Day 28: Saturday, May 10th
Devil's Garden @ Arches National Park
Today we drove back into Arches National Park and decided to hike some more trails at the back of the park that we didn't get a chance to see earlier in the week.
This area is called Devil's Garden.
There are many beautiful formations and arches here.
Pine Tree Arch
On the trail to Landscape Arch.
So, these formations are called "fins."
The beautiful Landscape Arch.
Actually, someone told us this arch was misnamed early on and was supposed to be Delicate Arch.(Don't know if that's true or not, though.) In 1991 a section of this arch broke off, making it even thinner.
From this point, Nana, Paw, and Adam slowly turned back and hiked back to the start, while Natalie and I pushed on to see a few more arches that were more difficult to access. This one was called Navajo Arch. It was beautiful, but the wind was wicked. We didn't linger here as a storm was brewing and we didn't want to get caught out on one of the bare rock faces if it started lightening.
Looking down at the canyon below.
So, we got to this spot and saw the trial led over this narrow fin. The wind was blowing us all over the place.
We didn't tarry long.
I did snap this shot on top of the fin though, looking right over the edge.
Once over, we headed to see Black Arch first.
There it was, far below.
There were these crazy kids climbing all over the rocks at Double O Arch. How they got up there and for what purpose I didn't know. Seemed very dangerous to me.
We had to walk back across the fin again. This time, the wind wasn't blowing as hard and we did stop to see all around us.
The trail had steps that had been notched out for us to put our feet on.
Too bad, I didn't see them the first time.
Back down the way we came.
I was so glad I had nice sturdy boots on that gripped the rock surface. Some folks were really having a difficult time and were slipping and sliding their way down. Some folks shouldn't have even tried this. It was crazy. There was one man who couldn't climb up a steep section and had to be helped by three of his friends. People do some really foolish things out here.
After a late lunch of cold pizza, we rejoined the rest of our group and took another short hike across these desert fields to see more arches.
The storm clouds were brewing in the background.
We had to squeeze through this narrow passageway to see the Sand Dune Arch.
Adam on top of the world. He found an alternative route through the narrow passageway.
Getting some "air" in the Broken Arch.
Lovely view of these formations.
Another view at the Fiery Furnace.
Once outside the park, there was this extremely tall sand dune and we had seen folks climbing on it every time we'd passed. Being the last day here, we decided to check it out too. And climb to the very top.
Almost there.
Natalie ran down. I simply walked. I didn't want to do a "face plant" on camera.
Adam on the other hand, rolled as far as he could possibly go. Once we got him back to the car, he was covered in sand. But it all came out in the wash. Literally.
Day 29: Sunday, May 11th.
Happy Mother's Day
We slept in late. It rained all night and was sprinkling through out the morning. It was lovely.
We drove into the town of Moab and had brunch at Pancake Haus. So did everyone else. After waiting for 20 minutes for a table, we ordered omelets, pancakes and waffles.
Our intention was to find the Museum of Moab and spend a few hours looking around. It was closed. We ended up looking in a shop called GearHeads and buying a few needed items. Really, we could have spent much longer there. It was so packed it camping, hiking, biking, etc... gear. All you could ever need or imagine.
Then, we headed to the grocery store. All five of us. Of course, it took much longer and everyone found something they wanted to have for supper or snacks. Fully loaded for the next week or so, we headed back to our KOA home. It wasn't raining any more, but it was very cloudy and cold.
We each found movies to watch on Netflix and enjoyed tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper. Yummy.
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