Day 25-27: Idaho and Home

 We left Moab on Tuesday morning and drove most of the day. We stopped for the night in Idaho.  If you are ever in Delco/Rupert area (why would you be??), the Village of the Trees RV park exceeded expectations. It's in a farming/ranching area. There's not a ton there, but the RV park had lots of big old shade trees, grass, and access to the snake river.  Ember enjoyed playing ball in the water (are you tired of dog swimming pics yet??).  A couple of local kids thought she was great and took turns throwing the ball for her.  The RV park also had a little grill attached and if you ordered food, they'd bring it right to your campsite. Nothing special, but after a long day driving it was nice.

The next morning, we headed on. We had reservations at a campground, but we decided to go rogue. Mike had really wanted to go to Red Fish lake, but he couldn't get reservations. We noticed online they had a few first come first serve sites, so decided to go there and give it a try.  We were able to find a space there for one night. We arrived around noon so had the rest of the day to play.  It's a gorgeous place. The water is clear and blue! We are already thinking we'd like to go back again for a longer visit. 

More dog water play, of course...and Pepper did what she likes to do and stayed out of the water.

We rented a paddle board and gave it a try.  Between the wind and the boat wake, it was rough going, but Jackson and Mike both got up and liked it well enough Jackson wants to do it again soon!  I stayed on my knees personally. 

There's also a visitor's center and a great little lodge. We visited briefly for ice cream and a chance to look around. 

We were supposed to camp for two more days after this, but Thursday morning, we decided to forgo the last couple days and head for home.  Day 27 was entirely spent driving. It took about 10 hours to get home. It was such a good trip, but we are all glad to see our house again after nearly a month. Today, it's been laundry, grocery shopping and plant watering. Tomorrow, we have to catch up on the weeding and gardening around the house! 

Our stats: 

Miles driven: 4, 856 miles

States visited: 5 (Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Idaho)

National Parks: 7 (Yellowstone, Dinosaur, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde, Canyonlands, Arches)

Campgrounds/RV Parks stayed at: 15

Days 23-24 : Moab UT

 We arrived on Sunday around noon, so we took advantage of the early time and did a quick run to the Islands of the Sky area in Canyonlands.  For those keeping count, this was our 6th National Park (and not part of the original planned 6, so we will have 7 total now).  We only had the afternoon and it was hot (106F for the high!) so we mostly did car driving views and short hikes out to viewpoints, etc...We also had the dogs with us, so we had to keep the truck and AC running and take turns anywhere we stopped, with someone always staying in the truck.  Still, it's a pretty cool place and we enjoyed looking out at all the monuments and deep canyons!

Our last stop for the day was a hike out to Mesa Arch, in Canyonlands still, and only about 0.5 mile off the road (which was plenty as it was still 105F)!

On Monday, it was Arches National Park, our 7th and final National Park for this trip! We were up early, but couldn't get too early a start as we couldn't drop the dogs at doggie daycare until 8am.  Still, we were in the park by 8:15 in an attempt to hike before it got too hot.  By 9am, it was in the 90's so it sort of worked, but was still hot going.  It hit the high of 104F around 11:30.  We hiked to various areas, including the Windows and Double Arch, the Delicate Arch overlook (steep uphill!), and the Landscape Arch (our longest hike of the day at about 2 miles round trip).  It was so hot that we only did shorter hikes (2 miles or less round trip) out to see arches and skipped a couple longer hikes.  We completed our arch viewing and hiking by about 12:30, then stopped at the inside Visitor's Center at the end, came back around 1:30pm for some pool time and then time wandering around town... 

Pinetree arch from a distance on way to Landscape arch:

Tunnel Arch, also a short offshoot from the Landscape arch:

Landscape Arch, as wide as a football field and long and narrow. It was a hot hike out and Jackson quit and wouldn't go any farther about 0.1mile from the main viewpoint. You can't walk under this one anymore as their have been rocks dropping off since 1991.

Double O arch as seen from Landscape Arch:

An unamed arch, or maybe I just can't remember:

My favorite of the day was Sand Dune Arch, perhaps.  It's not the best arch, but it's in this cool slot canyon with sandy bottom, and the canyon also makes it shady! Jackson also enjoyed climbing here. 

We didn't hike all the way to Delicate Arch as it was about 3 miles, but we hiked a steep 0.6 mile trail to a viewpoint where we could see it well just across the canyon:

Near the Delicate Arch trailhead, there are some awesome petroglyphs.

And, and old ranch from 1899 called the Wolf cabin..

In the Windows area, we did about a 1mile hike and saw a bunch of different arches. This one is Turret Arch.

                                          

South Window Arch:

North Window Arch

                                        

Another favorite of the day and a hike of about 0.5 miles, also in the Windows area was the Double Arch:

This is called Balancing Rock:

And this one is Three Gossips:

Just some cool scenery here and a little unnamed peek through: