Day 6: Arches National Park (Wednesday)

We didn't get up as early as we wanted to but we ate breakfast and were on the road by 8:30am. We had breakfast buffet next door at a Chinese Restaurant; it was strange to have breakfast sausage, omelets, potstickers and fried rice all on the same plate. We grabbed more ice, gassed up and headed to the park. Mike checked with the rangers about the off-road trail we wanted to take and was disappointed to hear that part of it was really off-roading and required 4x4 jeeps lifted for extra clearance. So we headed north on the main road and hit the Delicate Arch viewpoints, which are supposed to be best in the morning. The trailhead for the Delicate Arch trail was there and absolutely packed! We had read that the trail was best in the afternoon/ evening so we were surprised to see so many people attempt it early. It was a mile roundtrip, up to a tall rock cropping to the viewpoint to see Delicate Arch from about a mile away. The viewpoints let us see Delicate Arch but we'd still like to get to the arch itself later.

We drove north some more and stopped at a few viewpoints along the way. We went to the end of the road at Devil's Garden and prepared for the long hike to Landscape Arch. It was 10:30am, and already 95 degrees outside so we packed the Camelback backpack (3 L) and a loose water bottle (3/4 L) and all the camera gear. The trail was 2 mi round trip and we took some extra excursions to see Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch (way cool link!) on the way back. We ran into the motorcyclists we met in Capitol Reef, they're camping outside of Moab. It was a hot hike but managable if you stay hydrated. We went back to the car and had a snack before heading south.

We stopped at a viewpoint to walk to Sand Dune Arch (0.5 mi roundtrip) which got its name from the thick sand you have to walk through to get to it. Its nestled inside a canyon and is fairly hidden. From there we decided to take the "short" version of a hike to the nearby Broken Arch, so named because of the huge crack in it. It was 0.6 mi in across the desert plain, as long as the wind kept up it wasn't super hot but as we got closer to the rock formations the temperature rose up. We got to Broken Arch and took some pictures but didn't continue the trail, which goes to a nearby campground. Mike climbed up through the arch to get some pictures from that side before we continued the 0.6 mi back. By the time we got back to the car we were pretty tired. We drove a little ways further to see Skyline Arch (Mike viewed it from the car) and then continued south back towards the hotel.

We got back around 1pm, ate a quick snack and showered. We're going to try to take a nap and relax since its the hottest part of the day. We want to go back and hike Delicate Arch later today, around 5pm or 6pm when its cooler. We'll see how we feel ;)