CO - UT road trip, March '09 (Part III): Arches

I arrived early on Sunday morning at Arches National Park, about 6 miles from downtown Moab. This park is at the top of my list of U.S. national parks, and the scenery always reminds me of Roadrunner cartoons (though I have seen neither roadrunner nor coyote during any of my visits to the park). My friends at the Ska Brewing Company in Durango highly recommended that I sign up for the ranger-led hike of the Fiery Furnace area of the park, but unfortunately all of the Sunday guided hikes were booked by the time I arrived at the Visitor Center. Oh well, next time.

First hike: the Delicate Arch, a 3-mile roundtripper. I'm glad I had an early start, because the foot traffic was fairly heavy by the time I had completed this hike, and it would have made for a tight fit on the not-too-wide trail end in what turned out to be fairly gusty conditions. This was a beautiful hike that included the first of a few instances where I was taken out of my "comfort zone" -- not so much because of the technical difficulty of the hike (a moderate hike), but more because of the windy conditions, combined with narrow-ish trail and no safety rails, as I approached the Delicate Arch. It wasn't unsafe, but I certainly was conscious of staying in the moment and maintaining my concentration and balance -- overall a very healthy state of affairs.



Upon completing the hike, I drove over to the Delicate Arch viewpoint, to get a different perspective on where I had just gone.

From there, I drove deeper into the park, stopping for a 0.4-mile hike to the Skyline Arch



before going to the Devils Garden section of the park. The wind had kicked up even more at this point (the 11 AM hour), especially between the sheer stone walls at the trailhead.

The easier section of the trail took me to the Landscape Arch



and the neighboring Partition Arch.

From there, I decided to venture on to the Double O Arch. I had to overcome a little irrational anxiety as I began this section of the hike, which was steeper, more exposed and narrower, including some hiking on some fins. Totally worth it.





This is the Double O Arch.

This is where the Wall Arch used to be. It collapsed in August 2008.

Before returning to my car, I took a short detour to check out the Pine Tree Arch and the Tunnel Arch.

My next destination was the Windows Section of the Park. The blue skies of earlier in the day were making a retreat at this point in the afternoon, and the wind gusts were well over 40 mph. Again, very good for keeping one focused. These are the North and South Windows

and the Turret Arch.

One last stop before finishing my day at Arches: Balanced Rock.

I look forward to my next visit to the greater Moab area. Still plenty of different hikes to take, not that I'll tire any time soon of the repeating any of the hikes I took on that day, the last day of my 48th trip around the sun.

I hit the road early Monday morning, with 720 miles to drive to that evening's destination: Reno, Nevada. My route took me on Highway 50 across the Silver State, also known as the Loneliest Road in America. It was a beautiful drive, over several snowy mountain passes, but 720 miles is too far to drive solo in one shot - especially for someone who hadn't driven over a mountain pass during a snow shower in many years. I was grateful to have two Surrender Dorothy CDs (thanks again, Linda!) for my soundtrack across Utah, and to have my satellite radio for the rest of the drive.

Anyway, I arrived safely (if a little jittery) in Reno 12 hours later, and I spent the night at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. My hotel room was very nice, and exceptionally affordable. By Tuesday morning, I was ready to get home, an easy 4-hour shot to Half Moon Bay. Thanks to all my generous hosts, family, and friends for making this road trip a highlight of my sabbatical.