Day 11 of 16—Arches National Park

Arches NP is like I would imagine the Mars landscape. All the rocks are red and stick up in funny shapes from the horizon. I felt reasonably awake so took off for the trailhead with a few others, and we saw most of the ‘Devil’s Garden’. Along this route are several famous “arches” which are holes leftover from giant sandstone walls eroded from below. Some of the arches look like windows; others are truly arches and thick or thin in the middle. The 20-somethings of course had to walk on top of them while I volunteered to take pictures from below. The hiking was challenging in some high winds walking over rocks 30 feet up with nothing on either side. I got some amazing pictures. As we were heading back, droves of tourists were just getting started going up. I was glad we started early!

Arches was my favorite park so far, but I was disappointed not to be able to walk in the crevice of the giant walls further south. That area is called Fiery Creek, and requires a guided tour by reservation only. We stopped by the visitor center and then on to the city of Moab for shopping and lunch.

Camping this night was at a campsite alongside the Colorado River. Just as we were setting up our tents we experienced a fantastic Rocky Mountain thundershower, and the booms and cracks of lightning were extra great. This was my first ever. We were drinking beer outside under an awning and watching the action. Afterward several people went swimming (in the shallows) while dinner was being made. I collapsed in my tent at 8:30pm!