The past few days in Utah have been amazing. We had a beautiful drive from Telluride to Moab on Wednesday morning, with great tunes on the radio to accompany the scenery. Neil Young, Warren Haynes, 3 Dog Night... and to top it off Ray Charles sang "America the Beautiful" as we wound through the Colorado canyon, a very fitting moment!
Now, one would think that if you showed up in Arches National Park in the middle of July with no reservations, that you would probably not get a campsite. This opinion would only be stronger if when you pulled up to the park you saw a large "campground full" sign. Apparently not! We were given a spot at the "group campground" and told that it could be fairly crowded. This is where we camped:
Our tent is hidden in there under the Juniper bushes. The alleged boyscout troup didn't show up, and we had a GIANT campground to ourselves. Just behind the camp was a sandy path that led to a giant arch, and we couldn't even see our closest neighbors. Thanks National Parks System!
After winding our way through the park road and taking a few short hikes, we headed through Moab up to the Slickrock trails.
I was happy to have filled out an advanced directive earlier this year, because I quickly realized that I might not survive this trail. (Just kidding mom, it wasn't that bad...) The warm-up trail kicked our butts fairly well, but we survived with no injuries (except to my ego) and enjoyed the views and the exercise!
We headed back into the park, stopped to watch the sunset on Park Avenue,
and made it back to camp by dusk. In the morning we hiked to a few more arches, then hit the road for Zion!
ZION. IS. AWESOME.
I may be slightly biased by the fact that we had a personal tour guide for our first night in town. Zack, the Zion information desk expert, took us on a few short hikes in the twilight and hooked us up with some employee meal passes, as well as a bad-ass red parking pass which gives us access all the way up to the Zion Lodge. You rock Zack!
This morning we tackled Angels Landing before the temperature climbed too much (high of 106 today!) Thanks to Katie and Paul for recommending the hike--it was amazing! I'm not sure how to even put this hike into words, so I'll just use pictures:
Sheer rock faces, amazing rock formations and 360 degrees of Zion views! Awesome! We made it safely back to the lodge where we enjoyed some AC for a few hours and grabbed a (free!) meal.
Now it's off for an evening hike before hitting the road in the morning... California here we come!!
(PS-I have to add in a liner note to say that I do feel pangs of guilt for being in such an amazing national park without my family...our trips to the national parks growing up fueled my passion and appreciation for the awesomeness that is the national parks system! thanks mom and dad!)
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