2017 Grand Circle Day #7 - Arches, redux

Ok, I realize I'm a bit of a Star Trek nerd. Can't help seeing Star Trek references in the rock formations at Arches.

When I saw formations like this:

I thought of this:

And Delicate Arch (or any arch, for that matter)

reminded me of this:

Ok, fellow Star Trek nerds - what are the names of the episodes where I got these from?

Anyway, back to the story.

We had a couple of goals to finish up our visit to Arches: a Ranger walk at 9:30 and the Devil's Garden hike up to Landscape Arch

Today was decidedly warmer than previous days - already feeling it at 9:30 while we waited for the Ranger at the Courthouse Towers trailhead. Fortunately our group was small and we didn't walk very far - though a smidge difficult over rocks, nothing as terrible as the day before. The Ranger talked about the formation of the arches and the kinds of life that survive in the desert environment. At the end of his talk, he handed out information on how to find dinosaur tracks (preferably with an off-road capable vehicle).

The big challenge for the day - the hike up to the Landscape Arch. It was described as "easy" (which now always makes me skeptical when I hear that). But it was, in fact, relatively easy. It was pretty flat for about 75% of the way and the path was hard packed dirt. There was only one rock that required a little scrambling. Took some breaks where shade or a sitting place popped up - it was, after all, mostly uphill.

As we approached the end, the path became a mini-roller coaster - up and down, up and down, a couple of times with a steep incline. Even still, it was not a bad walk.

At last we came to a sand pit with this view of the Landscape Arch:

Which was close enough for me. Andy went further through the sand pit in search of the "double O" arch, but couldn't find it.

The entire trip took a bit over an hour - it was so hot at this point and I was so tired, I didn't think there would much more walking for me today.

We drove to a picnic area to have our lunch - shared a table with a teenager whom we assumed belonged to the big family from Italy at the next table.

The car's temperature gauge read 89 degrees as we made our way to our last walk in Arches to the Skyline Arch. It felt every bit of the 89 degrees - low humidity or no.

This is the Skyline Arch:

Which was close enough for me. Andy went further through the sand pit in search of the "double O" arch, but couldn't find it.

As we made our way out of the park, I caught this photo of the Balanced Rock looking like a thumb on a giant hand.

We were back at the hotel by 3:00, which is pretty early, but a good excuse for a nap. I also did the unthinkable - I did a laundry! Horrors! I never, ever do laundry while on vacation! It's my motto - if I have to cook or clean or do laundry, it's not a vacation. BUT, OTOH, we have this timing issue when we get back on August 19 - we have to get up the next morning and leave for South Carolina ASAP, with not a lot of clothing changes left.

BUT - in this hotel there's a laundry room for guests AND I could buy a single load box of Tide from the front desk AND also a bunch of quarters AND the laundry room is literally just down the hall from our room AND we had the time AND it would solve the problem for next weekend.

So there you are. Ugh. Laundry done.

We went to dinner at the Baja Cafe down the street. We have left overs for lunch on the road tomorrow.

Day #8 Dead Horse Point - a very small park not much out of the way as we leave Moab and Arches and head towards Bryce Canyon. Cooler temperatures - at 9,000 feet. Slo-mo walking, here we come again.