Parks 4 - Arches National Park

I was originally only going to do four posts about the vacation and the parks and finish them up with this post about Arches and Canyonlands, but once again I have more pictures than I can comfortably fit into one post.  So I decided to do Arches in this post and then a combined Arches/Canyonlands post next time.  That lets me use more pictures.  And really Arches has so many unique rock formations that it needs a couple of posts to display all the cool pictures.  All the National Parks in Utah do, now that I think about it.

This picture is of one of my favorite formations in the park.  It's called Dark Angel, and I don't know what it is about it that attracts me, but I just love this hunk of rock.  It juts up out of its relatively level surroundings and seems to be Lord of all it surveys.  I will be seriously sad the day it comes tumbling down, but then maybe I  won't  still be around when that happens.  And lest you think this is a minor piece of rock, this next picture is me standing at it's base.  Yes, squint a little and you can see me there at the base to the left.  This is a frigging huge chunk of rock.

Anyway, we arrived in Moab on Saturday and unlike our usual luck, we couldn't check into a hotel early.  Usually we get lucky enough to be able to check in early, but maybe because it was so crowded everywhere this year, we couldn't check in until almost 3:00 pm.  So we went into Moab dirty (before taking showers) and began the marathon shopping.  I LOVE shopping in Moab.  Some of my favorite tourist shops and jewelry places are in Moab.  We shopped for multiple hours then ate at the Moab Brewery.  Also one of my favorite places, because I like microbrewery beer, especially the Scorpion Pale Ale that they brew here.  Then we finally went back to the hotel and took long, blasting showers and became slugs for the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning we got up about 5:15 am and drove to Devil's Garden to hike out to the Dark Angel.  We began the hike before sunup and actually stopped on the trail to watch the sun come up.  The sky was really gorgeous, what with more clouds than usual and more haze than usual.   Like Angel's Landing, the hike out to Dark Angel and back is another favorite of mine.  It runs across and between the rock "fins" and it's not incredibly strenuous, although much of it is considered "primitive" hiking.  I guess because in areas the trail is less well laid out than your usual National Park trail.  It's fun though.  On the way out to the Dark Angel you come to the Double O Arch, which is two arches, one above the other one.  That's me standing in the lower arch. 

We start this hike as early as we do because by the time you're coming out, it's HOT and there's very little shade on the last part of the hike coming out.  By the time we get back to the car, we're incredibly ready for the iced down blue Gatorade and the air-conditioned car.  Then you have a 12 mile drive back to Maob.  We also stopped at the Visitor's Center near the entrance.  The Arches Visitor's Center is way cool.  I always stop at all the Visitor's centers because it's interesting to see how they change each year and what new things they have.

Then we went back to Moab and did more shopping and eating and then became slugs in the hotel  -  my friend studying and me writing in my journal and clearing 400 emails out of my work email inbox.  This sign is at the foot of the Dark Angel, so I thought I'd use it to end today's post.  Next time:  end of vacation.