Oddly, we’ve kind of settled into a routine here in Moab. We wake up early, this morning that meant 5 AM, to avoid the worst of the after noon heat. We hike, today we completed the Devil’s Garden area of Arches that gave us so much trouble last year, but I’ll get more into that in a second. Then we come back to the room and write and finally top off the day with dinner and a quick dip in the pool. It’s almost kind of sad that this is that last day. Tomorrow morning we’ll be off to new places. The topic of when we’ll return to Moab came up this afternoon and although we don’t have plans to anytime soon, yes we already have very tentative plans for the next 2 summers, we all seemed to have a sense that we will be back sooner than later.
Since the continental breakfast at our hotel doesn’t start until 7 we knew we’d have to make alternative arrangements for breakfast and coffee. With highs forecasted in the 110’s today we knew we had to begin as early as we could. Molly’s alarm went off at 5 and the rest of us were up at 5:30. We actually made it to the bakery down the street before they opened at 6:30 and used the time to put on boots and sunscreen. When we finally reached the trailhead a bit after 7 it was already in the upper 80’s.
One of our goals was to find the places that stand out so much in our memory from last year’s flood. Specifically we were hoping to see the tree we hid under as the hail started falling and lightning crashed around us and the wash we had crossed with the help of some college students. Weirdly, as vivid as these places seem in all our memories we’re not really sure that we found any of them. The washes all kind of look alike, the trees are all pretty much the same. We must have passed them though and this time we were able to keep walking.
Our track and pictures are here.
The next part of the trail, beyond where we had made it to last year was amazing. It was actually pretty similar to the Fiery Furnace hike we did a couple days ago. There were ledges to precariously move along, jumps across crevices in the rocks, places where we had to scale steeply sloped rock, and much more. This section of the park is also so remote that it was pretty sparsely hiked. In the 2-3 hours we were there we saw only 10 or so other groups.
One of the best parts of this section was the perfectly named Private Arch. I’m pretty sure we were among the only people to visit it today. We spent a good amount of time there taking pictures, having snacks and resting without seeing another person.
When we rejoined the main trail we made the decision to visit all possible spur trails as well. We visited Dark Angel spire, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch, and even found Bat Guano Arch. Of course, the closer we got to the end of the trail the more crowded it became with people just checking out the very beginning. My favorite person was a boy who asked us if there was anything cool further in. Yes, kid, it’s pretty cool in there but you’ve got to work for it.
We were all exhausted when we finally made it back to Fred, but also full of pride in ourselves and each other for the accomplishment. I think we were all also a bit thankful that the abundance of heat and sunshine was able to hold back the river.