This was one of my favorite days on the trip. We didn't get much closer to our ultimate destination - it's only about 150 from Green River to Grand Junction, but we saw some breathtaking scenery. We detoured southeast off route 50, heading south on 191, which takes you to the southern edge of Arches National Park, where its main entrance is located. This park is "...the most feature-packed of southern Utah's national parks. Ranging in size from around three feet to nearly 300 feet in span, the arches are the result of erosion over millions of years...".

The only disappointment was that we didn't get to see Delicate Arch, which is "the" arch in the park. Getting to it was only a 15 minute hike, but we did not make the venture. We adhered to the 20-mile paved road that wends its way through the park: it was a very hot day and Kai was in no mood for hiking. And Maria was in a state of anxiety for most of our time in the park. Kai had misplaced one of his Thunderbird toys and Maria was in a frenzy trying to find it amidst the many layers of ...things in the car (Thunderbird toys have been out of production for years, so it wasn't replacable - I think Maria was having a pre-emptive reaction to the reaction she was anticipating from Kai; luckily she found it before its absence registered with him).

The natural beauty all around us put me in zen-master-cool mode, and nothing was going to bother me. All the famous sites on the park other than the Delicate Arch are visible from the road, so there was plenty to gawk at - Windows, Fiery Furnace, Devil's Garden, and many other alien landscapes.

We exited the park and headed northeast on 128, which is a designated scenic route that paralells the Colorado River. This was a very pretty drive. I tried taking a bunch of pictures from the car, but most of them didn't turn out. One of them was ok, so I've included it below. I've opted for fewer pictures at higher resolution on this page, as the shots are best appreciated when you can see all the details and subtleties.

After crossing the border into Colorado, we wanted to end our day at the Dinosaur Journey Museum that we thought was in Grand Junction, but this is the one time our guide book steered us wrong. Grand Junction was the first decent sized city we had seen in a while (population approx. 42,000), and it had a history museum, which is where our book said the Dinosaur Museum was. We figured they must be one and the same, so we paid our fees and entered what must be the lamest museum I've ever seen. They had some cars from the 50s and 60s, some mannequins dressed as Cowboys and Indians, and some other utterly forgettable things...which I have forgotten. It turns out the Dinosaur Museum was in the small town of Fruita, west of Grand Junction, so we had already passed it.

We decided to just call it a day, and there was a nice grassy park across the street from the museum. We broke out Kai's collapsible fort from the trunk and just hung out for a while (it's designed in the same manner as those windshield visors that you can fold up with a flick of the wrist). I left Kai with Maria briefly so I could track down a Kinko-like shop (Grand Junction wasn't quite big enough to qualify for an actual Kinko's). I had some faxing, etc. to do, as I was going fly out to Philly in a few days to take care of the closing on our house, and money needed to be moved around. After that we found another park with a fantastic playground, and we stayed there until the sun went down. This was a fun time - Kai really enjoyed the time out of the car, and we all just relaxed. I even had time to make some phone calls and check in with family and friends.

All in all, a really good day.

Courthouse Towers

Balanced Rock

Parade of Elephants

The Colorado River