Going South

I decided if I wait to "catch up" on all the things that I haven't posted...
holidays, trips, visits I will NEVER post again.
So, instead here's what we did over the weekend...
(kinda like the old "What I did on my summer vacation..." theme-
but with a gazillion photos - because I can).
So....
a three day weekend mid-winter.
What to do?
We wanted to get some exercise and be outdoors,
but there isn't much snow for snow activities
and I'm not that big a fan of that anyway...
I don't really like to get real cold- or real hot for that matter.
We went south to Moab where the weather was in the mid 50's.

Chuck did some research and we decided
to check out some of the hiking and scenery at Arches National Park.

Just so happened that it was the one weekend of the year
where the park entrance was free nationwide.
Who knew?
Not me!
Lucky us!
We passed these cool domed formations early Saturday.
(They remind me of loaves of bread)
and headed for Devil's Garden Trailhead.
There are a variety of trails and a number of arches and lots of hiking.
This is Lanscape Arch, the first big arch we came across.
As you can see it is eroding on the left side.
In 1991 there was a big chunk of it that came off while people were standing there.

You can't go under it anymore... But you can stand in front of it all bundled up like a mummy if you want.
The wind was a little chilly for awhile.

There were some ascents over fairly steep rock.(Which don't look NEARLY as steep in photos as real life.-
Remember this fascinating bit of information for later on...)

The big divisions in the trails were marked pretty clearly.
And it seemed like around every corner there was another scene straight out of a classic western.
These are the aptly named Double O arches...And you CAN stand in them,
as they don't seem to be in any danger of falling any time soon.

We walked out to Dark Angel,
which is this cool looking monolith thing...
Looks like woman in a hooded cloak from behind, and then check out the rock formation over to the right side.
To me it looks like one of the terra cotta soldiers from China from the waist up
with a bouquet of flowers (the little shrub) for the hooded woman...

This was not the first,
nor will it be the last of figures, animals, etc. I saw in the rocks.
It's even more fun than finding shapes in clouds...

We decided to take the longer "Primitive Trail Loop"
back to the trail head rather than retrace our steps.
This would take us through the "mysterious Fin Canyon"
(as the brochure called it),
and over a few "strenuous" rockface areas.
These are an example of the "fins" A lot of them reminded me of the tops of big ole cruise ships from the side.

Even though the weather was in the 50's it IS still winter.
And so there were no wildflowers to be found.


However, there were still some neat plants to be seen.

And yes, photographed.

Check out the length of the needles on this little puppy.

Fortunately, the primitive loop had little rock cairns
along the trail to keep you from getting lost.
Plus they look cool.


We were able to find Private Arch.
(apparently Lewis sans Clark was there- or at least his shadow.)

See what I mean about the ship thing?
Does that not look like the prow of a Carnival cruise ship?!?


So...
they did a really good job marking the trail- except for one little part.

We wandered around for quite a bit looking for cairns,
and all we could see were some pretty sheer drops.
This little passage had footprints leading in and out of it.
It was the only way we could find that seemed like a way to get down.

Now is the time you should remember that bit
about things looking a lot less steep and less scary in photos.
I went first, so I can't blame Chuck for getting us into it (dang it!)
In order to get down we had to lean across and shuffle along the wall.
Our feet were pointed almost straight down.
He is taller than me and with the angle of the rock
and the width of the space between, I had a LOT farther to lean.
By the time I got to those two rocks we had to go around,
it got pretty hairy -
well ok,
SCARY!

I had to sit down and try to schootch around those big rocks on my bum,
trying not to slip down into the crevice -
where there were castoff water bottles and other detritus.
(No, no bones - yet).

From the top it did NOT look as steep as it was,
and in order to get the last little bit around the rock

I had to let go of the rock and try to throw myself back
and not fall into the hole. I was afraid to go either up or down.

Yes.
I DID think about that guy who got stuck and
ended up sawing his arm off with a pocket knife a couple years ago.

Let's just say,
in spite of my declining agility, stupidity and bad choices,

we both did manage to make it down,
without severely damaging ourselves
or resorting to limb lopping.

(Obviously there is something terribly wrong with me
in that I stopped in this process to photo record our stupidity for posterity).

We walked on trembling legs around the base of the "fin" and found this a bit later.
Yeah.
Thanks.

We actually walked back up the trail
and found out where we were "supposed" to have gone.
In the process we directed some other hikers who were headed in the wrong direction.
This was one instance where it was much easier to go up, than down.

We made really good time on the rest of the trail out-
Can you say adrenaline rush?
The sun had started to go behind some of the formations
which highlighted the variations in rock.

We saw two more arches.
Tunnel Arch.
And Pine Tree Arch.
We also saw this. Which I call "Frog with Attitude".

And at the trailhead we saw these nice warnings.We tried!
Honest.


On the way out we stopped at the Balanced Rock.

Where I was reminded once again that balance is REALLY important,
whether you are a rock or just rock headed.
Here are a few parting photos shot from the truck on the way out of the park. I wouldn't want to live here- it gets WAY too hot in the summer for my taste.
But, it does have some very interesting and unusual geologic sights.

(That was just day one- if you're lucky I won't torture you with day two :0)