“Then how come all the other Unicorns are dead?” – The Unicorns
Day 31, and we finally made it to Arches! While Ellie was unquestionably the most excited I think we were all looking forward to today. We got to the visitor’s center just after it opened and picked up our ticket for the Firey Furnace. Since we had a bit to time to spare before our tour started we hiked to Skyline Arch to snap our first arch pictures of the day. After the brief stroll it was close enough to hike time to head to the Firey Furnace.
We pulled into the parking lot and started to get prepared when Ranger Mike pulled into the lot. He and Ellie shared a hug and we had a few minutes to say hello and catch up. As we were waiting for everyone else to arrive we also met a family from Belgium who were in the middle of their dream trip around the parks of the western US. Before long Ranger Mike called the group to order and began going over safety and background information. He also asked Ellie if she would assist on the hike and she agreed.
One of the things that most amazed me about the hike today was that Ellie seemed to have remembered nearly every detail of the different lessons and demonstrations that Ranger Mike conducted. While I apparently had forgotten the details, she was able to assist him like they had rehearsed yesterday.
At one point they challenged us to come up with slogans to help people remember not to “bust the crust”. While I wasn’t quick-witted enough to come up with any of these on the spot I wanted to share the six I have since come up with. NPS, feel free to use these royalty free.
1.
2. The crust must thrive so the plants stay alive.
3. Keep your feet in the wash so the crust don’t get lost.
4. When hiking at night watch the crust with a light.
5. If you bust the crust, paying the fine is a must.
6. Stick to the trail or you will go to jail.
Tomorrow we’re going to be hiking this “trail” on our own for the first time so I did my best to pay attention the turns we made. I also tried to spot as many of the small arrows that mark the loosely defined route as possible. At the end of our tour we paused for some pictures and made plans to meet up again tomorrow night.
We had our PBJ&C’s in the car and decided to do a couple little hikes to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint and Balanced Rock. Our last stop of the day was the visitor’s center where we did the orientation and picked up our permit for tomorrow’s hike.
After stopping off at the hotel for showers and fresh clothes we headed to the laundromat and The Spoke for a bowl of their lendgendarily sized hummus. While the size was impressive the flavor and dippables were not. Inexplicably, our third plate of pitas (the veggies were kind of inedible so we didn’t have much of them) came with a second bowl of hummus. We had been determined to make it though our hummus allotment and this unexpected arrival was completely deflating. Also the flies were super annoying so we left before having even finished writing these posts.
