Was able to see downtown Moab in just a few minutes this morning. We did manage to find the trendy dog store as we were walking Bella down the sidewalks and I bought a "Life Is Good" camping dog hat so now I feel like I belong.
Today is our day for Arches National Park in Utah. It is one of the signature parks in this area and is a mecca of sorts for photographers. Seems good to me as arches don't move and don't close their eyes or have a funny smile either. Simple right?
The park has places that you can drive around and then stop at a pullout to see the cool sight. There were lots of cool red rocks and huge beautiful vistas, but we were tourists and so it's one sight, take a photo, and onto the next. Then we actually hiked to an arch. Real exercise. Landscape arch is a long skinny arch that continues to crumble. In the late 90's, tourists were there when there was a loud crack and a huge piece fell down on them. No one was hurt except now we can't walk under the arch at all! It was supposed to be a 1.0 mile hike roundtrip, but somehow when we made the return trip, the sign said the trailhead was 0.9 miles back - someone lied! There were also a couple more arches on the way back to view - each one has a cute name so they're hard to pass by. We had beautiful weather for a change and so we thanked the weather gods for our good fortune.
The piece de resistance, the signature, the picture on the Utah license plates - it's all "Delicate Arch". This is the "big one" for the park. This one is supposed to be a 3 mile hike round trip and is best seen at sunset. The hike is marked "strenuous" but hey, they cater these descriptions to ..... older people right? Holy crap I thought I was going to die of a collapsed lung on the way there! I had 100lbs (at least) of camera gear on my back which I'm sure was why I was totally winded on the hill up there ... Greg kept offering to take some of the load, but I was "fine".When we reached the arch, there was already a throng of photographers there, all setup with their cameras on tripods, just waiting for "the moment". They all had parka's and hats and gloves on so they had clearly done this before. After a good sweat, it was freezing, freezing, freezing.
Couldn't go all that way and not pose under the arch right? (Talk about pissing off a throng of photographers, but at least I was only 1 of about 75 people who did it). The arch is on the edge of a cliff and when you look up at the rock above you, you can get a little dizzy ...... I grabbed a few snap shots and left to rejoin the throng quickly and pretend that it wasn't me. We all stood around and talked photography stuff and complained about all the other people standing in the arch and ruining our shots. And complained about the cold. We bonded.
And just like that it was over and we all packed up and went back down. Shortly after the sun went down, our fingers froze and stopped working and we couldn't take any more photos anyway. The way down was much easier than the way up.
It must have just been the elevation.
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