Everywhere we have been so far we had to leave with so much we haven’t done. With this extra time in Moab we were able to have a second day in Arches. It was still too hot to do the Delicate Arch Trail but there were several trails we wanted to explore. We were now good at getting a very early start. This morning we made eggs for breakfast and sat at our table outside enjoying the dragon rock and the cool air. At most campsites there is a picnic table at your site but here we had an actual table with 4 very comfortable chairs around it.
Our first trail today was a very short .4 mile round trip hike to Sand Dune Arch.
Right in the beginning of the trail was a large red rock hill that the girls had to climb.
We took the short walk to the entrance inside the Red Rock Walls. We were completely surrounded by the tall red rock and fully shaded. It was a perfect temperature for us to stay for awhile and explore. There were some people walking in here with their shoes and socks off because the ground below was very loosely packed sand. We opted to keep our shoes on. Right when you get in there is a very narrow pathway next to a thin red rock hill that was about the width of a ledge. Adam and I took the pathway while the girls climbed the hill.
Throughout the sand dunes were red rock boulders to climb. There were tiny nooks to explore and red rock “benches” to try. In the middle of the Sand Dunes there was an arch. Right in front of the arch was a caution sign asking visitors not to go under it and explaining that a decent piece of this arch fell in the recent past and could continue to collapse at any time. The sand was so soft below our feet Lily just had to take a break and play with it. She was having a great time making designs in the sand with her hands. On the way out Adam and I took the narrow path again and the girls took the hill path. There was a large rock right outside of the entrance and the girls took their shoes off to dump the buckets of sand inside. On the way back the girls revisited the red rock hill at the beginning of the path.
We drove over to our next trail, Skyline Arch. This was another short .4 mile roundtrip trail with a very interesting ending. Most of the time when arches change it is very gradual. This arch used to be half the size it currently is. In 1940 a huge boulder fell from it and the change doubled the opening.
When we got to the end we were able to see a huge amount of pieces of the boulder that fell out all those years ago. This arch was high up so the whole walk there we had it in our upwards gaze. It was amazing how many pieces of large rock were there but yet the sign said this was only the partial amount of what had fallen out in 1940. I liked that this arch formed on a slope where the others we have seen were more horizontal. This was another barren, rugged trail with dessert plants all around. We climbed onto the boulder fragments and sat for a bit looking across the land up at the arch.
The last trail we would do at Arches was Landscape Arch. This was the widest arch formation in the park and the one I was most disappointed to miss when I thought we ran out of time here. Hearing about it and seeing it in the film at the Visitors Center had my curiosity piqued. Back in 1991 a piece of this arch fell out and it is very thin and brittle in parts. My guess is this will collapse before we have the opportunity to come back to Utah. In hindsight, we should have started here and ended at Sand Dunes. This was a longer trail and more exposed to the sun then we would have liked and we were starting as the peak of the heat was beginning (just before noon). It was a beautiful trail with a bit of a challenge with several upward hills. When we got up to it, I was very glad we did it. It has been fenced off since the partial collapse in 1991 but you can still see it’s magnitude and magnificence from the trail. From this point the trail continues on to the Double O Arch and becomes extremely challenging. We went as close as we could to Landscape Arch, took a few pictures and stayed for a bit to admire it before hiking back.
At this point we were all feeling very accomplished and equally starving and exhausted. We went back to the campground for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. We were all a bit restauranted out and had dinner at the campground too. Our first night in the town of Moab we drove past the Backyard Theater and thought it looked cute. That following morning our neighbor told us they went to this Theater the night before and all really enjoyed the magic show. We went over to see the show after dinner and our neighbor was right! The magician was very comical and had some very cool tricks that none of us had seen before. He made sure that each of the children had a turn to help him which both of the girls loved.
After the show we decided to fulfill Gram’s hunt (sadly without her) and we stopped to get frozen yogurt. There was a pretty large deck with lots of tables and we were able to sit outside while we enjoyed our night time treat. Another jampacked day was in the books.
