In July of 2015 we set out on a grand vacation through the southwest. We traveled for 21 days and over 6,000 miles, visiting 5 states and 9 National Parks. We explored new places and met up with old friends. Overall, it was an amazing journey and everyone learned so much. I highly recommend the Foder’s guide to National Parks of the West, we used it when planning our trip and it was a great resource. You can see all my posts about the trip by clicking here.
Day 10 – Arches National Park Fiery Furnace Hike
Day 10, also known as the day we all almost died. Not really, but kind of. I had reserved us a spot on a Ranger led Fiery Furnace hike months before our vacation. The spots are very limited and fill up fast. The recommended minimum age for the hike is 5 years old. I would say that is should probably just be a little bit older. This was a tough hike. You have to jump over ravines, wedge your body in spots to get to another location, climb over cliffs… you get the idea.
This is my favorite picture from our entire vacation. The is Cole coming through squeeze through arch.
This gives you an idea of the types of obstacles the kids had to master. There were some that were much more difficult, but I couldn’t take pictures because I was trying to help them not die.
Kiley did amazing with all the technical requirements. The only probably we ran into was that sometimes her legs were too short.
At the very end you come into a secret area where there is an arch directly above you. Appropriately named, Surprise Arch. Overall, if I had to do it all over again I would absolutely take everyone on the hike. My only real complaint is that the Ranger that was leading it was going so fast that we hardly had time to rest. The technical aspect of it wasn’t too difficult. AND even though BOTH kids ended up crying at some point on this hike BOTH of them say that this was their favorite part of our entire vacation. So I guess it couldn’t have been that bad.
