Arches National Park: The One That Started it All
We’ve just started our second year of homeschooling, and someone recently asked my daughter what her favorite part of homeschooling was.
Without any hesitation, she replied, “The roadtrips!”
First of all, it brings me so much joy that she thinks our roadtrips are actually just a normal part of school. Secondly, I love that she loves them.
When we first started our homeschooling journey last year, one of my hopes for our family was that we could travel around to some of the national parks around us. We are fortunate enough to live fairly close to several, and I myself have only been to one or two. The paid work I do is remote, so it lends itself to a lot of flexibility. My husband, however, only has a limited amount of time off each year, so it became clear that if I wanted to visit all the places I envisioned, I might have to take some of the trips with just the kids and me.
Which sounded terrifying.
But a sweet friend of mine encouraged me in the face of that challenge. She and her girls had been traveling all over the place, and while her husband would meet them when he could, he wasn’t able to travel as much as she was.
So, I decided to try it out! I’ve been reminiscing about our travels recently and need to get back into writing, so I thought I would go back in time and share the adventures we’ve had over the last year! We’ll start with the trip that started it all: Arches National Park 2024.
Arches National Park is in Moab, UT, which is about 3 hours away from our home in Colorado. That felt like a reasonable distance away - far enough away that it felt like a real adventure, but close enough that we could abandon ship if necessary. When I started planning out the trip, I knew I wanted the feel of a camping trip without the work of setting up an actual tent/campsite. I’m not crazy. I knew I couldn’t handle all of that without my husband there, ha! So I used a wonderful app called Hipcamp to find accommodations. Think AirBnB but for cool campsites. Through Hipcamp, I found an RV park in Moab that has RVs already set up and ready to use. Bingo.
I definitely had a moment of panic when I booked it. Like “it’s official. I’m road-tripping with my 5- and 3-year-olds, without the amazing help of my husband. I’ve lost my mind.”
But I pushed that pesky thought to the back of my mind and continued to prepare myself and our kids. One of the preparations was sharing what to expect from the park, and we decided to do that in the form of a read-aloud. About a month before we left for the trip, we began reading a book from the Campground Kids series, which was set in Arches National Park. The book was certainly at a higher level than my kids were able to comprehend, but there was a crow named Chip that they really loved in the story, so that made it super enjoyable for them. The book did a great job of describing the landscape of Arches and was such a cool setup for what we would see!
So, after a couple of months of prepping and packing and trying to foresee everything that could possibly go wrong, we hit the road! While this was my first solo road trip with the kids, it wasn’t our first road trip ever. The way our family does road trips is not to find the fastest way to our destination, but to find the way with the most hidden gems. Sometimes, that means finding quirky, touristy spots that are fun to explore. However, at this stage, it mostly means finding a super cool playground (or, better yet, a splash pad) for us to stop at and let the kids run wild for a bit.
On our trip to Moab, we had heard about Canyon View Park in Grand Junction, CO, which is a natural halfway point from our home to Moab. I don’t think I can accurately describe how much my kids LOVE this park. It’s now a given that we will stop there any time we go to Grand Junction. There is a zipline and a duck pond, in addition to all the normal park fun you would expect. What else could you ask for?
From there, we headed straight to Moab and found the RV Park where we would be staying. It was exactly what I was hoping for. None of us had ever stayed in an RV before, so it was luxury living for us. My kids loved it so much. This RV had bunk beds for them to sleep in, the park was quiet and peaceful, and there was plenty of room for them to ride their bikes around. Everyone slept great and was ready for Arches the next day.
If you decide to visit for yourself, Arches National Park is one NP that has implemented a timed-entry system, so we waited for our reserved time and headed in. My only expectation for this trip was to get into the park. Honestly, that was it. My son was only 3 at the time and seemed to be allergic to long periods of walking without being carried. There are so many cool hikes in the park, but I knew going into it that those weren’t going to happen. And that’s fine! My goal was not to check off every single thing that you can do in the park. My goal was to start a love of adventure and an awe for the amazing creation God has given us.
And praise God, that’s what happened.
Our first stop was the visitor center before we entered the park, where we picked up some junior ranger packets. The Junior Ranger Program is so much fun! Every NP has it; there are realistic activities for kids to complete based on age, and they get a cool wooden JR Ranger badge at the end (shout out to the park ranger who lit up when my kids came in with their completed packets and made them feel like they were rock stars). And then we started the drive up into the park!
Arches National Park is HUGE. It is absolutely massive, and my kids’ eyes grew wide with every new landmark they saw. The Parade of Elephants, the Balancing Rock, and the Double Arch all drew a chorus of “Whoa!!!”s and “Mom, look!!”s from my kids. We saw Delicate Arch from a distance (maybe we’ll get to hike up to it one day), and we got to learn about and see petroglyphs. An unexpected surprise was when I realized just how much my kids had been listening to our read-aloud. They recognized so many landmarks from the story, and every time we saw a crow, they shouted out that Chip was following us.
After we left the park, we drove back through Moab and stopped for ice cream before heading back to the RV. Of course, the first thing my kids told my husband when we got back was not, “We saw so many amazing things!” but “We got ice cream!”. After another great night in the RV, we said goodbye to Moab, stopped at the Grand Junction playground again, and made our way back home.
A short trip full of so many good memories. When I think back on that trip, it’s all cozy story times in the camper and wide-eyed wonder from my kids. Was there whining on the drive there? Of course. Were there several inconvenient “I need to use the bathroom” requests? So many. Were there times I felt overwhelmed and less than, and like this was all a terrible idea? You betcha. But are those the moments any of us remember? Nope.
I know all of those less-than-Instagram-worthy moments happened. But that’s just life. The bumps along the way are not a signal of failure. They are the everyday moments of parenting crammed into a minivan and played out in unfamiliar surroundings. By God’s grace, he has used trips like these to continue chipping away at my sinful and self-centered expectations. Rather than giving myself a series of unrealistic ideas of what I think life should be like, I can lay those aside. I can stop living for my kingdom of one and start living for the kingdom of God, which is so much bigger than anything I could possibly imagine.
What do I mean by this? It doesn’t mean I don’t plan a single thing, but it does mean I can respond with grace, mercy, and peace when those plans fall apart (which they tend to do when one of the factors is small children). It means the measure of success for something like this, or anything really, is not how well it aligns with my own plans, but how much my actions, words, and thoughts please God. It means I can “set [my] sights on the realities of heaven,” and can “think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth” (Colossians 3:1-2 NLT) in the comfort of my home and my routine and in the novelty of a new place in a new setting. It’s been a long lesson that I fear I’m not yet close to mastering, but it’s been a beautifully humbling journey of grace.
Looking back on this trip and others, I have certainly had moments when I’ve thought that the memories of whining and being in a car for long periods would outlast any sweet family memories we make. But time and time again, when my kids are asked about the latest trip we’ve taken, their eyes don’t glaze over with the reminder that they were in a car for hours on end. Instead, their eyes light up as the most recent memory, funny story, or crazy occurrence comes back to mind.
When we finished the last leg of our trip and made our way back home, I knew I was hooked. My sense of adventure had reawakened, and I saw it come to life in my kids as well. The majesty of God’s creation had awed each one of us, and I knew we wanted more. The constant time with each other was sweet, imperfect, and something I will treasure in my heart.
Since this trip, we’ve taken several others, all with their share of misadventures and wild stories, and there are more on the horizon. If you are considering taking a trip with your whole family or just you and your kids, I couldn’t encourage you more! My children are still young, but God is ever growing my understanding that these years are not nearly as long as I might think they are. The time he’s given me with them is precious, and stepping out of my comfort zone and taking these mini adventures with them is worth all the planning, all the missteps, and all the stories we’ve taken from them that are hilarious now, but certainly weren’t in the moment.
The spark of adventure has given way to a wild flame of wanderlust. I’m excited to share more of our adventures and look forward to hearing about yours as well!
