We woke up with about an hour before sunrise, though it was starting to get light outside.  Once everyone was awake, we got everyone out on the “porch” and snuggled under blankets and sleeping bags to watch the sunrise, which was directly outside our tent.  I got some hot chocolate from the lobby “tent” for the girls.  After enjoying the sunrise, we went back into the tent, opened up the canvas to let the sunlight in, and laid around in the bed for a while.  After a while, we started packing up, as unfortunately I was only able to get one night there, and would have to move on to another hotel for the next night.

We got everything in the car and got some more hot chocolate for the girls and coffee for myself for the road.   We were all sad to leave, as we really enjoyed our night there.  We headed south into Moab to check out a hotel I’d looked out online and get some food for lunch.  I was able to talk to the desk agent at the Aarchways hotel and get us a room on the main floor near the door to the pool and playground.  I’d looked online and chosen the hotel for all the kid friendly amenities.  After that, we headed out to find food for later.  After a couple of frustrating stops at an overpriced health food store and lackluster corner store, we finally got some Lunchables for the girls, and some deviled eggs for Laura and I to have with the remainder of the wraps we’d had for lunch the day before.  After a long morning of relaxing, packing, finding a new hotel, and finding food, we were finally on the way to Canyonlands.

The drive to Canyonlands National Park was about 45 minutes.  We stopped at the entry sign for our obligatory National Park sign picture, though had trouble because it was windy, and the stand for taking pictures required a tripod, and we had no other way to prop up a phone without it blowing over.  The fact that the girls were cranky didn’t help.   Luckily, just as we were about to give up, a couple from New Jersey pulled us up and helped us out.   We stopped at the visitor center for a restroom break, and by that time it was time for lunch.  We ate in the car by the visitor center, with the girls splitting a ham/cheese/crackers and a pizza Lunchable, and me and Laura finishing the wraps from the day before with deviled eggs.

After finally getting some cranky girls to finish their lunch, we set off into the park.  I soon realized that I’d meant to fill the gas tank before leaving Moab and had forgotten to do so.  We were at a quarter of a tank, which I later realized would have been more than enough to go through the park and get back to a gas station, but I didn’t want to venture too far.  With that on top of the girls not being in the mood for getting in and out of the car, we didn’t end up doing much.  We stopped at a couple of spots and got pictures of the canyon, and planned on hiking at Grand View Point, though decided against with the mood everyone was in.  We considered it a wash for visiting the park that day, and headed out, with a quick stop at the visitor center, where I ran in to get stamps on paper for the girls National Park passport.

We got back to the hotel just before check-in time, 3pm, though luckily, the room the woman had set us up for earlier in the way was ready.  We checked in and got everyone out of the car, all of which had napped for part of our time in the park and the 45 minute drive back.  So while mom and dad were ready to take a nap after the challenging day, they wanted to watch TV and make lots of noise.  Laura and I managed to get a nap of an hour or so, and felt better from that.  We spent a bit after that lying around and looking on Yelp for a good place to eat.

Luckily, the evening was better than the bulk of the day had been.  We made our way to Moab Brewing, where even though it wasn’t quite 6pm, was pretty packed on this lovely Friday evening.  We waited about 15 minutes before being seated, and got drinks and dinner quickly.  Laura got a burger and onion rings, partly to try to make up for the somewhat lackluster burger form the day before.  I got a green chili pork burrito, cause ya gotta get the green chili while you can.  It came with rice and what seemed to be veggies and beans in an almost chili-like consistency, which was delicious.  I had it with a 22oz bottle of their Belgian Tripel.  The girls had of course seen the gelato case positioned strategically right inside the door, and having spent the entire 15 minutes waiting for a table staring at the gelato, they had to have some.  So we got a couple of small containers for them, and I picked up a beer to go, and we were on our way.

We headed back into Arches, only a few minutes outside of Moab.  The sun was less than 30 minutes from setting, so we were racing against the clock a bit to get to a nice spot to enjoy the sunset.  We pulled into the parking lot for Balanced Rock, seeing how the girls really enjoyed the hike around it the day before.  We had a couple get a couple of pictures of us in front of the rock formation, while the sun was casting a beautiful light on it.  I popped open the Moab Brewing Hopped Rye, as I’ve always loved the intersection of National Parks, craft beer, beauty, and family.  We again did the hike around Balanced Rock while watching the sun set over the rock formations and distant mountains.  Right before the sun went down, everyone took turns of “holding the rock” while Laura and I got pictures.

Very soon, the sun was past the horizon, so we headed back out of the park and to the hotel.  The girls were still pretty awake, so we got suited up and went to test the water in the heated pool.  Unfortunately, no heating was taking place, and the night was cooling off quickly, so we had to go back to the room and get back into our clothes.  We did, however, have the distraction of a nearby firepit and playground that was populated by a couple of related families with kids around the ages of ours.  The girls definitely needed and deserved some running around time after a lot of time in the car and getting in and out of the car the last couple days.  We spent a good hour down there before retiring for the night.