Arches National Park

We stopped in Grand Junction, CO after driving 25 hours of which my wife grudgingly participated in about 30 minutes of that prior to nodding off so I fired her on the spot.  I survived being in the passenger seat when previously she fell asleep while driving but doing it twice....the odds are not good.  We, well I, drove south to Arches National Park just about an hour north of Moab, UT.  There is a 14 mile drive inside the park and very cool.  We first stopped to do a 2 mile hike to see the above and....

...above again.  Retraced our path drove a bit more to the....

...Balanced Rock.  You should see it in person!

Later we parked and did kind of a strenuous hike of 1.5 miles to this natural antitheater where lots of people were standing to wait in line to have their pic taken while standing in..... 

....the Delicate Arch.  Dang, that is awesome.  We hiked back and drove, well I, south and how bout that....

....passed the Wilson Arch!!!!!  Not a relative as far as I know.  We, well again I, kept going south.  The sky was overcast as we approached the turn to Canyonlands.  I looked to my right and my wife's head was down, dozing.....I kept going!!!!  The way to do this is not drive from OH to tour parks in UT but to fly to Salt Lake City, rent a car and then drive around the state touring parks. My butt ached from sitting, I was tired of driving and then it began to rain as we....

...cruised by Monument Valley.  I've been here before and of all the parks I have visited, next to the Grand Canyon, the visual impact is 2nd best.  Unfortunately it was not only cloudy but raining kind of hard.  We stopped at every town to check in to a hotel but all were booked.  Finding nothing in Tuba City, AZ, I made the snap decision to keep going south and arrived in Oro Valley, AZ at 1:00am, Monday.  Good to be here and while groggy, I got going with activity and will report on that soon.