Rose Rounds: Utah! - Arches National Park

When we first rolled into the area on Sunday we stopped at Arches and signed up for a hike with a ranger in the Firey Furnace area. It was something that Dan had seen on the website and required a reservation. The area is a part of the park that's restricted from casual investigation. Unless you have a back country permit then the ranger guided tour is the only way to properly see it. They charge a small fee for the guided tour.

Given the awesomeness of the National Parks the fees they charge are a pittance. In addition they let seniors in for almost nothing. Given all the seniors we saw driving around in hundred thousand dollar RV-rigs I think they could charge a bit more.

Bright and early on Wednesday we headed to Arches. As you can see from the map, the area we were headed to was a ways from the entrance, at the bottom of the image, which was 10-15 miles from Moab.
An early-morning run to the most-excellent City Market in Moab supplied us with breakfast sandwiches and lunch. One thing I love about a vacation in the western United States is that you can eat deli sandwiches the entire time and not feel like you've missed a lot. The City Market had some fancy sandwiches with sprouts and avacado, but they only got soggy in a pack so in the end we stuck with the bread and meat combinations. With a little packaged salsa they were tasty enough.

Aside from food my other issues was my shoe. The sole had started flapping on Monday in Needles. A close look at the other foot indicated the same thing was about to happen there too. Monday night we stopped at the variety store -not many Walmarts in this part of Utah- and got some shoe goo - which was pretty worthless. Duct tape was teh answer. It all worked out Tuesday when we went biking because your foot is always pressed to the pedal. . But I knew hiking would stress my duct tape more so I re-wrapped my shoes and stashed some spare tape in my bag.

So food, water and duct tape ready we went to Arches.

The furnace area looks like a little warty outcrop. If it were on your body you'd be headed to a doctor to have it removed!

We hung around with the other people who looked like they were ready for an excursion, none of whom had duct-taped shoes, and waited for the ranger.

Eventually she arrived. She was a young talky woman, from Washington DC who had gone to Dartmouth. Like most park employees they trust to talk to the public she was articulate and knowledgeable. A delight to follow around for three hours.

The first order of business was a climb down-down-down. The walk was billed as including some "scrambles" over rocks so I guess they start out by separating out anybody who isn't going to make it.

So, off the edge we went, down a pretty nicely constructed stairway of rock.

This was mid-September so the crowd was mostly adults, but her talk was clearly designed to be kid-friendly. Since there weren't any kids the adults got to do the demonstrations. This is Dan demonstrating the difference between an arch and a bridge. An arch is a span, a bridge is a span over water. Since this is the desert there isn't always water under the span, but if when there is water it flows under an arch then it's a bridge and not an arch.

She wound us through all manner of passages. I could see why the area isn't open to casual hikers because there aren't trails and it would be easy to get lost.

The best scramble was a narrow passage you went through on all fours. For the Yogis it's a sideways plank. I went through in the first group and got Dan coming through behind.

If I'd known what it would have looked like I would have turned my video on!