A Trip to US West – Day 3

COLORADO – Colorful Colorado

July 6, 2019

7 AM in the morning, and we are getting ready for the journey. We need to have our breakfast and then start from Santa Fe. Around 9:00 AM we checked out the hotel and started from Santa Fe. This time, my mom was driving. Our next stop is Durango, Colorado for our lunch. As per initial plan we didnt have Colorado state in the list, but last minute change added Durango in our way.

After almost 3 hrs drive from Santa Fe we reached the New Mexico – Colorado state line. We stopped near the state line to take pictures. My sister was sleeping, so we 3 went out to take the snaps with the “Welcome to Colorful Colorado” board.

We visited Aspen, Colorado in the last fall, and it’s beautiful place with fall colors. It’s Summer, but Colorado is full of green and beautiful.

We reached Durango by 12:45 PM, after we did some research, we picked the Himalayan Kitchen which is a Nepalese, Tibetan & Indian Cuisine. We picked the Indian cuisine for the lunch, so my sister can also have some rice/roti. The food was nice and we enjoyed.

After the lunch, we resumed our journey to Arches National Park, Utah. By 4 PM we reached the Colorado – Utah state line.

UTAH – Life Elevated

From the state line, it took around 1 and half hour to reach Moab, where we booked our stay, and for next 3 days we will be staying there. We checked into the hotel and took some rest and then headed to the Arches National Park. It’s a beautiful place to be. This park has over 2000 natural stone arches.

Even though it was showing heavy traffic in the park entrance, we were able to get in without any delay. We drove into the park and our first arch in our list was Delicate Arch. It’s a free standing arch and the recognized symbol of the state of Utah. This arch is pictured in the Utah state board at the Colorado Utah state line.

It’s difficult to see the Delicate arch from main road. The trail to Delicate arch is 3 miles round trip and climbs 480 feet. It’s one of the difficult trails in the park. We decided to hike to the Delicate arch and we all were really excited about it. We packed the water, juice and some food for my sister. My dad also packed his camera in his bag, and we all were carrying one bag each. I thought it would an easy one, but I was wrong. Though I liked the hike, it’s too long. I have to give credit to my lil sister, she never cried or asked our parents to pick her up (but our parents picked her up on the hard parts). She was very happy and excited. As we reach near to the arch, the path narrows.

Once we reached the top, I went to the middle of the arch while my dad took some photos of mine standing under the arch. My lil sister was trying to play around, but my mom was holding her, not allowing to run around as it’s too dangerous.

Weather was crazy and it was too windy. My dad was planning to capture the sunset there, but it was cloudy and almost blocked the sun. Wind blew away my sister’s bag and while I was trying to get a hold of it, wind took my favorite cap 😦 . I saw it flying down the hill where we cannot reach. Later my dad showed me where it landed 😦

Since it was too windy and we could not handle it, we decided to go back. We met some nice people there and walked back to the parking lot with them. It was dark while going back to the parking lot. While going back we could see lot of stars even though it was cloudy.

Once we reached the car and had our dinner – bread and peanut butter sandwich, my favorite, and decided to go back to hotel. On the way back, we stopped at balanced rock, so my dad can take take some night photos. We all slept in the car while my dad was taking some snaps. It was cloudy, and he was trying to take the star tails.

After that, we headed back to hotel. We went to bed as soon a we reached hotel, so my dad can wake up early to get some sun rise shots.