The first morning there had us visiting Delicate Arch. How can you honestly call yourself a Utahan and not visit Delicate Arch in person? Ok, so I did for 24.5 years, but now I feel better about saying such about myself.
That afternoon we visited Landscape Arch on the Devil's Garden loop trail. It is interesting to point out that not too long ago (meaning in my lifetime) a huge piece came falling down and was actually captured in a photo. The lighting wasn't great for our visit to Landscape Arch, but we did manage a visit.
We hiked up the Devil's Garden trail a little further to visit two more arches. The one pictured above is Navajo Arch. The picture doesn't do it justice though. It was probably my favorite arch. If we could have camped anywhere in the park, I would have probably chose under this arch.
This is Partition Arch. It is visible from the viewpoints for Landscape Arch, but we climbed to the actual arch itself as well. It gave a spectacular view of the La Sal mountains in the background.
We were trying to beat the sun back down off the trail and back into camp, but we still managed to have some fun on our way back down. The views from some of these rocks are just amazing!
Before even leaving on this trip, we titled it the "Moab Manage a Trois" which means threesome. We decided to only take on the literal/dictionary definition of the word though to mean a group of three people. Plus, what else would you really expect from an immature group of high school buddies? The trip was at best immature with hints of adulthood thrown in, but it was a blast!
Wednesday afternoon, we stopped by the visitor's center and got a hiking permit for an area in the park called The Fiery Furnace. It is only about a square mile area of the park but it is straight up slot canyons. The walls in most places are anywhere from 50 to 100 feet tall. It is literally a stone maze. There are a few rules that apply to the entire park, but especially to this area. They are simple: walk in the sandy washes and on bare rocky surfaces only. There is a cryptobiotic crust that grows on the sands down south that holds moisture, nutrients, and prevents erosion. Walking on them is a federal crime pretty much. Anyway, on to the pictures:
There were a few awesome places in the area that are accesable only through tiny slits like this one. We had to take off our bags, and go through sideways in this one. There was one part where I could only make it through after exhaling. It was really cool to come through somewhere like this and have it open up into one of the most memorable parts of this hike for us.
This is where that led to. Right below me is an arch. Zac (pictured below) is climbing over this stone to get to another slot in the canyon. To get into this little area, we had to go up and over two walls. One was about 7 or 8 feet tall and posed the most problems for us. Braden helped both Zac and myself up first and then we had to help pull him up as well. In then end, we went up another wall that was maybe 4 or 5 feet tall but then ran into the problem of running out of room to continue. We turned back and carried on exploring other slot canyons. This however is the video of us trying to help Braden up the first wall.
We packed in a lunch consisting of crackers, cheese sticks, summer sausage sticks, kipper snacks, and sardines. This is the view from where we ate lunch. We are actually already about 40 feet off the ground or so. This goes on up another good ways and opens up. At the top there is a heart shaped arch.
We finally made our way out of the Fiery Furnace after exploring for 4 hours. This is the view from outside looking at it from the viewpoint.
Next up that afternoon was Canyonlands National Park. Luckily for us, this was more of a "go and look" sort of trip and not a "go and hike" sort of trip. We just mostly appreciated the views from the viewpoints along the roads. Canyonlands, if you have never been, is a breathtaking series of canyons with walls about 1000 feet tall.
It's kind of hard to see and get a feel for the scale, but the first drop off down to the plateau down where the white rim is is about 1000 feet and then the next drop off is another 1000 feet. It is just a breathtaking area with so much to leave you with. We were in awe for a good majority of this trip. It was amazing!
I'm grateful that I was able to do something for spring break this year and thank Justine for letting me take off on such short notice. Seeing these views really helps you to understand how great God is and how wonderful his creations are. And just think, this is all in the same state as the best snow on earth! We have so much diversity in Utah and probably under appreciate how cool our state really is!
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