The Fiery Furnace!

It's true, we took our kids to explore Utah's largest furnace- The Fiery Furnace in Arches that is. Cliffs, rock scrambling, crawling under things, jumping over crevasses, squeezing between fins, if you followed along our homeschooling journey, you'll know crazy hikes like this is familiar territory.  

Last year, we took our kids to every national park in Utah to explore some of the wildest hikes. However, A2 was too young to be allowed to into the Fiery Furnace. (No kids under 5 allowed under any circumstances) With all our kids old enough now, we got the permits, the sun hats, the snack, all the fixings we needed for a day to get lost among the red rocks. With no official trail, it was so fun to let our kids roam free, explore nature, take risks, and conquer fears.  

Beautiful Day

Found Jesus

Found the "trail"

While our kids had a lot of fun looking for the tiny hidden arrows, the "trail" here is only a guideline. All the best stuff is at the end of unmarked passageways. And if it has a "Dead End" sign, that's a clear indication to take that path and play for awhile.  

Walk Though Arch

Crawl Through Arch

Another arch

Not an arch

More hidden arches up there

Hard to see lizard tracks

Watching my boys climb on boulders, which required them jumping from one boulder to another was nerve-racking. Pictured below, with cliffs on either side, A1 climbed ever further and higher. Yeah, I may have had a slight panic attack.

Back in the safer wash

Twin Arch

Cougar tracks

See the hidden brown arrow in the top right?
Yup, this is the trail.

Kissing Turtle Arch

Life will find a way.

Look how wide this ledge is, were good.

Channel your inner ninja

And make a tight squeeze

Surprise Arch

The View Point

While the official route is about 2 miles long, we ended up doing around five miles of exploring. This route does require a permit. Your party can either sign up for a self-guided permit or a ranger-led permit, which is recommend for hikers that may not want to devote a whole day lost among the fins.

Although we had never been before, we wanted the freedom to explore, so we went with the self-guided option. There was only one place we were truly "lost" in the sense that we were trying to get to one arch and ended up being on the wrong side of the fin. It was not hard to backtrack to the slot canyon we came out of and, from there, we ended up spotting two more of those hard to see arrows. They are not normally placed that close so we could tell this is a place people "explored" a lot. While most of the time we hiked alone, this area tripped up enough people that we encountered two other self-guided groups creatively exploring the area as well.

All the kids had a blast. However, only K was eager to hike it again- right then if we would have let him. (The other kids were a bit worn out). We did end up missing one arch I was hoping to see, the Inner Sanctum Arch. So maybe he and I can go back someday and find it.

Where are your favorite places to hike?