First and foremost, happy Father’s Day to Zak and my dad! You are both the cream of the crop and the girls and I couldn’t be luckier.
I can’t believe we are only on day 12 and have already experienced so much. Today was another one added to the list of Days I Never Ever Want to Forget. We woke up early and one of the perks of the Inca Inn (in addition to the light up shower head that gives a colorful show each shower) is the homemade bread each morning. We fueled up with that and fresh coffee and headed into Arches for the first time in a year. Months ago Zak bought tickets for the Fiery Furnace hike, a ranger led hike through the Fiery Furnace of Arches.
We gathered at the trailhead with the 21 other participants and were introduced to Ranger Mike. Little did we know at point how much Ranger Mike would shape our hike, our days in Moab, but likely in Ellie’s case, her life. But I’ll get to that later. We were informed that the hike would take about three hours, but was only 2 miles long with just 250 feet of elevation gain. The reason the the challenge is the scrambling required. There are narrow passages, deep drop-offs, great leaps, and giant steps. But the hike provides some of the few shaded places in the park and, more importantly, views that are undeniably gorgeous. And it was really, really fun to get our whole bodies into the hike. This wasn’t just a walking one.
Like last year, we have only met kind rangers. Each one has had recommendations for our family that meet our expectations. But rarely we get a chance to meet a ranger like Ranger Mike. He was willing to share his vast knowledge on the Arches ecosystem and environment. He shared his personal story which brought Zak and me to tears. (Not the weeping kind, just the blink really fast and look away kind.) He answered our plethora of questions patiently. But most importantly, he told Ellie was it takes and what it means to be a park ranger, which is her dream job. At the end of the hike he took off his ranger hat and let Ellie try it on. He shared a piece of his heart, career, and passion with our daughter who wants to follow in his footsteps. It was inspiring.
It was before noon when the hike wrapped up, so we still had a lot of time to the day. However, given the extreme heat of 104 degrees we kept it pretty low key. We drove to some of the more touristy parts of the parks and checked them off the list. Strangely, we didn’t think the park was all that crowded, a deterrent of ours in the past. We found ample parking and the short trails we did were pretty empty. The whole park is really a wonder and I’m glad we got to enjoy it in as much solitude as we did.
Thanks so much! It was such a pleasure to explore the park with you today. The only good thing about being so far away from my own family is that I get to be a part of so many others. Happy Trails and enjoy the rest of your epic adventure!