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  • Day 34

    Trek America - Moab

    May 23, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We planned an early departure (5:30am) back into the Arches National Park to hike into ‘The Devil’s Garden’, which took us past and through some of the park’s arches. Emily informed us that the three requirements for an arch are; for it to be 3 metres or more in diameter; be naturally made; you have to be able to view the sky through it.

    Like a blanket being slowly draped over a surface, light moved across the domed sandstone towers as the sun rose up into the sky. It flashed through the arches that we gazed out of, like windows into the world. Small rabbits darted across the pathway whilst crows sang somewhere high in the rock. The first part of the trail was well trodden and maintained but as we moved further through our 6-7 mile hike, the path moved to being ‘semi-primitive’ and then ‘primitive’ as illustrated by our map. This meant that we were increasingly required to clamber and scramble over, round, down and through sandstone walkways along the trail. When we arrived at arches, we would rest under them, taking on food and water to continue on.

    The sandstone contains furrows and hollows like magnified fingerprints, which were created by water during the early creation of the earth. Whilst the sun rose higher in the sky we remained in shadow at times due to the towering rocks around us. At the highest elevation of the trail the views stretched for miles with distant mountain ranges visible across the bright blue sky. Again rain clouds threatened as we finished the trail whilst many others were only just starting.

    We moved through the park to view ‘The Windows’ arches, three connecting arches that when viewed from below form windows to the sky. Several of us climbed over the rock to look out through the end window, which has views across the park. We were especially grateful for starting so early as when we exited the park we saw the long line of vehicles attempting to get in.

    By the time we returned to camp it was only 11:30am but we had the remainder of the day to ourselves. Kim took a nap before we went out to Moab Brewery for craft beer and chips. We went and did some shopping in Moab and drank more beer before heading out to Horseshoe Point State Park for a picnic dinner. The views were fantastic with canyon after canyon of red sandstone rolling out into the distance. After being up close to the rock during our hike this morning, this view gave us perspective of how enormous the park and its canyons are. We can only imagine what scale that the grand canyon will be given the size of what we have seen.

    We ate our picnic and sat out with others on the cliff edges (including a motorbike gang where one member proposed to his girlfriend on edge of the canyon) hoping to catch a sunset, which was once again thwarted by rain clouds. It didn't stop us having a brilliant time and we returned to camp full from our sensory feast.
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