Arches National Park

Hey everyone! We have finally finished our ten day visit in the desert. This morning we left Arches National Park, and are now in Colorado on the way to the Rocky Mountains! We had a great time in all of the desert parks, but we are both looking forward to a change of scenery, and especially a drop in temperatures. Even though our last three parks were all desert climates, each one had something different to offer, and Arches was no exception. The landscape was relatively flat, with large rock formations scattered around. It was not a canyon in the same way the Grand Canyon was, and the peaks were not as mountainous as Zion. The formations were relatively easy to climb, and it was fun to hop up to the top of a rock and see a great view of the surrounding land. As the name implies, the highlight of the park was the rock arches that were formed by erosion over time. There were arches in the middle of rock structures, arches that stood on their own, and arches that stood on top of other arches. Each one was unique and quite a sight to see. We spent the two days hiking the trails to visit the arches scattered throughout the park. Since Arches is a relatively small park, we were able to see almost all of the highlighted attractions. The most famous arch in the park is Delicate Arch, a free standing structure that is best seen by taking a steep mile and a half hike to its base. After walking around a large formation, the arch appears quite suddenly, and its sheer size is breathtaking. It is much larger than either of us expected, and it is absolutely beautiful. My favorite part about the arches is how much prettier the landscape looks when seen through an arch. Each hike was interesting and above all very rewarding.

While the temperatures did soar well into the 90s, it also rained about twice a day, like clockwork. We would go on a morning hike, eat lunch, and within an hour of returning to our campsite it would rain. We would then go out for a late afternoon hike, come back and eat dinner, and it would rain again. For an area that complains about only getting a few tenths of an inch of rain per month, it seemed like plenty of rain to us. The nice part was that the rain kept the temperatures down, and the majority of stay was almost pleasant.

On our last day we planned on having mac and cheese for dinner. We had found a box at a supermarket that only required water, and so we picked up Western Family's finest shells and cheddar for a break from beans. We were super excited all day for dinner, myself in particular. Because of all the strenuous hiking we had done, I was starving by five o'clock, and so we started cooking. When the shells had finished cooking, I took Elijah's pot over to the shrubs to drain the water through the little collander in the lid. When most of the water had drained, I gave one last shake, and the lid slipped off the pot, dumping all of the shells out onto the sand. I let out a shriek, and looked over at Elijah's horrified face. Not thinking clearly, I started grabbing handfuls of boiling hot shells off the sand and putting them back in the pot, determined to save our dinner. I was so absurdly distraught that I plunged my hand straight into a prickly pear cactus, and came up with a handful of needles rather than a handful of noodles. After that, Elijah brought me out of my insanity and I left the shells where they were. Luckily, we had another box of pasta that we had been saving for pasta salad, and so all was not lost. We still got our mac and cheese, and some desert critter had a nice feast of macaroni that night.

After the mac and cheese debocle, we hiked back up to Delicate Arch to watch the sunset, and had a very nice last night in the desert. We will be in Rocky Mountain National Park for the next three nights, and then we will be done with camping for the remainder of the trip. Once we are in towns again, I will catch up with the backlog of pictures from our two weeks of camping. We will blog in a few days when we get to Colorado Springs.

Hope you all had a nice weekend,
Laura