Weekend in Arches National Park

This weekend I got to go camping in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah for two credits! It was great. We saw SO MANY Arches!!!!

Friday, we left Salt Lake in our separate cars at around 9:30 am, and then got in to Arches around 1:30. We went in the visitor's center for awhile, watched some movies, and then we went up to our campsite and set up our tents. I just bought a nifty little tent for this occasion (Steepandcheap.com of course!!!) and it was a really cozy two man tent! There were 17 students there, and I'd say 80% were married :P So it was kind of weird, around the campfires we'd have most of the group saying "My husband and I..." or, "When my wife and I go camping..." Oh well!

After we settled in to camp, we all went hiking and saw two Arches near the camp. One was Tapestry Arch, the other was Sand Dune Arch. I'd say it was about an hour and a half we spent out there. Every night after dinner (we had to bring all our own food) we'd sit around the fire and we'd give our presentations on a topic that related to the area. We had to write a research paper for this trip, so it wasn't just an easy 2 credit course!

Saturday, we woke up around 7 am (Ok, I woke up at 7. Everyone else woke up around 6:30) and got ready for the day. We went hiking around an area called Devil's Garden and saw SO MANY ARCHES!!! I think we saw about 7 or 8. It was amazing. We went back for lunch after hiking for 4 hours, and then we went hiking again. This time, we went to a place called the Fiery Furnace. There are lots of "Fins" in Arches, and this hike went in between these fins. This was a unique hike because you have to get a permit to go into it, and there aren't any marked trails. It's really easy to get lost. We ran into a couple of lost hikers 3 times.

It was such a great hike. We spent about two hours in there, and there were other Arches inside, and little spaces and cave-like areas.

Sunday morning (today) we packed up all of our gear and loaded it into our cars, and we drove down to the trail head for Delicate Arch. We all hiked up to this arch (the most famous one in Arches, the one on certain Utah license plates) and sat around and enjoyed it for a long time. Delicate Arch is amazing. It's humongous, and the fact that it's so solitary in comparison to surrounding arches and other sandstone formations makes it stand out. Also, the landscape behind it is fantastic. After we hiked down, we split up and went home! I went into Moab to get gas and grab some lunch. I love Moab...it's like a beach town, without the beach.

Anyway, this has been a super long post! Sorry about that. I could go on forever about Arches! But here are some pictures. I took about 150 but I'll just post a few:

PS: As far as these pictures go, just imagine yourself actually there and looking at these sites. The pictures pale in comparison to the fantastic colors and size of the Arches and the landscape. It was phenomenal.

Early morning in Arches!

My sexy tent, and then even sexier view of the Arch behind it! And the toilets...yeah

Excited to be hiking!

This is me underneath Sand Dune Arch. Sand Dune was one of the smallest (if not the smallest) Arches. Can you imagine how GIGANTIC the other ones were?!

Fins!

Landscape Arch

Inside Navajo Arch

I forgot this one's name. It begins with a P though...

Me, inside the window!

Fantastic view of the Lasal Mountains and the Fiery Furnace.

The Fiery Furnace!

A cool Arch inside the Furnace

This is me...that little hole dropped you into a cool area you could do some climbing in!

We dubbed this "Nostril Arch" :D

This is Surprise Arch, inside the Furnace. It was lovely

Some petroglyphs on the hike up to Delicate Arch. This one boy was like "Native Americans didn't draw that...goats did! It's their genealogy! They were just drawing their family reunion." It was hilarious!

Sunset!

Behold...Delicate Arch!

I walked behind Delicate Arch and then some little boy was saying, "Daddy! She's gonna fall!"

I came, I saw, I conquered! Oh yeah! Do you like how I paired my purple Hard Rock shirt from Bahrain with my neon pink and blue beanie? I obviously didn't plan out the coloring on my outfit too well!