George Albert Smith Arch With My Dad

Let me jump back to mid-September for a quick recap of a fun adventure I had in the Moab/Canyonlands/Arches areas with my 76 year old dad, my sister Kristen, my two brothers, Erik and Jeff, and two of my young adult nephews.  I'm so happy that I could experience hiking with them and being along for some dreams of my dad to come true.  The main purpose of this year's excursion was to re-visit the George Albert Smith Arch with some other men my dad knows from childhood (only three of them were healthy enough and/or available to come this time).  They and my dad, in 1958, were part of a scout troop 10 day, 70 mile hike where they had hiked to this arch back then.  It had been discovered and named with a plaque marker the year earlier, 1957 (if I have the story correct).

My two brothers have been working to to #1 help my dad re-locate the "lost" arch which they did last year in the fall of 2018 and #2 to get it recognized and officially named by the National Park Service.  It is located in the Peak-a-boo trail area of Canyonlands which we had to access by a jeep road using Jeff's family's awesome Jeeps.  Erik had arranged for Alex Cabrero and his camera man from KSL to come along and do a story.  Also, five men from the Arches and Bridges Society hiked along with us.  Kristen and I hiked up as far as the "old guys" could go, and the rest of the group continued up to where the 1957 plaque is located.  Then five or six of them climbed up into the arch itself.

My dad was so happy to be there with his old scout buddies, and they couldn't believe that they had been up there so high back in their youth.  It was a dangerous place to climb around for such a large group of teenage boys with limited adult supervision back in the late 1950s.  It will be fun to see if KSL actually runs the story.  I'm hoping I'm not in any of the footage!

The day before that hike, I hiked up to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park with my dad and Kristen.  It was their first time up there and my second time, but it was just as wondrous as the first.  We took it slow and carefully, and my dad made it!  I was relieved that he didn't fall on any of his hikes that weekend.  What a fun trip to go on with some of my family.  I feel blessed to have the time, health and resources to go on my recent trips and adventures.