Day 44

Day 44: 6/30/15 (Canyonlands National Park to Arches National Park)

123 miles

We were successful in waking up early this morning after so many failed attempts.  Our motivation for this morning was a little bit better since we wanted to arrive at Arches early enough to find a campsite.  The day before we had searched for a grocery store close to the park that would be open early.  We stopped in to grab some sausage and eggs, sandwich fixings, and some rice and vegetables to get us through our last 2 days in the desert.  Once we got to the park, we learned that the campground was full and the sites are reservation only – I guess that’s what you get for buying an old National Park book.  We stopped into the visitor center to get some information about the campgrounds in the area.  Fortunately, there are tons and tons of campgrounds in the Moab area.  We checked out the largest one first thinking it would be our best shot at a vacant site, but it appeared to be out in the middle of nowhere (aka no shade) and was a little farther from the park than we wanted.  We took our chances and tried the campground that was closest to the park and fortunately found a bunch of open sites, though once again, no water.

  After setting up our tent and coating ourselves once again with sunscreen, we headed into the park to try and accomplish seeing at least half of the sites.  We were walking around in the late morning / early afternoon which was a little later and a little hotter than we wanted.  We could definitely feel the heat getting to us.  We stopped and walked to a few of the earlier attractions before having lunch at Devil’s Garden.  We were lucky enough to find some shade so we hung out for about an hour.  We had sandwiches, salad, and potato chip – a nice little picnic.  Shortly after finishing lunch, we decided to head back to camp because it was just too hot to keep walking around and definitely too hot for a long hike.  We filled up all our water containers so we could hydrate and be ready for the next day.

We were camping just beneath a ridge so our campsite was in the shade around 4:30pm which helped with trying to stay cool.  We were also right along the Colorado River so Rico walked down to stick his toes in the water.  We were trying to find a launch area where we would be able to walk into the water, but there didn’t seem to be anything close by.  We snacked on some chips and celery while catching up on the blog and taking with Rico’s parents.  They said our kitty was perking up when she heard our voices.  We hope that she remembers us when we get back in a month – it’s been so long!  After the mini wind storm calmed down, we pulled out all our cooking stuff to make some breakfast for dinner consisting of fried eggs on toast and sausage links. 

Once again we had to kill some time before heading to bed so Rico suggested we find ice cream in town.  For the first time we were actually pretty close to civilization and not just in the middle of a national park.  The town of Moab was pretty developed and had the feeling of a college town, even though there wasn’t a college.  We ended up checking out 4 different ice cream shops before finding one that looked good.  We went to a gelato shop first, but it didn’t look too appetizing.  Then we found a frozen yogurt place and a little corner window, but we still weren’t impressed.  Finally, we checked the shop that we parked right next to and we decided it was our best option.  They had a few unusual flavors like Lime Rickey which Rico got and was explained to taste like green and purple skittles.  I guess there was another rainbow flavor that tasted like fruity pebbles.  At the very least, the servings were HUGE so we definitely got our moneys’ worth.  On the way to checking out a few ice cream shops, we passed by a Red Dirt Shirt store and were drawn in by some of the witty phrases.  After walking around a bit, we ended up with a few souvenirs.  When we got back to camp we headed straight to bed so we could get in some morning hikes before the heat hit.

 

Fact:

 Arches National Park is the most concentrated area of naturally-formed arches with over 2,000 recorded

Lesson:

If you want the most up-to-date information about National Parks, don’t by a discounted, old-edition guide

Eat Well; Travel Often

Rico & Jillian