Day Two

Colorado River Recreational Valley

We woke up early on our second day, but luckily it wasn’t as early as the first.  We started our day at 6am, stopped to pick up breakfast and lunch to put in the cooler, and headed out.  Our journey began driving through the Colorado River Recreational Valley.  The size of the walls beside us was just incredible.  We stopped next to the river to take a few pictures.  While there, we skipped rocks and tested the echo.  Both worked very well.  We continued through the valley and stopped again to take pictures of Castle Valley.  We climbed up in the rocks by the road for a few fun pictures there as well.  Once we were done playing we jumped back in the car and continued our journey to Arches National Park.  The drive between all our sites is long, usually a couple hours, but there is always something to look at.

We’ve seen several mountain chains and random mesas.  The drives don’t seem nearly as long as they should and I’ve already taken a few gbs of pictures and video.  I’m glad I am putting these pictures on my laptop so I have plenty of room left on my memory card every day.  Once we arrived at Arches, I finally felt like I was on a typical vacation.  There was a line to get in the park and people all around.  It was much different than the other places we visited where we were pretty much alone. 

There may only be a family or two besides us and the roads were empty.  Arches National Park was beautiful.  We saw several gigantic monuments: Three Gossips, Sheep Rock, Balanced Rock, Double Arches, Delicate Arch, etc.  There were several balanced rocks in the park, but only one was labeled as a main attraction.  We stopped at Balanced Rock, Double Arches, and Delicate Arch.  The hikes to Balanced Rock and Double Arches were not difficult at all.  If was hot outside, but it was definitely bearable.  After taking pictures at both, we ate our Subway in the air conditioned car.  Lee told us it would be a bit of a hike (over 3 miles total) to Delicate Arch, so we saved that for last.  I wasn’t worried at all about a three mile hike until I found out it was 85% up a very steep hill.  About three quarters up the path, some family was in the middle of the path with their son’s pants down and they were arguing and just standing there blocking the way. 

We went around them and apparently got off track.  The paths aren’t marked like most trails you may hike.  For this trail, you just follow piles of rocks.  Well, apparently people like to make piles of rocks for fun.  So we got off track and kept heading to the arch.  It seemed like it was taking forever to get to the arch and there weren’t many footprints.  We had seen several people coming up and going down before, so we picked up the hint that we were not on the right path.  It was also very apparent when I saw piles of rocks leading in three different directions. 

Castle Valley

We came up over a hill and saw that we were on the completely opposite side from the arch.  It was still far away and we had to back track and do a little climbing down in order to find the right path.  That was not awesome, but it was worth it once we got up to the arch.  It was really awesome to see the arch that is seemingly standing there out of nowhere.  I walked around the steep hill to take my picture under the arch.  I decided before I went over there that I wanted to do a jumping picture under the arch just because it would look awesome.

Once I got over there, I realized that it was a drop off behind the arch.  That made jumping in the air under the arch a little scary.  Well, it made it a lot scary.  It was bad enough scooting around to get to the arch, but jumping by a cliff was almost too much.  I had already hiked the whole way up there and gone over to the arch, so I had to get the picture.  When it was my turn to take a picture (there was a line), I took the jumping picture. 

A girl that took her picture before mine loved the shot and ran over to do a jumping shot as well.  I started a trend!  I hope nobody fell trying the jumping picture.  I scooted back over to the other side and Lee headed over for me to take his picture.  When I was finishing taking Lee’s picture, an older gentleman walked up.  Lee patted the arch while he was walking by and the man said “Don’t knock it over!”, in jest of course.  Lee’s parents and I started talking to him.  Come to find out, he was 70 and had spent the last 10 years backpacking the world with his wife.

He started life as a family and marriage counselor. He said he practiced what he preached and that’s why he’s traveling with his wife now.  After many years of counseling he started a self-sufficient farm and worked the farm for 10 years.  During that time in the 90s he made 1.5 million in the stock market.  He decided to retire and travel with his wife.

Arches National Park (the Three Gossips are on the right)

He’s now backpacked all over Europe, climbed the volcanos and mountains, backpacked in Asia, and backpacked in Central America.  He’s been everywhere except South America, that’s his next place to travel.  He said he never spent his money he just let it grow.  He spent three years in the back of a minivan at one point.  He told us several countries where you can travel for a dollar a day.  Now that he’s 70, he’s going to hotels, but he never spent his money until now. 

Sheep Rock

I thought he was a very interesting person to talk to.  We hiked back down to the car and it took much less time going downhill the entire way.  We rested in the car for a few minutes and then headed to Needles Overlook.  I was so worn out that I was ready to crash as we drove to the overlook.  When we got to the turn off for the road out to the overlook, we had 22 miles until we reached our last sight for the day. 

Double Arches

Lee decided to make up some time on that road and flew.  There was no one else around and it was mostly straight, so it was a fun ride.  We got to the overlook and it was just wonderful.  The view was so vast it was awe-inspiring.  Lee and I climbed a very large rock to get an even higher view. From the top it felt as if you were really the king of the world.  The wind was blowing so hard that if it stopped for a moment you almost fell forward because you had been bracing yourself so hard before. 

Delicate Arch

I didn’t stay on that rick long at all, and I mostly stayed towards the back of it.  Lee set up the tripod and took pictures.  Once we were through taking pictures there, we set off for Cortez.  We passed through a few cities with interesting names and got a good laugh from them. When we arrived a while later at Cortez we set out to find a place to eat dinner.  In the spirit of the town’s name, we ate at a Mexican restaurant.  Before we walked in, Lee’s mom noticed my nose looked sunburned.  I figured it would be fine and went on in the restaurant. 

On the very far right you can see the parking lot we hiked from

The food was moderate, but it was good enough after a long day.  We headed to the hotel after the restaurant and I was completely ready to crash.  I looked in the mirror and oh my goodness, my face was so sunburned!  I look like a raccoon form my sunglasses, but the rest of my face is very red!  Who would have thought that one day I would be in the snow on top of one mountain and getting a sunburn climbing to the arches the next day?  This was absolutely a difficult trip to pack for.

Balanced Rock

Needles Overlook



Needles Overlook