8/18 - 19 - Overcoming the height issue.

At the world famous Delicate Arch together.


Once we reached the entrance to Arches, it was about 4 am, we were both exhausted, and we had another 20 miles North through the entire park before we could reach the Devil’s Garden Campground.

If you have never been to Arches National Park you don't know what you are missing. The landscape of the entire place is, quite simply, surreal. You cannot imagine such bizarre scenery, you just have to see it for yourself. It is a land of such unusual setting and natural formations, i.e. arches, fins, spires, monoliths, balanced rocks, and many other crazy occurrences. Now, of course, when we drove through it was totally dark, minus the hint of moonlight spreading out on the structures. As we traveled the main road through the park an eerie feeling would come over us every time we passed between some rock formation, especially The Organ (google the park for shots) and The Three Gossips. They rose straight up high above us on both sides (like The Southern Oracle in "The Never-Ending Story"). It was so ominous at night.

The tiny little spec under the Arch is Adam.


The Devil's Garden has the only campground in the park and it fills up fast we were told, so we tried to make reservations but we also understood that they had to be made four days in advance and that they always kept a few walk-up sites available. Well, obviously, at that hour there was no one to assist us, so we slept in the car for a couple of hours.

Adam under Pine Arch.

Around 6:30 am, Bill, the camp host, came tapping on Adam’s window. We explained our predicament and he told us to return at 7:30 or 8 and then he could help us. By the way, Bill and his wife, Heidi, were two of the kindest and most accommodating people we’ve met so far. Anyway, we drove 3 miles South back to Moab, Utah, the nearest town, to kill some time, fill our gas tank, and replace the o-ring on the Coleman stove hose line that was broken to begin with.

We ended up in site #5, which has always been Adam’s lucky number, so we took it as a good sign. We set up camp, caught up on a little sleep, and then Adam attempted to start breakfast. Guess what? The o-ring didn’t fit. Still no hot meals three days into our trip.

Trista standing in front of Landscape Arch.

To temper the frustration of the stove, we decided to get in our first round of hiking. We packed a small lunch and plenty of water and headed off to The Devil's Garden near our campground. The memorable sights on this hike were Tunnel Arch, Pine Arch, Landscape Arch (which is one of the largest in the world and worth the hike alone), Double-O Arch, and Dark Angel (which is the farthest distance to hike in the park).

On the way to Double-O Arch, a hike that is preceded by caution signs indicating the difficult nature of the trail leading to it, we soon realized Trista's very real acrophobia (fear of heights). The hike requires the hiker to climb rocks and walk steep fin ledges, and when we got to a spot where you could see far down into the canyon on both sides of you, Trista stopped cold and went to her hands and knees. It didn't help that it was windy. Adam waited patiently and eventually, after about fifteen minutes, was able to talk her through it until she was calm enough to walk upright off the ledge and onto the flat pathway below. Trista was SO excited she overcame her fear that she was on a high for the rest of the hike.

We hiked back and had our lunch at the trailhead as it started sprinkling a bit. We hiked for about four hours. Our favorite arch in The Devil's Garden was, by far, Landscape Arch.


Trista enjoying a shower at our campsite.

When we returned to camp the sun was setting and it was looking really rainy now. Our first campfire got rained out and we had to pack everything back into the car because it was all getting wet. We tried to take shelter in our tent but that wasn't easy either. In the end, we had to move our tent four different times due to a lack of flat ground and our tent was holding a puddle of water under our air mattress, which was such a joy to clean. So much for lucky #5.

After dozing off to some wine and "The Notebook," we rose to another gorgeous day from our mostly dry tent. Check out was at 10 am. At only 3 after, we were approached by a new camp host who told us that "we knew the check out time and needed to hurry," and bellowed at the guys next to us to "pack up and get out!" Aside from Ranger "Rude-neck" (get it? 'cuz he's a rude hick of a man), the people of Utah are very welcoming and friendly.

We had a whole day ahead of us. There were still many things to see before we left but we only managed to squeeze in one more attraction. We couldn't drive away from Arches without seeing the most famous natural arch in the world: Delicate Arch. It's the one that appears on the Utah State quarter and license plate. About 35 minutes after we left the trailhead, we arrived at the wondrous Delicate Arch. But not before Adam mistakenly followed two other hikers off the path to the arch. When hiking at Arches, all the trails are marked by piles of stones so hikers know where to go, but at one point we couldn't see the pile and we veered off until we ended up at a rather treacherous location at the base of the arch. It was really high up and, again, you could see out into a canyon. Adam attempted to talk Trista through it again, but it was no use. She was gonna' lose it if we didn't scale down. What she had accomplished the day before seemed like a cakewalk compared to this. We had to turn around and go all the way around the hill and back to the trail that is meant to lead you to Delicate Arch. But we made it safely and it was astonishing to see it against the sun. It became Adam's favorite arch, while Landscape Arch remained Trista's favorite, understandably.

This is the famous Delicate Arch. It drops off far down into a canyon just on the other side of it, which is where we were trying to climb around.

The thunder storm from Arizona seemed to be following us, because we saw it moving in. So we climbed down and back to our car and headed out of Arches without seeing the Panoramic Viewpoint, The Parade of Elephants, or the entire Windows Section of the park. Too bad. We're sure it would've been something.

NOW OFF TO THE ROCKIES!!!