Moab is home to two national parks in Southern Utah: Arches and Canyonlands National Park. Our first day’s itinerary was to go to Arches, which was one of the stops I was looking forward to most after seeing it in Indiana Jones, Bon Jovi videos, and pictures of the American West.
We started the day with a hearty McDonald’s breakfast and coffee (I needed more than instant to make sure that I was up after camping). From there, we started our day with a six-mile hike to Double-O arch, with a handful of other arches along the way.
Arches are formed by erosion dissolving salt deposits that were once embedded in the sandstone from its time millions of years ago when the area was a deep sea. We got to experience the wind erosion first-hand. Gusts all-day were upwards of 30-40 mph, whipping up sand. This is evidenced by how odd our clothes and hair look in the pictures as they were being blown every which way.
After completing another one-hour hike, we grabbed lunch in town and spent some time looking on Craig’s List for apartments in Boston to wait for the heat of the day to pass. With sunset imminent, we made our way back to the National Park to hike three miles to see Delicate Arch, the most iconic arch and Utah’s unofficial state symbol. Delicate Arch lived up to the hype, and it was my favorite singular site up to this point in the trip.
The next day we stopped at Canyonlands Needles area on the way to Durango. After hiking ~45 miles since arriving in New Mexico, we were both sore and decided to bypass the longer hikes in the desert heat. We snapped some photos and then hopped back in the car as we left the great state of Utah.
We want to say a special thank you to Uncle Bill for all your advice and suggestions on hikes, lodging, restaurants, and routes as we traveled through Southern Utah. It was extremely helpful and it’s definitely on our list for another trip back!
We started the day with a hearty McDonald’s breakfast and coffee (I needed more than instant to make sure that I was up after camping). From there, we started our day with a six-mile hike to Double-O arch, with a handful of other arches along the way.
Arches are formed by erosion dissolving salt deposits that were once embedded in the sandstone from its time millions of years ago when the area was a deep sea. We got to experience the wind erosion first-hand. Gusts all-day were upwards of 30-40 mph, whipping up sand. This is evidenced by how odd our clothes and hair look in the pictures as they were being blown every which way.
After completing another one-hour hike, we grabbed lunch in town and spent some time looking on Craig’s List for apartments in Boston to wait for the heat of the day to pass. With sunset imminent, we made our way back to the National Park to hike three miles to see Delicate Arch, the most iconic arch and Utah’s unofficial state symbol. Delicate Arch lived up to the hype, and it was my favorite singular site up to this point in the trip.
The next day we stopped at Canyonlands Needles area on the way to Durango. After hiking ~45 miles since arriving in New Mexico, we were both sore and decided to bypass the longer hikes in the desert heat. We snapped some photos and then hopped back in the car as we left the great state of Utah.
We want to say a special thank you to Uncle Bill for all your advice and suggestions on hikes, lodging, restaurants, and routes as we traveled through Southern Utah. It was extremely helpful and it’s definitely on our list for another trip back!
No comments:
Post a Comment