What a day!! I’ll start by saying it’s the first time in my life I’ve crawled through a window to enter a house. I also crawled through arches. It was a wild one!
We woke up early and made the 2+ hour drive to Arches. A few months ago we snagged 9-10 am entry tickets and a Fiery Furnace permit. I’ll start by saying we LOVE the new timed entry system. If you’ve been to Arches during the summer in recent years, you probably know how crowded it is. We’ve always found ways to lose the crowds, but this new system allows the park to be enjoyed by so many more. We stopped at the near empty visitors center for our Fiery Furnace safety video viewing and permit. A kind ranger gave us a pop quiz on the dos and don’ts of FF and I can say we aced it. Then I casually dropped the tidbit that Ellie co-led a big group on the hike a few years ago and we were released with our permit in hand.
It was about 10:30 when we got to the trailhead, and the temperature was in the 90s and quickly rising. We knew it was going to be a hot one, but this was a whole level of hot that you can prepare for. Within minutes my eyelashes were dripping sweat. Sweat was dripping off of us in buckets. We found relief in shady areas and kept sipping our warm water and munching on salty snacks.
As uncomfortable as the heat was, the adventure of the hike and the beauty that surrounded us made up for it. This is my favorite hike to watch Ellie on. She uses the same phrases Ranger Mike has used and takes us the same route. It’s definitely her happy place. And seeing her so happy makes me happy.
Arches is such a special place and today confirmed it. We saw a really cool long lizard, a slithering snake, a bat(!), and so many desert birds and insects. It bewilders me how this place came to be. I get the geology of it, but it still doesn’t make sense how something so beautiful can exist. Being able to scramble on rocks, explore little crevices, squeezing between canyon walls, it just phenomenal. This was the fifth time we’ve explored Fiery Furnace and we continue to be surprised by all it has to offer.
We wrapped up around 2:00 and the car registered the temperature as 115*. Perhaps that’s why the park seemed so empty. Everyone else knew better. We got in the car, the air conditioning at full blast, and sat in the sweaty drenchedness. My eyebrows had visible chunks of salt from my sweat. They were stiff and gross. I licked my lips and thought I was ready for a tequila shot. It was a smelly, yucky drive back to Mancos.
We got home and Ellie mentioned that she couldn’t get her door open. In my eagerness to get in the shower I told her to twist the handle harder. After I washed the sweat off of me Zak said that the door was a bigger issues than we thought. Ellie’s windows were open and the wind had blown her door closed. Somehow, she had unknowingly pressed the little lock button.
Zak quickly discovered that the door handle had been placed on backwards and the lock didn’t line up with the little hole to release it. We tried taking off the handle that was not at all possible. We went to the patio through Zoe’s room and the door to Ellie’s room was locked. And that key, we realized, is in Illinois. There were bad words, a few tears, and the realization we were going to have to pay an arm and a leg to have a locksmith come out on a weekend.
Accepting defeat, I joking suggested we could climb onto the room and go through the window. Zak said that was not a bad idea if I was up for it. I suggested we check out the roof incline and he said, “I’m not going to do it, but you can.” Shoot. I thought it had been a good idea before I remembered how scared of ladders Zak is and I’d be the one doing it. We carefully extended and set the ladder up. I cautiously, yet confidently, climbed the 15 feet up. I was on the roof and her window was about 12 feet from me. 12 long feet. 12 steep and slippery feet. I got to the window and could hear Zak yelling something about never having to hire window washers. I told him that I was really scared and to knock it off. I gingerly punched the screen out, took off my boots (my rule is no shoes in the house and I wasn’t going to break it), and climbed onto her bed.
Lessons from the day:
- Change is good. Timed entry at Arches is a really good change.
- Drink a lot of water, even if it’s warm water.
- I’m so proud of the girls, they continuously amaze me by doing hard things.
- I do have the ability to break and enter.
The hike looks AMAZING! Where are the pics of the roof and window scramble?? You might have to recreate it if no one got a pic.
I’m sure you’ll see me breaking into a house at some point in the future. It seems like a likely part of our friendship.
Great pics and cool story. You haven’t lived until you’ve had to pull a B&E on your own crib.
So true. Now I feel like I need to step it up a notch and try someone else’s house. 😂