We are staying at the Homewood Suites by Hilton. It is an awesome hotel. The room is a mini-suite with a kitchen. And breakfast is included. With some kind of almost dinner-like something at 6:00 p.m.
After breakfast we asked the front desk for any info on the park - she gave us a little book, which I looked at while we were packing up to go. From my earlier research I vaguely recalled a driving tour and easy walks - I thought it was an either/or kind of thing. Turned out to be an "and" kind of thing. As in - you drove around *and* pulled over for view points and walks to assorted destinations.
Arches is quite a bit different from the Grand Canyon - it's smaller (or seems that way), with fewer people (though still a goodly number). And no amenities once in the park itself - no running water, no snack bars, and no real toilets. Yummy, fancy, dressed-up port-a-potties! And at the Canyon, cars were allowed to come in an park, but the use of shuttle buses was strongly encouraged. At Arches, there is no choice - you have to drive to see anything.
Also, just our luck, during this summer the Park Service is working on major repairs to the roads in the park, so Sunday through Thursday the park is closed at 7:00 p.m. And the Windows Arches section is completely closed off.
So we bought some trail mix and power bar like things for "lunch", filled our water bottles and off we went.
Our first stop was a rock formation called "Park Ave". Not sure why it's called that, but to me it looked like a door opening to a different universe.
There was a little trail to walk down, but there didn't seem to be a reason to do that.
The next stop was Balanced Rock - one of the more famous formations. In the distance, it sorta looks like a thumb and four fingers. I'm going to get a better photo of that view on Thursday.
Finding the bathroom turned out to be a little harder than we thought - Andy figured out we had to drive down a little road to get to a picnic area with the lovely bathrooms.
Next was Wolfe Ranch - we were not going to do the difficult hike that started from the parking lot, but we did walk the half mile to the petroglyph panel.
Down the road a bit was the Delicate Arch viewpoint area. The hike to Delicate Arch itself is a strenuous 1 mile up - which was not going to happen. The viewpoints would have to do.
At first it seemed that the "Upper Viewpoint" might be doable - .8 mile with an elevation change of 200 ft. I can do this!
The walk started off ok - it was relatively easy for about 80% of the way.Then suddenly, the race to the top consisted of steep steps and rocks. Nope, nope, nope. I found some shade to hide while waiting for Andy to go up and come back down. Turns out after all that effort, the view wasn't all that great.
We came back down and went to the Lower Viewpoint - about 30 feet away from where we started. It's kinda small - looks like a donut in the distance.
I was now done walking for the day, especially in the heat.
Our last stops were the Fiery Furnace and Salt and Salt Valley Overlook. This photo of Fiery Furnace kinda looks like Mount Rushmore
When we got back to the Visitor's center, besides the opportunity to use a normal bathroom, I filled up one of our water bottles at the fill up faucets - labeled "filtered drinking water". I filled up the bottle, stepped away from the faucet to chug some down, and up stepped a woman who proceeded to wash her legs in the filtered drinking water. And splashing me as well. Well, alrighty then.
There was a Ranger program at 7:00 p.m. We decided to leave the park - go to the supermarket, rest in the room for a bit, have an early dinner an come back.
The supermarket turned out to be an actual real supermarket- we were able to buy oranges, bananas, and Diet Coke. Woohoo!
For dinner, we went to the restaurant right next door called "Twisted Sistas." I had an awesome steak that was so huge, it will become lunch for the next couple of days.
The Ranger program was very interesting - he talked about the park through the months of the year, with the animals and plants that make up the park.
We finished up the evening with dessert back in town.
Day #6 Our side trip to Canyonlands. Once again, no clue what we're doing, but we'll figure it out.
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