Arches

Day 4: Bryce Canyon National Park to Arches National Park
Day 5: Arches National Park
Day 6: Arches National Park to Santa Fe, NM

View more photos from this part of the trip!

Wow, we've done so much and seen so many amazing things since our last post, it's overwhelming to think about summarizing it! After posting from outside of Bryce on Sunday, we started down Route 12, a national Scenic Byway, en route to Arches. 12 goes through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Dixie National Forest, which were absolutely amazing. We had no idea what we were in for. Here's a scene from Grand Staircase, although photos just can't do the area justice.




From Route 12 we took Route 24 east through Capitol Reef National Monument, another hidden gem that we weren't expecting. In Capitol Reef we hiked to Hickman Bridge, a huge natural bridge, and checked out some ancient petroglyphs. Erica also found some fun places to climb.



From Capitol Reef we moved as fast as we could through relatively empty desert and got into Arches National Park just before sunset. The Devil's Garden campground sits at the far end of the park, 18 miles from the entrance, and high atop the landscape. From our campsite we looked east over desert and plateau at the snowcapped La Salle Mountains. When we arrived, a lightning storm over the mountains was illuminating the horizon.

On day 5, which happened to be my birthday, we hiked the Devil's Garden trail, visiting many of the most famous natural arches in the park before returning along the appropriately-named Primitive Trail. The area was amazing, with huge fins of rusty-red sandstone towering hundreds of feet in the air over us in all directions. Here's a view through Partition Arch with Erica in the lower-right corner.




After a birthday ice cream cone in Moab, UT, we hiked up to Delicate Arch, the most famous of the park's arches, for sunset. The time of year and clouds made the color less than it apparently can be, but the area was surreal and the overall experience fantastic. We had cheese and crackers, snapped some photos, and hiked back out in the dark. For scale, notice the person on the left.




On day 6, we got up early, packed up our campsite, and headed out for my birthday present: a guided canyoneering trip in Arches' famous Fiery Furnace. We spent the morning with one other visitor and our guide scrambling, chimneying and rappelling through the maze of sandstone boulders and fins that is Krill Canyon. The trip culminated with a rappel through the appropriately-named Rap Through Arch. Here I am on our first rappel, about 60' down into the base of Krill Canyon.




After repacking the car we headed out for the 7 1/2 hour drive to Santa Fe, which took us out of Utah, through southern Colorado and into the New Mexico desert, where we visited an Apache casino and won $8.40 on a single slot machine play! We finally made it to Santa Fe around 10:30pm where we showered off 4 days of outdoor activity and slept comfortably in a real bed.

Now it's off to see Santa Fe and Taos. Talk to you tomorrow!