Walking in the Desert

I've been in Utah a lot longer than most college students.  One of the first things that most outdoorsy people do is head down to Moab for some hiking, camping, river rafting, mountain biking, etc.  So why haven't I been there after living here for almost 5 full years?  I don't know.  I guess I just loved the mountains that are accessible to me only 5 minutes from my apartment.

Me, almost to the top of Mt. Timpanogos

But Libby decided that it was time to take her husband on a trip down to the red rocks.  How could I say no to a face like this?!

She is such a sweetheart!  I've got one too...don't worry.

It was so funny!   We started out our trip by going to a restaurant where they gave us some tokens to buy shirts with.  I think it is inevitable that any token will somehow find its way into someone's eye.  These were just so dang funny.

I think this was my scary face

After stuffing ourselves silly, we went into Arches National Park to finally start our hiking adventures.  Libby wanted to go out to the Devils Garden, because she missed that one last time she was there.  Landscape Arch is just a quick hike...not even a mile.  That was our first stop.  It is a huge arch, as long as football field, and super narrow.

Apparently, in 1992 (I think), there were some campers that were hanging out underneath the arch.  They heard some cracking, looked up and got outta there.  The right side of the arch was breaking away and almost fell on them.  All the crumbled rock from that collapse is still sitting under the arch.

After Landscape Arch, we continued our hike out to Double O Arch.  Not much to talk about.  Just some pictures.

These little guys were all over the place

I love it!

After a 2 mile hike in super hot desert temperatures we finally arrived at Double O Arch.  I really liked this one because you could get up in it and take victory pose pictures.

This was just cool.  There was some crazy German guy that wanted to climb up to the top one, but he realized halfway up that it was a bad idea, and almost killed himself on the way down.  Crazy Europeans!!

We saw a trail marker that said we could go further out to Dark Angel.  It wasn't worth it.  We could see it just fine from the Double O Arch, but we didn't know.  So here is a picture of a big rock sticking way out of the ground.

I guess the silhouette makes for a nice picture. 

We got back to the car and it was already dark.  We set up the tent and looked up at the stars.  They were beautiful.  And there were so many!  There was even a spot where you could see the cloudiness of the Milky Way.  Libby had never seen anything like that.  Too bad normal person cameras can't take good pictures of that kind of stuff.

After about 3 hours of sleep, we woke up and drove to the Delicate Arch trail head.  A suggestion from a friend made us want to get up to the arch for sunrise.  This was well worth it, as this trail has no shade the whole way out.  We got a little confused trying to find the trail in the darkness, but there were some gung-ho photographers who knew where to go.  So we followed their lights for a bit before it was light enough to see without a headlamp.  

We got some good shots.  Libby showed some very promising photography skills, and I just sat there.  Anyway, here's Delicate Arch at sunrise.

Dawn, looking out from Delicate Arch

Crazy Photographers!

It's big...

...really big!

And that was my trip out to Arches.  We had a great time and were really gross and hungry when we got home.  My wife has great adventure ideas.  I love her.