July 25, 2021 - Fiery Furnace Viewpoint, Tapestry Arch and Castle Valley

There was a new rule which prevents any guided tour to the wonderful Fiery Furnace in Arches NP.  In addition, they are not allow anyone under 5 years old to enter Fiery Furnace, therefore, we just drove up to the viewpoint area and take a look of this magnificent place.

After that, we went to hike on the Tapestry Arch in the Devils Garden area.  The trail head is inside a permission only camp site area, therefore, there were very few people on the trail.  Practically it was our own family's private trail (there was a couple from TX caught up with us while we were on top of the arch).  It was a 0.6 mile round trip trail lead to this triple arch.  We took the opportunity of having a private trail and arch to take many wonderful photos.  

Then, we went back to the Devils Garden picnic area again for lunch. We also found a nice rocky hill next to our picnic area, we climbed up to the top, enjoying the view and experiencing a little of adventure.

After lunch, we drove along Hwy 128 Scenic Byway to Castle Valley to experience the beautiful drive along the Colorado River. The sight of the sheer height of the cliff on both sides of the road which winds along the river was magical. We ended up at Castle Valley which is a small town along the Castle Creek. We stayed there briefly to take more pictures.

On the way back to the hotel, Maisie already had her nap and was ready to play.  At this time, Talia did a wonderful job of giving her company and made her very happy and wanting to talk.  It was so cute. It made the return trip a pleasant one!

After we got back to Moab, Jason ordered Thai food from Thai Bella which is ranked by TripAdvisor as the #1 restaurant in Moab, UT.  They were surprisingly good and it made us wonder why there are so many Thai restaurants in a little town like Moab, UT.  We enjoyed it very much.

July 26, 2021 - Dedicate Arch and Canyonlands NP the Needle Section

Originally Jason planed to hike up to Delicate Arch with Tony only in the early morning.  Eventually, Talia and Fei joined the hike.  We left the hotel at 6AM and headed out to Arches NP.  Comfort Suites has nice gesture by providing bagged breakfast for early birds.  We took three bags and started our venture to Delicate Arch.  On the way driving to Delicate Arch we were lucky to see the sunrise.

When we reached the Delicate Arch Trail parking lot, there were a lot of cars already.  Lucky, we found one spot and started to join the crowd to hike the trail.  It is a 3 miles round trip hike with incline on huge rock and some narrow passages along the cliff.  However, the weather was nice in the earlier morning and we did not feel any difficulty of hiking this trail (NPS rated this trail as Difficult).  

There was wow factors when we reached the Delicate Arch.  It was so magnificent, the natural reaction was to take more photos.

There were a lot of people at the arch area, and there was also a long line for people waiting their turn to take pictures on the arch with beautiful sunlight.  Everyone was patient and cheerfully helping each other to handle cameras and iPhones.  We got in line and had our share of picture taking.

When we got back to parking lot, it was about 8:30am.  Got back to the hotel about 9am for breakfast.  It was a wonderful experience of seeing the famous Delicate Arch.

After a relaxing breakfast, we rest and had lunch in the hotel with some leftover food.

After lunch we heading out again to Needles Section of the Canyonlands NP.  The drive was a little long (about 2 hours).  The road construction just before we reached Needles did not help either.  But we finally got there.

The first attraction we visited was the Big Spring Canyon Overlook area.  We just wondered around to see wonderful rock formations.

Then, we went to Cave Spring Trail which is a 0.6 mile hiking trail with caves and ladders as part of the trail. Due to the hot weather, we only hiked the caves portion and just viewed the ladders part.  However, Talia was so interested in climbing up the ladders, so Theresa and Tony accompanied her to just climb up the ladders for the experience.  

Then we drove back to the hotel around 6PM. We ordered burritos from Giliberto's Mexican Taco Shop, took back to the hotel and ate at the hotel's dinning area.  We were the only people there, it was pretty relaxing.

July 27, 2021 - Flew back to Houston

This was our traveling day.  We checked out the hotel around 1PM and visited the Moab Museum for about 1 hour and then drove to Canyonlands Airport.  Moab Museum is a small museum, however it has very nice exhibits to show the history of Moab which was once a blooming town due to uranium mining. It was recognized as the Uranium capital of the world around 1950’s.

When we got to the airport, we found out the once a day flight from Moab to Denver was delayed for about 3 hours due to earlier mechanic problem when the plane was in Palm Spring, CA.  Later, it had further delay due to the busy status of Denver airport.  We were able to book another Denver to Houston flight at 9PM, and to get into Houston after midnight.

Lucky we had prepared some sandwiches, so we did not have issues of lacking food for dinner.  We also ran into some unfriendly gate agent and United cabin crew members in Denver Airport.  The flight was half empty, however, when we asked if we can take the baby car seat to the plane like earlier United flights allowed us to do, they totally refused our request.  This was one of the unhappy experience we had with United Airlines.  Unfortunate, but we managed.  When we got back home it was about 2 AM in the morning.  

This was a very hot, but pleasant trip despite the encountered of the unfriendly United crew members.  It was totally worth the trip to have opportunity to vacation with Jason's family.