Arches National Park, UT - Oct 15 - 16

By luck, we got a really nice campsite at the end of the loop up in Devil’s Garden Campground at Arches. At this point, we both were getting a bit “rocked out” and got off to a casual start. The next day we hiked part of the Devil’s Garden Loop, Landscape Arch being the most impressive. Harry headed back while I went a bit further. A number of people had said that we must hike to Delicate Arch for the sunset so somehow I convinced Harry that this would be a good evening picnic hike later the same day. Actually I had some help from our next door neighbors, Dave and Ava from Bend, OR. Dave was a helicopter pilot who did two stints in Nam then flew for the Florida Police and now is retired doing photography on a professional level (as opposed to my point and shoot!). He gets out for the sunrise and sunset photos while lazing out middle day. It became pretty clear that the only way to really get dramatic photos of the arches was to follow this schedule. Only problem was that it really interfered with sleep and dinner!

We headed off for the Delicate Arch hike around 4:30. The hike was mostly up slick rock for a mile and a half with the last 200’ or so walking around a 3’ wide ledge that drops straight down. This is the part I wasn’t quite sure Harry would do but I had the dinner so he followed. For those that have never been there, you come around the ledge to the top of what almost looks like a big stadium. The rock pitches down and around in bowl the center of which drops down about 100 or more feet and the arch is across the way. That day, the wind was whipping and blew my hat off as I came around the corner making me want to get down on all fours and crawl! There must have been about 60 – 70 people up there. We stayed for a while but decided that making our way back in the dark wasn’t for us. It was beautiful and worth the hike.

The next day, we drove around parts of the park we hadn’t seen and then headed south of Moab to Blanding. Dave had given us a map with some ruin sites that were worth a hike on BLM land.

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