Arches National Park

We had an awesome camping trip this last weekend. We originally planned on going to Capitol Reef, but the weather forcast was rain and about 65 for a high. So we started looking at our options. I called the State Park Reservation line to see if Goblin Valley had any openings, which they didn't. The person on the phone suggested we try Green River State Park, which was not to far from there. She said it was a great site by the river, and that people loved to go there for the outdoor recreation. The campgrounds also had grass, which sounded kind of nice. So I went ahead and reserved a spot, since there were only 3 left. We haven't really just gone out camping on our own. We both camped as kids with our families, but we weren't the ones in charge of finding a site. We weren't really sure how easy it would be to find other camping sites, so this sounded like a good idea. As we neared the spot our campground should be, we were in the middle of a town. And there was the "State Park." It consisted of a poorly kept lawn where the "campsites" were - all squished together - and then a golf course. It was near the river, but not anything we could let the boys play in or near. I just felt sick. That was not what I imagined for camping. I didn't mind the idea of some grass - but to be in the middle of a town, instead of some sort of natural surroundings - that didn't go over so good. We ate a quick lunch at our campsite, and then headed off to hopefully find something else. We decided to head toward Moab and Arches, which was about an hour away. Knowing the Arches campgrounds were full, we still headed there first to see if they had any help in directing us. Luckily they did. They had an awesome sheet with a list of BLM campsites that were just a few miles away. We found the BEST campsite at Hal Campground- I was so excited. There was plenty of space for the boys to play right in our campsite, there was some shade for our tent, and we had plenty of trees and space between us and other campers, rather than 10 feet of open grass like at Green River State Park. I still can't believe they called that a State Park. Anyway, I was so excited to have found this new place. I couldn't stop saying how excited I was to have found exactly what we had in mind when we think of camping - and can I say, I love camping! We lost out on the money we paid for the other site, but honestly it was worth it. If only I knew we wouldn't have a hard time finding a site I wouldn't have tried to reserve anything. I had looked online trying to find a map of campgrounds, and there just wasn't much I could find, so I was nervous to just go without any plan. For the future, we will know we will find something.

We had a blast! We found lots of lizards. Dylan was excited to find a cactus in our campground. We had an awesome view right at our campground. The first eight pictures were all taken at our campsite. To get to the river we had to walk through the campground next to us, but that was fine by me. With little kids, its good to not be too close - especially knowing my boys.

We had lots of fun in Arches, although we never did do any of the bigger hikes. We weren't familiar enough with it to plan ahead and know what we wanted to do for sure. We also weren't totally sure how our kids would do, since we haven't been out hiking this year. Ethan wasn't a huge fan of riding in the backpack at first, and Devon said it wasn't a lot of fun carrying him around - since he is two, that does add some decent weight. We will have to return in a few years and get some of those good hikes in.

We also had some fun at Sandy Beach, which was a few miles down the river from us. I packed some swimsuits for everyone, just in case, but when we headed out to play one hot afternoon, we didn't have anything too specific in mind. At least the towels had never been unpacked from the car, so we had something to help the boys dry off with. Ethan was pretty funny about the sand and refused to let us take his shoes off. We tried, but had to put them right back on. He did at least eventually go play with his brothers.

Camping is awesome! I can't wait till we go again. Of course we may not make it out again this summer because of other things planned this summer, and also that as time goes by camping probably won't be too comfortable for me. But next summer, I am hoping to get a bunch of camping in.