Arches National Park

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Saturday October 15 - After Goblin Valley we drove on to Arches National Park. A popular park on a Saturday is not ideal, but it wasn't so bad. We stopped at the visitor's center first, to see if we could get tickets to join the ranger-led tour of Fiery Furnace the next day, since you can only buy them in person in October, but no luck. They were sold out for a week. I had been hoping to do that hike, but it was ok. There was plenty to do. We decided to walk to Delicate Arch with the time we had left that day. Delicate Arch is THE arch that everyone has seen pictures of, the one on the Utah license plate and quarter. You can see it from a distance from two viewpoints, but we decided to do the hike that brings you right to the arch itself. It took a couple of hours and it was hot and sweaty, but really good. The surprise was the crazy wind that we encountered when we got up to the arch. It wasn't a perfect time of time for pics, but it was pretty good. And it was a good walk. I've been really proud of myself with these hikes, finding that I'm finally in good shape and that I actually hike quite quickly, despite the uphill nature of the walks, and the initial elevation being quite high.

We watched the intro movie on the way out, checked into our hotel, and then walked over to the Moab Diner. I realize walking to dinner, as we've mostly been doing, is not very American, but it felt right as a semi-European. Luckily, eating burgers and milkshakes here was yummy and very American. A good end to a good day.

October 16 - Today I woke up with a very slightly swollen eye. So slight I didn't even notice, but Jeroen did. We spent the day back at Arches, doing lots of different hikes to see...you guessed it...different arches. After a full day, my eye was even more swollen and really unpleasant looking. We went for Mexican food and I had some amazing carnitas tacos. We finished the night off with a Ben and Jerry's container of perfection.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Nice arches
I've only seen this park from the air covered with snow so great to see it close and personal. Great pics. Why no pics of Goblin SP? Goblin in the snow was a highlight of our time in the SW USA.