We couldn't believe anything could be as cool as Canyonlands, but alas...there's also Arches National Park! After a nice breakfast in a cool little hippie joint called Eklecticafe we headed out.
We first took a little detour up Potash road to see the petroglyphs. Really amazing ancient art, right there on the side of the road. No hiking required!We then headed basically across the highway into the park. Arches is a lot smaller than Canyonlands and just seems a little, oh, homier. Canyonlands is so vast and amazing and challenges any little fear of heights you may be nursing, but Arches is all about the rocks. You climb a steep winding highway that curves around a big cliff and you are greeted with the sight of soaring sandstone and rolling "sand dunes"...which are actually petrified dunes so they are hard rock.
We drove all the way to the end of the road, which was only about 15 miles or so, to a place called Devil's Garden. You can hike all the way back in to a truly magnificent sight - Landscape Arch. There are other trails to other arch views that branch off, and all around you get glimpses of distant snow-capped mountains. It's a very friendly trail, about a mile all the way in.
Proving that the world is truly small, on the way back out of Devil's Garden, Dan and Lucia pulled the Disco over to the side of the road to take some pictures. Right at that very moment, a dirty Land Cruiser pulling a Bantam trailer emerged off a trail...and it was Northwest Overland members Jeff and Lorena Ellard from Wenatchee! Later that day Jeff and Lorena came by our campsite and we swapped travel stories and got a good view of their great setup and cute doggy.
The other really popular attraction in Arches is Delicate Arch, but the area was so crowded that day they weren't even letting people drive down to the parking lot. We stopped instead at Balancing Rock, then headed out and back into Moab for some lunch and supply restocking.
Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny and while it wasn't really warm, per se, it was warmer than any other day so far. This was the day our little group was parting ways - Dan and Amy heading on to Flagstaff for Overland Expo and Rich and Lucia staying one more night in Moab then heading back to Washington. We had a great breakfast at the Jailhouse Cafe then said our goodbyes and Dan and Amy got on the road.Really beautiful drive down US-191 into southern Utah. We stopped at the historical Bluff fort for a little history, and made our way into Arizona. Desolate landscape all around, it was like traveling over the surface of Mars. Past the Navajo town of Kayenta, we climbed into some lovely hills and pulled off onto a dirt track for a break and some refreshment.
We made it to Flagstaff around 6pm, checked into a motel, and were able to connect with Brian Hall of Defenders Northwest and his traveling crew of Carl, Jeff and Matthew. Amy's former colleague Zane lives in town and came out for dinner with us at the Lumberyard Brewery. Beeeer.
Oh speaking of beer...we are hauling a keg of it with us! Dan has a friend who started a small brewery in Enumclaw, WA (Cole Street Brewery) and together they came up with a new IPA we are calling Overlander IPA. It's inaugural tasting will be at a Defenders Northwest/Northwest Overland happy hour on Friday evening at Expo...if you're there come by and sample it, along with Temperance Trader bourbon whiskey created by Bull Run Distillery in Portland.
We'll be off to Expo on Thursday, and likely won't have enough internet mojo to post any updates till we move on, probably Sunday afternoon.
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