Driving through western Colorado was very scenic! We drove through Glenwood Canyon on I-70 which was one of the most difficult sections of highway in the country to build. The canyon walls were nearly vertical, and the highway was built on these nearly vertical walls. Most of it was elevated, and there were several big tunnels also. It was really amazing! After that canyon, we went through another canyon that I don't know the name of before we got to the Utah border. We stopped at a gas station, and asked what the best route to Moab was, and it turned out that there was a much more scenic route than what the GPS was telling us. So we took that route, and it was... amazing? There's no word to describe it! It took us back to the Colorado River, and into another canyon. This one was the reddest can of all, and by far the best! When we saw our first butte (we're still not sure what defines a butte, so it may have been something else) I was ecstatic! I don't know how many people know what I mean, but there's a certain butte that you always see pictures of, and we saw it in that Canyon! I was positive that certain one when we saw it on the side of one of those Cruise America RVs (you see them everywhere out here) and on the cover  of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire. When we got to the park entrance, a sign said that the campground was full. We didn't expect lots of tourists initially, but ever since we'd seen all the RVs and stuff on the road near the park, we couldn't be too surprised. My dad had me go online and look up BLM campsites in the area. We saw some back in the canyon by the river, but they were all full. I found some on the other side of Moab, and so we went to them. Luckily there were a couple empty, and so we stayed there for the night. In the morning, my dad got up and went to the park to try and get one of the 9 campsites that were opening up that morning. Luckily, he made it there in time and got a site, so we packed up and got ready to move. Arches National Park is a big park, and the campground was on the other side of the park, 20 miles from the entrance, so it took us some time to get there. It was good though, 'cause we kind of got a sneak preview of what we'd hike around and see the next day. All throughout the park are tall sandstone towers, and sandstone fins. They're called fins because that's exactly what they look like. They're red sandstone rock in the shape of fins just sticking right out of the ground! We got to the campsite, and began one of the hikes close by. We saw Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Landscape Arch, Dark Arch, and Double O Arch. They're all part of these fins. There're several layers to the fins. At the bottom, there's a whitish layer called Navajo, on top of that is a blobish looking layer called Dewy Bridge, on top of that is Slickrick, and the top layer that's not always present, is Moab. They're all layers of sandstone. The middle layers are softer than the top, and they erode away faster than the others, and when they're gone what's left is an arch! There's a whole geology to the fins, but it would take forever to explain. The next day, we went to the visitor center to get the packets to become Junior Park Rangers like we did at the Sand Dunes. We watched a movie about the park and the geology, and then we went out and explored the rest of the park. We saw Balanced Rock, Windows, and a few other arches. In the Cove of Caves, there was a private school from Canada filming a concert in one of the caves! After we saw that, we went to see Delicate Arch (the unofficial symbol of Utah and the most photographed arch). We didn't have enough time to hike all the way to it, so we hiked to the viewpoint. Then we went to Sand Dune Arch. For most of us, this was our favorite arch! It was in between two HUGE sandstone fins, probably 100 ft. tall. There was red/orange sand all around it, the softest sand you could ever imagine! It was so fun to run around there and climb some of the rocks in between the massive fins. When we got back to the campsite, we were lucky that we'd opened the windows, 'cause all the wind that day had been strong enough to destroy the camper. The only downside, was that there was a thin layer of sand all throughout the inside. We decided that the next day we'd get up really early (like 5:00) so that we'd get to Zion National Park in time to get a campsite. On the way to Zion, we could see views of other canyons. I swear, Eastern Utah is pretty much one huge canyon! They're EVERYWHERE! So we're on our way to Zion now, and we'll be there for one night at least, before we see the Grand Canyon!!!