September 23, 2003
"Arches"
| Once again, we didn't get much sleep. Mary coughed for a
good portion of the night, keeping all of us awake. We were almost at the end
of our rope. When we woke up the next morning - day four of our adventure - we packed up our suitcases and loaded them into the pod, for it was time to drive to our next destination: Grand Junction, Colorado, to visit the Colorado National Monument. But first, we had one more place to see in Moab, Utah: Arches National Park, located only a few miles north of Moab, along US Highway 191. Arches National Park is one of the more famous parks in the National Park System. One of its most prominent attractions, Delicate Arch, has been photographed time and again and is even depicted on the Utah State license plates. To see Delicate Arch involves a three-mile (round trip) hike to an overlook...and that was going to be our hike of the day, because we just couldn't do Arches National Park without seeing the arch that made it so famous. After stopping at the Visitor's Center for Mary's stamp, we drove the Jeep into Arches National Park, which was located on top of the cliffs that overlooked Moab. The trailhead could be found about eleven miles inside of the park, at a place called Wolfe Ranch. John parked the Jeep in the parking lot at the trailhead, and once we had all of our gear together, we started down the trail. That was when Mary decided to pitch a fit, because she just didn't feel like hiking that morning. She would rather be carried instead. She cried and carried on for about a tenth of a mile, past Wolfe Ranch and all the way to the bridge. We were getting quite annoyed with her...that is, until we found a sign that made us laugh.  It said, "Danger: Hazardous Terrain. Control Your Children." We took a picture
of Mary standing in front of this sign, crying her eyes out. It was quite
funny.The beginning of the hike was simple enough. It started out as a lovely stroll through the desert. A half of a mile later, that "lovely stroll" turned into a groaner, as the trail began its 480 foot climb. The entire climb was done on slick-rock, with cairns along the way to mark the trail. We had to take several breaks along the way, as it was a difficult climb, especially for someone in my condition. The first quarter mile of the climb was very steep, but it soon leveled out, the closer we came to Delicate Arch. The trail also became, as the sign warned us, hazardous, as it led us up onto a ledge. The ledge had a sheer drop-off on one side, and any time that Mary even came close to it, I yanked her away from it, for fear that she would fall over the side!  It took us about an hour, but we finally reached the destination of our hike:
Delicate Arch. The arch was located about two hundred feet from the end of the
trail and was not accessible except by those who were willing to maneuver over
the slick-rock to get there. While we waited at the end of the trail, with all
of the French and German tourists, John climbed around on the rocks and
managed to come within fifty feet of the arch, to photograph it.We spent about a half an hour admiring the arch, marveling at the seemingly fragile rock formation that almost appeared as though it would fall over in the next windstorm...although we knew that it wouldn't. We then decided that it was time for us to head back to the trailhead, to see more stuff. Holding Mary's hand, the three of us started back down the trail, towards the parking lot. The return hike took us about an hour, too, as maneuvering down the slick-rock was just as difficult as hiking up it. (I certainly did not want to slip and fall going down the steep parts of the trail!) We also had to take a detour that led us through some rugged terrain in the desert, as crews were working to repair sections of the trail that were apparently damaged. Then, as we reached the bridge again, Mary wanted to throw rocks into the creek, so we took a short break to let her play. Finally, shortly before lunchtime, we found ourselves back at the Jeep again, ready to go explore other parts of Arches National Park.  There were many, many other trails for us to hike in Arches, and John and I
considered them as we drove through the park, looking for something else to
do. Although a lot of the trails listed in the park map sounded like fun, we
would find that the trailhead parking lots were so full that we would have to
move on. There was one trail in particular that had been listed as a favorite among children: Sand Dune Arch, located along the main road, not far from the campground. The trail to Sand Dune Arch was only a third of a mile in length (round trip), and part of it was in the shade. It seemed to be a fun little trail for us to try, and there was plenty of parking, too. The hike to Sand Dune Arch was, as the description had indicated, easy. A rather flat trail led us from the parking lot to an opening in the middle of a giant monolith. The trail then continued through the sand - thus the name "sand dune" - until it arrived at a small, hidden arch. The arch was not very tall - it was probably about thirty feet high, if that, and it was not by any means as majestic as Delicate Arch. It was still a lovely place to visit, as it was cool and isolated. We spent some time there enjoying the cool shadows and climbing about on the rocks, and then we decided that it was time for us to go.  Mary fell asleep as soon as we put her back into the Jeep, but we weren't
surprised - we had completely worn her out with all of the hiking we had done
that day. We decided to let her sleep through lunch, rather than wake her up
and subject ourselves to a grumpy child. We found a picnic area near Balanced Rock and stopped there to have lunch. While Mary continued to sleep in the Jeep nearby, John and I made sandwiches and ate them under the shade of a mesquite tree, enjoying the rare silence. As soon as we finished, though, we packed everything up and drove away. With Mary still sleeping in her car seat, John and I drove around Arches National Park, viewing as many of the famous rock formations as we could from the front seat of the Jeep. We saw the Windows, as well as Balanced Rock and Double Arch. Then, we made our way back to the park entrance, for it was time to leave Arches and drive to our next destination: Grand Junction, CO.  The drive to Grand Junction, CO, was only about two hours long, and part of it
was along one of the more scenic highways of our journey. From Moab, we took
Utah Highway 128, which was marked as a scenic by-way, forty-three miles to
I-70; then, we would take Interstate 70 for about 50 miles into Grand
Junction.Utah 128 was indeed a very scenic piece of highway, as it paralleled the Colorado River for almost the entire 43 miles. Along the way, we passed by verdant farmlands built at the base of gigantic canyon walls, right along the river. These farmlands were part of large, prosperous ranches, with large gateways depicting the name of the ranch. After crossing over the Colorado River, Utah 128 kept going north, while the river went northeast. About ten miles later, we finally came to I-70 - the only other stretch of Interstate highway that we would take during our entire trip. (I-17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff was the other stretch of highway.) Upon our arrival in Grand Junction, we found our way to the Best Western Motel and checked in. Then, once we were inside our room, we unloaded our suitcases and made ourselves comfortable. A bit later, we took a drive to the Safeway down the street, so that we could stock up on some supplies. After that, we got cleaned up and walked across the street to the Applebee's Restaurant for dinner. (This was the beginning of Mary's new obsession for Applebee's.) That evening, after dinner, we called it an early night. John and I sent out our e-postcards early and then got ready for bed. (That was when John noticed that he had left his bathrobe in the motel in Moab!) We were all very tired, having slept so poorly during the past few nights. Before putting Mary to bed, we gave her a bunch of medicine in hopes that she would finally sleep all night without coughing. Then, all three of us went to bed... Return to Park & Ride. | |
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