Thursday, July 25, 2024

Starting mileage: 17433, Distance travelled: 50, Miles walked: 6.3, Injuries sustained: 1

We got an early start, trying to get our most strenuous hiking done before the temperatures soared and crowds got crazy. We had a timed-entry ticket for 8am but attempted to get to the park before 7am when they the timed-entry ticket is required. Only David understood that this was an unrealistic goal and calmly tried to explain that while everyone else frantically tried to get out the door. We didn’t quite make it but arrived at 7:30am and they let us in anyway. We selected the most popular hike to start so we could ensure that we got parking. We hiked 3.5 miles to see the Delicate Arch and it didn’t disappoint. Coming around the corner when it came into view was breathtaking.

David got some nice portraits here too.

At the trailhead, there were also petroglyphs and Wolfe Ranch, a one-room cabin dating back to the early 1900s.

Our next stop was Double Arch Trail. We went by the Elephant Arch and Parade of Elephants before arriving at the double arch. Susan climbed up into the second of the arches, not an easy feat, but worth the photo op.

A short distance across the parking lot was the Windows trailhead, which lead to the North and South Windows and Turret Arch.

Unfortunately on our way back down the trail to the parking lot, Laura slipped off the edge of the walkway, gouging her knee with gravel on the way down. She was fine but her left knee sustained a significant wound that we needed to get cleaned out and bandaged. Susan did some quick and dirty first aid on the spot but we needed a pharmacy for more supplies. We were pretty much done hiking since it was after noontime and everyone was hungry. We returned to the hotel, ate lunch and took care of Laura’s injury, getting out all the gravel and disinfecting it. We chilled out in the hotel room most of the remainder of the afternoon, went for a swim in the pool before dinner, then went out for gelato. As soon as we stepped out to walk to the gelato place (located in the Moab Food Truck Park), we feared the worst. The darkest cloud was forming over the canyon wall behind us and it followed us all the way to the gelato place and home, without ever raining more than a few drops…but we did get a gorgeous double rainbow out of it.

We went to bed early so we could get up even earlier on Friday to get into the park before 7am. Our reserved ticket was for 9-10am which was way too late to avoid crowds and heat so we planned better the second day.