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Arches

We arrived in Moab a bit before dark and immediately tried to find a campground. We first checked in at Arches, but the campground was full and the only other campsites I knew of were by the river where last summer we'd been attacked by mosquitoes. Maybe it would've been different there in August from June, but that was not a chance I was willing to take. We wound up at the KOA just south of Moab- it was one of my favorite KOA's that I've stayed in. Probably second only to the one near Devils Tower in Wyoming.

The next morning, Sunday, we got up and headed to Arches. After stopping at the visitor center, we drove the length of the park to Devils Garden. The park road gives fabulous views of tons of arches and other formations. Once we got to Devils Garden, we hiked about a little past Landscape Arch. That part of trail takes you past a few of the most accessible arches in the park, but I wanted to hike to Delicate Arch that afternoon, so we knew we did not have time to hike the whole 8 mile Devils Garden trail, which was disappointing because it gets you far away from most of the tourists and on Sunday, there were plenty. Somehow, I forget that I am one of them and others are probably just as frustrated with my presence adding to the crowd as I am with theirs.From there, we drove down to another road that accesses Double Arch and some others and hiked up into Double Arch. After I climbed up much farther into the arch than Laura, she informed me that she did not think I was actually afraid of heights, but that I was afraid of coming down from heights. I think it just depends on the day. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day and such a contrast to the foggy, rainy day before in Bryce.Delicate Arch was our next planned stop- its about a 3 mile hike to the arch. Unfortunately, the trailhead parking lot was super-madly-crazy over-crowded with cars driving in circles waiting on spots to open. And much as I may have wanted to hike to Delicate Arch, that ridiculous-ness was not worth it. I felt like a real wuss though giving in and driving to the viewpoint. The viewpoint wound up at least requiring some physical exertion, not just walking 30 steps on a boardwalk.After viewing Delicate Arch, it was only about 1:00, but there wasn't much else to see. Our originally planned schedule was already thrown off and we were going to have to extend our stay somewhere in order to catch the Royals game in Kansas City on Thursday night. Finishing early in Arches was not helping that cause, but by that point, Laura said she didn't really care that much about the game. I told her I'd yet to take a cross-country roadtrip that lasted as long as we'd originally planned. So from then, we decided to head on to Canyonlands.

Labels: roadtrip '10, travel

posted by CP @ 10:52 PM 0 thoughts