Lotteries and Snowstorms (Our final days in Utah)

 

We have spent so many days in Utah, but as a right this we are finally in Arizona.  Utah is a magical place with some many amazing things to see and we have been so fortunate to win a couple lotteries to do a couple highly desirable hikes.  Unfortunately it has not all been fun and games as we had to deal with freezing temperatures and snow storms.

November 3rd -Completing Arches

We woke up to a funny realization, we were only a few hikes away from completing every single hike in Arches National Park, what was even better was that all the hikes we hadn’t completed yet were categorized as EASY (with one rated moderate- but we weren’t going to do the stairs at the end because we could see them from a different viewpoint)!!  This is the first time in our lives we had ever been close to completing a task like this (completing all hikes in a National Park) so we thought, better start walking.

Although we were stiff we pushed ourselves and were able to successfully leave the park in the early afternoon, meaning we had time for a shower, some grocery shopping, and to grab a beer and a drive towards our next stop, Canyonland National Park; there was only one issue it was forecasted to snow.

As we left Moab the clouds became more and more ominous and once we got to the elevation of the entrance to Canyonland it was a full scale snowstorm.

Paul, our hero and master chef, spent a good hour in the snow cooking a delicious dinner before we huddled together for warmth to survive the snowstorm.

 

November 4^th – Making good use of our Crampons

It was easy to see that it had snowed during the night, there was snow everywhere.  What made it worse is that it was around freezing meaning that things were also icy.  We slowly drove to Canyonland, got some hike recommendations from the visitors center and started exploring the park. 

On a whim we decided to bring our crampons (ice cleats) from home and were happy to have them today.  We strapped them on and started walking.  We did Murphy’s Trail, which was fine, the Grand View trail, which was good, and our favourite hike and the one we would recommend, the White Rim Overlook trail.  We had it almost to ourselves and the views were, in our opinion better that the Grand View.

The last hike we did that we would recommend was the Mesa Arch, it was short but amazing due to how the Arch framed the landscape beyond the arch.  We thought we were “arched out” but this one was a pleasant surprise.

After a good day hiking we left Canyonland and headed towards Green River to find a little camp spot out of the snow with some great views of sunset.

 

November 5^th – Cleaning and Drinking

Once again it was time to do laundry, go grocery shopping and grab dinner and a pint at a local Tavern in Green River.

After accomplishing all our tasks, we headed towards Goblin Valley State Park, a location high on Kendra’s list of must do’s while in Utah.  It was getting late in the day by the time we left Green River so we didn’t enter the state park, instead opting to camp right outside of it in a canyon.

 

November 6^th – Walking among Goblins

If you have ever seen the movie Galaxy Quest, you have seen part of Goblin Valley State Park, it is the location in the movie where the crew fight the rock monster.

Kendra was right to want to go to this location as it looked like we were on another planet full of mushroom/goblin looking rock formations.

Our first hike of the day was to go into the Goblins Lair, a hike on the edge of the park that ends at a canyon.  We later learned that we can rent repelling gear from visitor’s information to repel down into the canyon, but since we didn’t know this we climbed down with Rupert on our back.  It was a little scary getting into the true Goblins Lair but once down there we had the place to ourselves and found a cave the went on for longer than we were willing to explore.  It was well worth the sketchy climb down.

The next section of the state park was the Valley of Goblins.  This section is not about following a specific trail but rather exploration of the area.  This definitely made us feel like explorers going off the beaten path looking for interesting rock formations and paths to different sections of this other world. 

This place is wild!

Kendra had read about a location close to the park that we could camp for free that looked like the moon, so we headed there.  It was definitely the correct choice as we got to watch motocross riders pulling off tricks we had only seen on TV.  Paul had dialed 9 – 1 - in the phone convinced that we would see someone take a hell of a tumble, but instead we ended up tipping our drinks to them after they were done as they drove out of the area.

November 7^th – BURNT OUT

We started the day planning what we would do and where we would go.  It was Paul’s decision day (meaning he would make all the decisions), and Paul knew he was burnt out.  We had been running on all cylinders for a few days with minimal down time. 

We headed to Capital Reef National Park but after one hike and a couple hours we were done.

We left trying to decided whether or not to do “one of the best hikes in Utah” according to a few guide books, but Paul eventually said no, not today.  We found a camping spot around noon and spent the rest of the day doing very little.

 

November 8^th – Pushing ourselves to do all the things

After a half day of rest, it was time to have an extremely full day. Another snow storm was in the forecast with it projected to hit the area around 6pm.  We knew that whatever we didn’t do today we probably would not be able to do tomorrow so we woke up bright and early to hike the Lower Calf Creek Falls, a hike that was supposed to be another one of “the best” hikes in Utah.  Paul had some concerns with the hike as we had encountered so many locations with historically low water levels, but in the end was happy that we had done it, the ending was beautiful.

After the hike we drove to Bryce Canyon National Park, and straight into visitors information to learn what they would recommend doing today.  They let us know what would likely be closed tomorrow and recommend we push ourselves to do the scenic drive and a few of the hikes on the scenic drive. 

We pushed and we accomplished, and we were glad we did. By the time we were done Rangers were starting to close roads and trails as they were concerned about the incoming winter storm.

We found a camping spot just outside of the park and once again hunkered down.

November 9^th – SNOW DAY!

We woke up to the silence that you only get when it has snowed a bunch.  We opened the van doors to see over 6 inches of snow on the ground and more snow falling.  Paul was concerned about getting stuck so we quickly left our camping spot and headed towards the Visitors Information Center.

The national park had very few visitors, and after talking to the rangers we learned that everything we had done the previous day was closed and would be closed for the foreseeable future (the scenic drive opened 2 days later and the Fairyland drive supposedly opened just shy of a week later).  The ranger recommended a few things within the Bryce Amphitheater, but said if we are prepared and up to the challenge the Peekaboo loop was open and his personal favourite in the park.

This started one of the most difficult hikes of our trip…so far.  It was almost 10 kilometers in the snow, and during the first 7 kilometers we were breaking trail (i.e., we were the first people on the trail and had to walk through the growing inches of snow).  The other thing that made this trail so difficult was the elevation change.  It started with us hiking down into the canyon amongst the hoodoos, then hiking up and down and up and down again.  The topography was anything by flat.

Although we had some regret starting this trail, by end of it we were so proud of ourselves. We had done it and had some amazing pictures and videos to prove we had accomplished this task. 

Those who complete this task (that is the Peekaboo Loop, not necessarily doing it in a winter storm) and return with proof to the visitor’s center get a reward, a sticker that states “I hiked the Hoodoos”.  We were pretty stoked to receive it and place it on the van!

By the time we were done our hike the weather looked like it had cleared up so we started the stove and cooked some lunch, unfortunately the storm was not done and it turned ugly fast.  We knew we survived our snow day but it was time to leave and make a slow but safe drive further south.

Today also marks our first attempt to win a lottery in Utah.  Now Utah does not have any gambling opportunities we are aware of, but the Bureau of Land Management and National Parks have lotteries to win permits to select hikes.  Today was our first day to enter into the lottery. Now for those of you wondering, you can enter the lottery months in advance for The Wave (located in Arizona- the trailhead is in Utah), but if you want to enter the “next day” lottery, you need to be applying within the “geofence”-an invisible boundary showing you are close enough to enter and complete the hike. Once you enter from within the geofence you can leave the geofence and still enter, but we were going to explore the area and test our luck.

 

November 10^th – A much needed rest

We decided to get a hotel for the next four nights in Kanab Utah.  It was a central location to many things we wanted to see and the weather forecast told us there was going to be some very cold nights ahead (-10 celsius).

We woke up thinking we would explore Kanab but after a short drive down Johnson Canyon, to check out some historic sites and the old Gunsmoke filming location, we knew that we needed to go back to the hotel, order some pizza and beer and watch trashy TV.

This was the full day of rest we had been needing and searching for.

 

November 11^th – Too much AMAZING

We had big plans today, knocking off a bunch of bucket list tasks.

The first was to hike within a Slot Canyon, famous within the Kanab, UT/Page, AZ area.  The one we had read the most about was called Buckskin Gulch so we made our way to the trailhead.

It was awesome walking in a canyon with a width of 10 feet or less that was so deep the sun didn’t touch the bottom.  We had great timing as well as we had the whole place to ourselves while we walked into the canyon, it was only when we arrived as far as we were able to go into the canyon before the water became too deep that we started to see more people.

Buckskin Gulch was awe inspiring, with us constantly in a state of pinching ourselves to see if we were awake.  Highly recommend.

Not to be outdone, Kanab was only an hour and a half away from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Paul thought a great way to end the day would be to watch sunset there.

Although most of the hikes and the scenic road at the North Rim of the canyon were closed due to snow, some of the main viewpoints of the Grand Canyon from that area were open. 

Sunset and the canyon were beautiful, we understood why the Grand Canyon is on so many people’s bucket list.

We ended the day at a little restaurant in Arizona where Paul checked his email to learn more good news, we had won the lottery to see The Wave, a famous geographical feature in the area!!  We had been entering that lottery for days but knew it was unlikely we would win (3.5% of applicants won a permit last year).  By the grace of god, we learned we would be given the opportunity to do one of the most desirable hikes in the US.

 

November 12^th – Failed attempt at Zion

We both slept poorly.  We had to pick up our permit for The Wave today so that we could hike it tomorrow, but we had to go to a building that was, according to the internet, closed on the weekend.  We had also read that the permit had, in the past, been provided at 3 other locations and that if we went to the wrong spot or were not at the right spot at 8:30 am we would forfeit our permit.   In the end we did exactly what the instructions associated with the permit said to do and we received our permit, with the Ranger stating we should brag as this is not an easy permit to acquire. In the end there was no reason to stress out, but this was some thing we did not want to mess up.

Kanab is quite close to Zion National Park, and although we weren’t as drawn to this national park as we were to Arches, Yellowstone or Mesa Verde, we felt we would be doing ourselves a disservice by not checking it out.  We had been told it is the 2^nd most popular national park in the United States.

We arrived into Zion around 11am, where we were greeted by a full parking lot, people on the verge of road rage attempting to sneak into the one parking spot we saw come available and shuttles packed full of people. 

After thinking for a few moments, we realized it was the Saturday of a long weekend, and if we were back in Canada the last place we would want to be is somewhere like Banff, and yet here we are.  We decided to leave and return to Zion in a few days after hiking the wave when it probably wouldn’t be as busy.  We did still end up doing a hike though, it was a hike at the edge of the park that provided an overview of Zion Canyon- the aptly named Canyon Overlook hike.

We also decided to explore one more slot canyon outside of Orderville.  This slot canyon was short and extremely narrow.  When the guide book said we would need to climb a rope to continue exploring, there was no rope to climb, so it was a short adventure.

We ended the day with a nice dinner in Kanab before heading to bed, excited to start our hike to The Wave tomorrow.

 

November 13^th – THE WAVE!!!

We had had a great night sleep and woke up at a very reasonable 6am or so.  We were excited!

We packed our bags to leave the hotel and made our way to the trailhead.  Although the ranger recommended getting the trailhead for sunrise due to heat and the exposure to the elements, we thought we’d be fine being that it was November and below freezing at night.  When we arrived we learned that we would be the 2^nd group on the trail followed shortly behind by a person from France who had been applying every year for 15 years in both the daily and the advanced lottery, and although he had won previously, he wanted to go again with his good camera to properly capture it.

The hike itself is about 5 kilometers done by finding landmarks that you are provided by the Bureau of Land Management.  Some people make it out that it is difficult to follow these directions, but really we thought the directions were super clear and the pictures matched up with the landmarks in the landscape.

Before we knew it we were about 5 minutes away from The Wave, but the area where The Wave is located has other interesting geographical features, including a mini wave just before the main Wave.  We decided to do that first to get a taste of what we would be seeing shortly.  It was awesome and got us pumped.

Within a few steps we saw it, the famous feature known as the Wave, and it was so unique and awe inspiring.  We felt so fortunate to have won the lottery!

After getting our fill we decided to do a hike the started from the Wave that went to a location known as the second wave, then straight up a cliff to the top rock loop which had features known as the Alcove, some arches and the Big Mac.

The whole area was so unique and unusual, we were walking for hours but couldn’t stop exploring.

We returned to the wave for some more photos, where our permit was checked, then continued into the Sand Cove, then a location known as the boneyard and finished by seeing some dinosaur tracks before leaving the area walking close to 17 kilometers.

We made memories that would last a lifetime and pictures that we will treasure for our entire life.  We felt so fortunate.

We got some more news once we returned to Kanab when we learned we had won another lottery that we had also been applying for, a lottery to do Angels Landing in Zion. Lucky us!  We had won the next day lottery to do the hike tomorrow between 9am -12 pm.  We wanted to do it, but we were exhausted.

We decided to camp in Zion so we quickly drove to our campsite in Zion and went to sleep by about 7pm so we could get as much rest as possible before our next big hike.

 

November 14^th – Angels Landing

Angels Landing is an almost 8 kilometre roundtrip hike trip with an elevation change of almost 500 meters (1500 feet), one section of the hike consists of 21 consecutive switchbacks lovingly referred to as Walter’s Wiggles.  The last 800 meters of the hike consists of various chains with death-resulting drop offs.  Unfortunately, 17-20 people have lost their lives completing this hike, and we have won the right to attempt it.

The hike made sweat enter and agitate our eyes, and some section made our hearts race, but we did it.  There is nothing like standing on top of Angels Landing knowing that you have conquered it.  We truly feel that we are in the best shape we have been in years.

Unfortunately, there was no elevator to return back to the road so the next triumph was getting back down the trail, which we were able to safely do as well. The downhill hike (losing almost 500 meters of elevation) was refreshing after the strenuous uphill hike to reach the summit.

After completing this monumental hike, we decided not to apply for any more lotteries and to treasure the two that we had won, but take it easy for the foreseeable future.

We ended the day with a nice River walk into the Temple of Sinawava, a tall sandstone amphitheater-also home to the famous Narrows hike, and then a pint at the local brewery.

November 15^th – Finally leaving Utah

We woke up in Zion, we had camped again, and although both nights we had camped the temperature dipped below zero, this morning felt especially cold.  There was one last hike we wanted to do to three emerald pools.  Although we did all three the lower pool was our favourite.

We left Zion towards Arizona, but not before stopping back in Kanab to do some laundry and go to a pizza place with all you can eat pizza and salad for $5.99.  Our expectations were very low but it was delicious and it felt great to eat all the food and not feel guilty about it due to all the calories we had burned in the pervious days.

The cold weather continues even in Arizona so we once again got a cheap hotel for the night, but not before heading to Horseshoe Bend in Page Arizona to watch sunset.  How is this our life?!?!

Utah and Colorado (We have been busy! )

We have been so busy over the last couple weeks running around Utah and Colorado!  It has been quite the adventure but of course totally worth every moment.

October 21^st – Snow in the forecast

We saw the forecast we assumed we wouldn’t see; snow.  Park City was projected to get more than a foot so we knew it was time to leave the mountain town.  Most of Utah was under an extreme weather warning, so we knew we would likely see snow so we chose a location that seemed to have the least snow and wait out the storm.  That location was outside of Spanish Fork and there was a natural hot spring close to the campground.

We did stumble on a cool place in Springville while killing time.  It was the Legends Motorcycle Museum, and although it was closed the trendy looking area behind it was open. We ended up going for lunch in the area where we “remembered” that Paul had decreased his credit limit of his credit card just in case what happened to Kendra’s card happens to Paul’s card. Well, we remembered when the credit card came back declined.

We did have our debit cards, but we only use them for pulling cash out of the ATM.  Thankfully there was a bank across the road.  Paul ran into the bank where he was shocked there were no ATMs inside the branch; rather they are all outside for vehicles to use (Drive-Thru ATM).  So, Paul stood in line and when he got to the teller, she told him that she can’t withdraw money for me since its not a bank they deal with.  WHAT!?

Paul told Kendra what they said, who responded “I’ll get us the money”, ran to the Drive-Thru ATM and boom money in hand.

 

October 22^nd – Red Ledges

Since we were going to wait out the winter storm, we found a free campground in between some hikes and a natural hot spring.  We thought this would be the best place to keep ourselves busy.

Since today was supposed to be the nicest day we decided to do a hike to some Red Ledges.  The hike was an adventure with the grade of the trail becoming more and more vertical.  Once we reached the top Kendra was convinced, we’d have to find another way down.  The issue was we didn’t know another way down.  We started to follow the rim of the ledges to another path and hoped it would lead us down, which it did, but not before some interesting maneuvers.

All in all, the hike was good, it got our hearts racing a few times, but I think Rupert was the happiest one when we knew it was done.

 

October 23^rd - SNOW

 

We woke up with an inch of snow on the van, but it was around zero degrees so the snow wasn’t sticking to the ground.  With the snow we decided to spend the day in 5^th Water Hot Springs.  Online it talks about how busy the trail can get so we decided to set an alarm to be at the trailhead for the hot springs by 8:30am.

Unfortunately, we had to put in some work to get to these hot springs, 5 km’s worth of work. The trail was beautiful covered with the first snow of the year so the time went by fast.

We were one of the first at the hot springs.  The hot water comes from the river which people have damned up pools to sit in.  There are around a dozen pools, with each one being a slightly different temperature.  We found our perfect pool and relaxed for hours.  We must have looked pretty scary because no one even tried to join us in our pool so we had it to ourselves. According to online you rarely get a pool to yourself, so we feel very fortunate.

The hike back was a bit cold as the snow storm had started and we were wet, but again the time in the hot springs was well worth the effort.

The rest of the day consisted of Harry Potter movies and making warm meals and avoid the wild weather.  Decent day.

 

 

October 24^th – CANADA POST!!!!

Kendra’s credit card had been re-sent and was going to be delivered today, so Paul decided that we would spend the whole day killing time waiting for word it was time to pick it up. We went swimming in the community pool (to warm up from yesterday), we did laundry, got an oil change, went grocery shopping. 

We were surprised that our tracking number hadn’t updated since it was put in the mail so we decided to chat with Canada Post.  Turns out we were killing time for no reason.  Even though we got next day worldwide shipping and three days had passed, our package was still in Prince George.

Defeated, we returned to the same campground we had been the previous 3 nights

 

October 25^th – Leaving Northern Utah

The gods must have heard our plea, we woke up and somehow Kendra’s credit card was in Salt Lake City! 

We didn’t know exactly when it would be delivered, or if someone would be home to sign for the package, but we knew we would have it today.

Did a bit more killing time, which mostly consisted of finding the only Korean grocery store in Salt Lake City, buying a bunch of stuff then eating a bunch of that same stuff.  We then got word the card had arrived so we headed to its location, picked it up and headed for the furthest location south before sunset (Thank you so much Pam!).

The best part was that it was not supposed to get below freezing where we would be camping, this would be the first time we would sleep above zero in quite a few days.

 

October 26^th – Let’s go to Colorado?

 

We had camped near Green River which had some interesting sites.  The first was a launch site for a nuke that had been decommissioned quite some time ago.  It was fun to wander about, and we kept on thinking about googling more information about it and what exactly was done there, but we still haven’t. (It was Launch Pad 3 near Green River, if you want to do our googling yourself).

The second site was a Cold Water Geyser created when people were doing oil exploration and hit a carbon dioxide bubble in the ground.  The topography was awesome. It goes off every 12 to 16 hours, so we didn’t have time to wait for it to go off, so we walked around the area for an hour, had a snack, then left.

By this point we are within an hours drive of Arches National Park, a location we were really excited about.  The only issue was that the campground we wanted to stay at had been booked solid for months.  However, on November 1^st it becomes First come First Served; so we knew if we woke up early enough, we’d have a chance to camp in the park on November 1.

We had a lot of discussions about where to go until November 1^st, which came down to two main options. 

Option 1: do a bunch of things in South Central Utah and work our way back or go to Colorado.

 Option 2: Check out Colorado, hope for no snow, and see what Colorado is all about. We had heard about a place called Mesa Verde National Park that looked amazing so we started to head east.

Paul had read that the second largest concentration of arches outside of Arches National Park was McInnis Canyons National Reserve just on the Colorado side of the Utah/Colorado border.  We decided to head there but we’re surprised to learn we would have to drive through Colorado National Monument National Monument to get to it.  Well, that Colorado National Monument was just like a National Park and was unbelievable!!  We ended up spending the rest of the day going from overlook to overlook.

We had planned to spend the night in the McInnis Canyons National Reserve, but when we finally got to the entrance of the reserve it was so muddy Paul was convinced, we would get stuck.  Kendra wasn’t sure so she convinced Paul to drive 250 meters down the road.  Well, we almost got stuck.

 

October 27^th – IT’S FREEZING

The day more or less started at 2am with a loud and bright thunderstorm.  We ended up listening to it for an hour or so before finally falling back to sleep again.  When we did wake up we were frozen, it had snowed and the van said it was -7 degrees.  The van was not somewhere we could comfortably sleep at that temperature.

While shivering we made some food and brushed off the van before returning to the Colorado National Monument.  We had hoped to try to enter the Reserve again, but the snow on top of mud made us weary of even trying. We will just have to save our first experience of arches for Arches.

It took us an hour to warm up. We enjoyed seeing the stark difference of the area with snow on it compared to what we had seen yesterday; but we seemed to be chilled to the bone.

We had warmed up by the time we left the higher elevations and the temperature had returned to a much more reasonable 7 degrees, so we decided to do a hike to the Devil’s Kitchen, a hike that would end in a “room” created by stone columns.  We did make it but we went twice the distance it was supposed to take as we relied on All Trails, which tried to take us on a different trail.  Regardless of the extra distance the destination was worth it.

Within a couple hours drive was Black Canyon National Park, so we decided to head there and check it out. The Black Canyon was near Montrose, UT which was covered in snow, and at the high elevations of the Black Canyon there was so much snow that most of the park was closed.  The only thing that was open was one view point and the visitors center. It was a bit disappointing but we were told that they hoped to have the park mostly open tomorrow, once they can acquire a snow plow.

We returned to Montrose and learned that it was supposed to get down to -8 degrees tonight and stay around that temperature during the night across western Colorado.  We decided to book the next three nights in hotels.

 

October 28^th -Through the Mountain Passes

We had planned to return to the Black Canyon but after killing time at a coffee shop and giving the van a wash, the Park was still not open beyond the visitors centre, so we decided to continue south.  The drive was beautiful following the Rocky Mountains.  About halfway through the drive we stopped into the Ski Community of Telluride which was awesome, but super expensive, a pint was over $10 at one of the breweries. We ended up just walking the streets with Rupert, taking photos before continuing our drive to Cortez.

We checked into our hotel but by this time we had blown the budget and eaten out a couple days in a row, so we decided to go to a local park to cook some dinner.  I think some locals thought this was really interesting because we started to see a few people driving through to make sure we weren’t up to no good.

 

October 29^th – “Are you Paul & Kendra?”

We woke up and headed to Mesa Verde National Park; a park known for buildings built in the cliffs and petroglyphs. We had seen pictures and knew we had to check them out.

Our first stop was the summit of the area which gave views of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.  Yes you could see things in each state from the view point.  As we approached our vehicle a couple came up to us and asked “Are you Paul & Kendra?” 

We have never felt so famous in our lives!

They were the sister of a co-worker of Paul’s (shout out to Joelle).  We all knew we’d be in the area of each other but we’d never met before nor had any plan to meet up.  It was awesome to hear their plans, and compare notes.

We visited the overlooks of the cliff buildings and villages.  They were unreal!! Highly recommend!

We couldn’t go to a National Park without doing a hike, and we were told the best hike was the Petroglyphs hike.  It felt like a hike where you were walking the same path the indigenous people (or Indians as they are called in America) of the area had done for thousands of years.  It is probably Paul’s favourite hike right now and it ended at some Petroglyphs!

We ended the day with a pint from the local brewery and some Dominos Pizza in bed as we watched Impractical Jokers and enjoyed the ability to control the temperature of our sleeping accommodations.

 

October 30^th – New Best Camping Spot!

Cortez is pretty close to the Four Corners Monument, a spot where you can stand in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado on the lands of the Navajo People.  The monument is administered by the Navajo Nation, so after purchasing a ticket we were able to take all the photos we needed of us going from state to state.

We then stared our journey towards Arches National Park.  We had about 4 hours of driving so we thought to break up the trip by going grocery shopping. Well, we learned on Sunday in rural Utah all grocery stores are close.  Guess we will make due with what we have.

Close to Moab (the municipality closest to Arches National Park) is a road that goes to a number of outlooks around the area.  The area around these overlooks is BLM land or land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.  Usually BLM land, often national forests, are free to camp in, so we were confident we could find a spot.

We did one overlook then began searching for a campsite. The whole area was dynamic with a giant canyon that stretched for miles.  Paul was convinced if we followed a side road we’d find spot on the canyon rim.  He was right, the campsite was unbelievable.  The only issue is Paul thought we may struggle getting out, but that is a tomorrow problem.

 

October 31^st – ARCHES

Although there was some concern about getting back to the main road due to some big rocks, and a sandy incline, the van was able to get us to Moab, the community just before Arches National Park. 

This was the first time in the states we heard so many other languages and saw RVs and vans from all over the world.  Tomorrow starts first come first served camping inside Arches National Park.  We were concerned that others had the same plan as us.

We picked up some groceries and decided to see some arches outside of the national park, namely Corona Arch.  The hike ended up being about 7kms to see three arches, with Corona being the best.  The hike itself was pretty reasonable, but I wouldn’t want to do it in 40 degrees, the temperature the area is known for in the summer.

 

November 1^st – We made it!

The alarm went off at 5:45am.  We were convinced that lots of others would probably have our plan so we drove to the Devils Garden Campground, arriving about an hour later. 

Our plan worked; we got an awesome campsite right beside a number of trailheads. 

We decided against having a nap and instead decided to do a 13 kilometer hike seeing numerous arches and the area known as the Devils Garden.  It was an amazing hike, and although we were dead tired after, the pictures on our cameras more than make up for the sore muscles.  Our favourite Arches in the order we them saw were the Navajo Arch, the Double O Arch, the Private Arch and the Pine Tree Arch.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and having naps, recouping for more hikes tomorrow.

 

November 2^nd- Checking off the bucket list.

Today started similarly as yesterday, but instead of seeking out a campsite we were seeking the “world famous” Delicate Arch.  After a short hike in the dark with our headlamps, Paul turns to Kendra and says “we are off trail”.  Luckily we were minimally off the trail and were able to reconnect with the trail to reach Delicate Arch in time for sunrise.  Photos of this arch are usually crowded since it is the most famous arch. We shared sunrise with about 15 other people and had a 10 minute moment where everyone sat back and watched the arch once the sun was up (no one was taking photos under or near the arch, which is rare). While we had read sunrise is the best time for this arch in the summer, we suggest staying around after the sunrise group has left and enjoy the view because it was not busy at all about 20 minutes after sunrise. We also went to the upper and lower Delicate Arch Views and the experience of being close to an arch is significantly better.

After Delicate Arch we stopped at a few overlooks before heading back to the campground for some breakfast (we hit 10,000 steps before breakfast!). After breakfast we headed out to another hike that we were worried would be inaccessible tomorrow if it rained.  Tower Arch did not disappoint and we had the entire arch to ourselves!  We spent more time taking photos than any other point on our trip, but it feels so rare to have an arch to yourself that we had to take full advantage of it.  This hike was rated Difficult and meant that we have hiked every hike rated difficult in a US National Park (within 24 hours of our first hike in the park)!