far and wide, I find it just as exciting to explore the neat little treasures closer to home. Plus, winter is a great time to visit a lot of the outdoor sights in Utah if the weather is good, and luckily for us the weather was in the 40s all day on Monday.

Driving to Arches National Park with my little sister and a good friend from grade school was the best way to spend the extra day I had off. Usually most of the famous attractions in Utah are packed with people making parking, hiking, and dealing with tourists difficult at times. Arches can get especially crowded since so many people want to see the iconic Delicate Arch. I mean, it's even on our license plates! It is quite a sight, and I absolutely loved the little mile-long hike to get to it. 

I was surprised at how easy it was to get to the Delicate Arch trailhead. The drive from the entrance to the end of the park was not more than 15 miles making all the trails and viewpoints surprisingly easy to get to. I can't imagine how packed it gets in the summer, even with the scorching desert weather! I am grateful that we did the hike when we did because the weather was not too hot nor was it freezing cold. It was perfect!



Giovanna goofing off on the trail to Delicate Arch

Since winter in Utah comes with highly variable weather, and since it usually snows in January, it was a blessing that there was no ice or snow anywhere along the three hour drive from Provo to Moab. That also meant there were no more than a handful of other people in the park with us. It was really awesome that one of those other people in the park that day also happened to be an old friend from when I was at grad school at BYU! And with gas prices as they are, it took only one tank of gas for my car to make it there and back. 

As if that wasn't enough of an incentive to make the cheap, fun day trip to Arches on Monday, when we got up to the entrance booth, the park ranger informed us that it was one of the annual Free Entrance Days for the National Park Service! We didn't have to pay a dime to enjoy this amazing national treasure! And anyone who knows me knows how much I love FREE things :)

After a leisurely and very affordable day of exploring the park, we went to downtown Moab a few miles from the park entrance and had a nice all-you-can-eat pizza, soup and salad dinner at Zax's restaurant on Main Street, the Monday night special which was perfect after a day of hiking and being outdoors. There was even a smashed penny machine next to the restaurant, making this the most perfect day! (For those of you who don't know, I collect smashed coins when I travel - I will do a post on this later since it has been a great way to find fun places to visit).

All in all, we left Provo around 9am and were home by 10pm. It still amazes me that this was only a few hours from home. I will definitely have to come back and visit Canyonlands National Park next, perhaps on another free entrance day. There are so many amazing places to visit everywhere you go! You should never underestimate the power of a local destination. Travel doesn't have to involve a plane or a train or a long distance to be an adventure! A trip is a trip is a trip, no matter how big or small :)