Hiking again!

After a day of driving I was so anxious to get hiking that I woke up at 5:30. Okay, actually it was so darn cold that I woke up as soon as I knew a diner would be open so I could get some hot coffee and warmth. Luckily I didn’t want food so much as it was awful. Just like the guide books said, good food in Moab is hard to come by.

But the people were nice and service was fast and I was driving into Arches National Park at 8 am. Arrived at Delicate Arch at 9ish. Pictures just never do the real thing justice. Not only that it wasn’t so much the arch that touched me it was more the feeling of the place. From the pictures I’d always thought the land around the arch was relatively flat. No so. The arch itself stands on a large fin that is pretty far up in the air and pretty far out in the middle of nothing. Walking up to it one goes along a cliff face then turns a corner and…there it is. I sat there, just around the corner, high up above the desert and finally, for the first time since leaving Denver, or maybe even much longer, relaxed. Just me, the sandstone, the arch, the La Sal Mountains and a few sparrows.

Eventually the place began to fill and I felt it was time to move on so after walking back to the car and driving further North I took the hike out to Landscape Arch, Navaho and Partition Arch. Had to turn back from Double O, it was O so narrow on that trail. After that I went to Window Arch where I sat awhile and enjoyed more of the Arches Scenery.

Feeling a bit parched, the temperature having risen to 69, I headed down to the Colorado River to hike up Negro Bill Canyon to Morning Glory Bridge. (and yes some Moabians are not happy with the name of the Canyon, but that’s what the guy who settled there was called. And if I’d a had my druthers, I’d a settled there with him! I love these Canyons, there are like oaisiss. Tall red walls soothed by the sound of running brooks. Oaks, and willows, sage, and this one had poison ivy too. At the end of the Canyon some people were repelling off the bridge and hopefully you can pick that up in the photos.

Now I’m back at the campsite, typing by the light of the laptop. It’s 7:30, dark and the cold is settling back in. I’ve got a great book to read, and I’m a bit tired. Good night.