Day 63-66: Arches National Park
Trip Start
Jun 21, 2008
1
38
42
Trip End
Ongoing
Arches National Park,
Utah,
United States
Friday, August 22, 2008
Stopped at Spruce Tree Coffee Shop in Cortez again on the way out to check e-mail. Not sure when we will have a connection again. I did check the weather for Arches NP again, and the temp should be 100+ while we are there. Boo!
We arrived at Arches around 2pm after going to the grocery store in Moab. Stopped at the Visitor Center to look around and stay cool inside. Watched the park video on a big screen. Read about how the Arches were made, but still don't quite understand. Drove out to the campground at the very end of the park road. Quite a drive. Beautiful red rock as far as the eye can see. Set-up tent, had dinner, then went for a walk to Broken Arch. It's not broken - just has a crack right now.
When we check out e-mail this morning we learned from Mom that one of the Arches fell about 2 weeks ago. Luckily it fell about 4am and no one was hurt. We also learned that Mike's cousin, Noah, was caught in a flood at the Grand Canyon when an earthen dam broke. Thankfully he is home safe now.
Day 64 - Saturday, August 23, 2008 - Arches NP
Went to the 10am Ranger Walk at Window Arches. During the walk the Ranger talked about the plants and animals of this desert region - receiving only about 8.5 inches of precipitation per year. A lot of the info we already learned at Mesa Verde but we learned a few new things. The prickly pear cactus has its seeds inside the cactus and when part of the cactus is broken off, that piece will grow a new plant.
After the Ranger Walk we walked to Double Arch on a short trail. Met a nice couple traveling from Baton Rouge. They told us to eat at Mike Anderson's when we are there.
Then we headed back to the campsite for lunch. After lunch, we went for a walk into Devil's Garden, near the campground. It was so hot we only made it a little over one mile to the famous Landscape Arch - the longest in the park. We considered walking a little further to Wall Arch (recently fell) but decided it was too hot.
After dinner, saw the sunset from the park road. Very nice. Very western sunset with rocks in foreground. Then went to Ranger program about Spiders, Scorpions, and Snakes - Oh my!
One nice thing was the watermelon we bought was wonderful after a hot hike.
Day 65 - Sunday, August 24, 2008 - Arches NP
Went to 9am Fiery Furnace Ranger Walk. This walk was not free. $10 each or you can buy a permit for $4 and go in on your own. The Fiery Furnace is a mass of rocks and fins and is easy to get lost in. We felt safer going in with a Ranger. It was a nice walk - 3 hours - some places were very narrow and steep. Kind of tricky in a few places. The highlight was Surprise Arch, found by the Superintendent of the park. Nice. We also saw a pothole full of water.
After lunch at the campsite we rested in the shade. Thankfully our campsite has these huge rocks near it. We lay on a blanket and napped and read. We had to keep moving around the rocks as the sun moved. But it was better than walking in the heat like we did yesterday. Learned our lesson. Guess what? Michael got sunburn on his chest from laying in the shade without his shirt. Crazy!
In the evening, we drove to the Delicate Arch Area and hiked to the overlook for a few pictures. We learned today that Wall Arch was the one that fell. Maybe we should have walked on to it yesterday. Oh well.
Day 66 - Monday, August 25, 2008 - Departing Arches NP, Thru Capital Reef NP, Escalante-Grand Staircase NM on Scenic Highway 12 to Kodachrome State Park
Left Arches NP one day early because it was too hot.
Got up early with the sun. Packed up, while watching the sunrise and taking pictures. Drove to Delicate Arch area - this time we took the trail to the arch (3-mile roundtrip). We were planning to do this yesterday evening but the trailhead Parking lot was full. Beautiful at the top! The trail is great because it is designed to hide the arch until the last moment.
After the walk, we headed straight to Starbucks for some tasty coffee! Then we drove all day.
The highlight of the day was picking peaches at Capital Reef NP. They have historic orchards in the park - right next to the road. We stopped and picked a pound of peaches for $1. Might have picked more, but there were large thunder clouds in the sky. Michael used a picker - a claw on a stick basically - very cool. And the peaches were delicious!
We drove on Scenic Highway 12 - beautiful drive. Stopped several times for pictures. Ended the day at Kodachrome State Park. A very nice park with free showers! Hooray!
We also fed chukars and rabbits. They were feeding on something in a grassy campsite, and a park maintenance person gave us a bag of feed to throw to them. Neat.
