Road Trip Day 10 :: Arches

The morning of Day 10 was very productive but would not be very exciting to hear about.  I got a bunch of computer/application work done and used up every minute up to our 11am checkout time. Then we went to the grocery store and got to Arches a little after noon.  It was SO hot.  

It's a smaller National Park, there isn't a lot of the amenities like the other parks {shade, water, etc}, but that also meant that there were less people.  We hiked up to a few of the arches including...

{Double Arch}

{North Arch}

Then we just drove through the rest of the park because it was SO HOT.  We had plans to come back around sunset to walk to the Delicate Arch, so we went to set up our campsite and just cool down.  In the midst of the desert, our campgrounds, River Oasis, really is a cool and relaxing place to be.  It's one of the nicest campgrounds we've been to- free wifi, showers, green grass, trees, etc.  Because we're AAA members, we also got a discount, so for two nights it was less than $40! We set up the tent, read, got on the computer and took naps. It was a perfect break in the middle of the afternoon.

After PB and J dinner (no campfires allowed) we went back into Arches to hike to the Delicate Arch. We were not the only ones who thought this was a good plan because we had to park FAR from the parking lot.  It's another "strenuous" hike (3 miles round trip) and they weren't kidding! (Thank you Laura for the recommendation of this hike!)

This is the start of the path. (That is our shadows.)  Do you see the slick rock on the upper left? That's what we're heading to and up and over. 

This is the view looking down that steep rock and the sun getting lower. It kind of felt like we were racing the sun.

All the hard walk, blisters and everything was worth it when we got up to this...

We got there in time to watch the sun set on it, turning all the dark reds to really rich colors.  It was beautiful.  

Here are just SOME the people we experienced it with:

I look disgusting because we had just gotten up to the arch, but if you get a chance, take your time and lots of water! It's worth it.   {Do you see that headband I'm wearing? It's so fun! They sell them in some of the Visitor Centers and they're called Blu Bandoo. You soak it in cool water for 5 minutes and it keeps you cool for hours! Really, it just stays wet for hours, but it really does help! I LOVE it!}

We had two nights at our campsite, so we decided we would take a drive down to Mesa Verde National Park and we are almost there.  We are in Cortez, CO with car issues. We're not sure what's wrong yet, but hopefully it's a simple fix so we can be on our way.  A couple God things though - we broke down in a town AND the auto shop has free wifi! :)