Arches National Park - Monday 18th

Up early for a busy day. J decided to "stock up" on breakfast that included 2 coffees, cereals, 2 bacon sandwiches, a bacon muffin, a dish of peaches, a scone and a banana, that I can remember!

Out by about 10,00am, Arches was only a short drive of about 5 miles. We booked in at the Visitiors Centre as we were on our "trek" into the Fiery Furnace at 2.00pm! It was a far from fiery day though as it was much colder and there was a biting wind! We had to make choices as there are 2800 arches in Arches! Most of the major arches required a hike of at least a half mile to get to see them. We drove past a balanced rock which was self explanatory!

All of the arches are given names. Double Arch looked great! Absolutely huge. People were clambering underneath and you could harldy see them!

After a couple of treks, it was time for our Fiery Furnace hike! This was one time when we were thankful it was cooler as the guide said that it could get as warm as 100F-115F on the walk. After the hike had finished she said that she'd worked in the Grand Canyon, Brice and Zion Parks, and this was the hardest tour hike she had encountered. It was much more physical than the video on the web! We certainly knew we'd been on a hike after the three hours!

It was 5.00pm by the time the tour ended. It had got warmer as the wind had dropped, but rain was forecast for 7.00pm so we decided one last hike to see the largest arch, Landscape Arch. This Arch is enormous! In 1991 a 100 ton chunk of it fell onto the public trail underneath it (you can see it on the right of the arch) so now you can only photograph it from afar. Hard to get perspective, but they are BIG trees underneath the arch. This was a hike of about 1.5 miles. By the time we got back to the car, it was starting to rain, and we were absolutely arched out and shattered!

We got back to Moab by about 7.00pm. Again too shattered to change! Out we went, my choice! Sports bar about 100yds from hotel. A big queue if you wanted the restaurant, but a walk in if you could find a table and ate in the bar, same menu. No brainer! It was bouncing, multi TV, with Hockey, NBA and Baseball everywhere!  A pitcher of Bud, cheesy garlic bread to share and mains, chicken for J, for me...... RIBS. Well deserved after a strenuous day!!