We went back to Arches NP today for part 2. Today’s hike was to the Sand Dune Arch, an arch with a “sandbox” 🙂 The area surrounding this arch has eroded into a lot of really fine sand, making it a really fun place to play in the sand for little (and big) kids. We got a tip from the research we did (special shout out to www.utahsadventurefamily.com for great information throughout our trip) saying we should bring buckets and shovels for the kids to play with…so that’s what we did. The kids played in the sand for a long while and we were having a great time. But you know what they say, alls fun and games until someone gets sand thrown in their face – Caleb unintentionally tossed a shovels worth of sand in Kenzie’s face, resulting in a lot of sand in her eyes. She was understandably very upset and frantic! Poor girl! 🙁 We tried to flush her face and eyes with water but it was a slow and tearful process. A kind lady nearby handed us some eye drops which helped us flush out Kenzie’s eyes to the point she was comfortable enough to keep playing. After this event we played a little longer, explored the surrounding area, and got a few pictures in front of the arch. Then we headed back to the RV for lunch.

Did we say it was hot here yet?!?! The heat and sun are scorching!

We had to make an unfortunate detour at this point. We had to leave the park to go get gas. We rushed out this morning to ensure we could get a parking spot but the drive was long enough to drop our gas tank to the danger zone. So with an almost empty tank we filled it up…for a cool $150, yikes! That’s the product of high gas prices in the dessert and a big RV fuel tank.

Caleb napped while we made the gas excursion so once he woke up we did a short hike around Balanced Rock, caught a few other viewpoints, and headed back to the campground for pool, dinner, and bed.