Day 9: Arches National Park and Moab Giants

Day 9: Arches National Park and Moab Giants

📍Arches National Park: Tribal lands of the Ute and Paiute tribes.

Arches lies above an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area.

An early morning rise, alarm set for 6:02am, however I’m as excited as a kid going to Disneyland and was up as 3:45am and then 4:48, and then alas 5:54…up and ready to go!

First stop, coffee at “Wicked Brew” in Moab and then a 6 mile drive to Arches National Park. Staying in Moab is really an excellent basecamp for so many parks to explore.

We started the Delicate Arch hike (12 miles into the park), at 7:58am, the sun was already beating down on us, but it was 64 degrees and perfect hiking weather. About 10 minutes in, poor Ken hurt his hip (possible muscle pull), so he decided to turn around. We chatted, and I carried on, knowing somewhat of what was ahead of me, and would turn around if it got to be too much (heights and cliff walls, eek).

You wind through the canyon, and then head up, and I mean straight up the side of a giant rock slab. It felt like it went on forever. The trail is marked with metal trail signs, or cairns which help mark the trail over the large boulders and slabs. I arrived at the cliff side area, and hesitated, sat and gave it some thought. There were others having similar concerns as me.

Mind over matter, time to go! Up I went, walking along the edge, legs shaking once I hit the top. But WOW, what a view of the Delicate Arch! It was worth the work! This arch is the one depicted on the Utah license plate. I sat up there for awhile, to take it all in, but also to rest my nerves a bit. I decided to head back down before more people showed up and I would have to share the cliff wall with others; I wasn’t going to share! 😂😂

Slow and steady and by 10:15am I was back on solid ground. Whew! I met back up with Ken and we plotted out our next stop. Ken popped some Ibuprofen and away we went. The next side stop was the Skyline Arch. In 1940, a large boulder fell out of the arch, roughly doubling the size of its opening.

We could see someone up in the arch and we were wondering how in the heck they got up there. She yelled down to us and told us how, so we drove around to the Campground’s Amphitheater. Ken was feeling better now and so he took off rock climbing and headed towards the arch. We took some great photos!!

Next stop “Devil’s Garden Trail” to see the Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch, and the Landscape Arch. On September 1, 1991, some hikers heard a cracking sound; they thought it was lightening. Other hikers under the arch noticed cracking and popping sounds and went running away from the arch. Minutes later a 60 foot rock slab peeled away from the arch. When the dust settled, 180 pounds of fresh rock debris lay scattered on the ground.

It ended up being a much longer trek than we expected, in 95 degree heat, and I’m so glad we carried in extra water with us. My face was a tomato at the end!

That was our last arch for the day. It was now 1:30pm and it was getting hotter. We headed back to the hotel, showered, and headed to the Moab Giants Dinosaur museum. It was so cool!

By 5pm it was 100 degrees and so we headed to the Moab Brewery for our first solid meal of the day. Treated ourselves to ice cream afterwards and then back to the hotel for a swim / hot tub! We are hoping Ken’s hip can get some good healing and rest tonight.

Until tomorrow…