Saturday ◦ August 5th, 2017

Moab

We spent three nights in Moab. It was supposed to be four, but the desert is hot, and unforgiving.

We got into town late in the afternoon, after a long drive from the Four Corners. A quick stop at the grocery store to re-up on food stuffs, and a quick stop at the Moab Brewery to get some “full-strength” beer, we set off to find a place to camp. We had decided we liked the sound of Dead Horse Point State Park, so we rolled the dice and tried our luck there. And as luck would have it, a construction crew had vacated early and we were able to grab a site.

Dead Horse Point State Park ended up being amazing. The park is huge, high desert nestled on a point between two canyons. The ending scene of Thelma and Louise, where they drive off a cliff together, was filmed there. It’s about fifteen minutes from Canyonlands National Park and about fourty-five minutes from Arches National Park.

The next day we hit Canyonlands, with a plan to do two hikes. We had heard that you don’t really want to be doing much in the desert in August between ten and three, so we got to the park early. We stopped at the visitor center to ask about the False Kiva hike, which we learned about from a roadside jerky man in Colorado. The hike is not on any offical maps, and the ranger we asked pulled out a laminated binder with photos of the trail.

We didn’t make it to the kiva that day. The desert got us. We got one of our two hikes in, then got side-tracked by a different hike, and then we were toast. So we went back to the campsite for a siesta to re-charge. We tried to get back to the park later on, but it was getting late, and it was starting to look like rain, so instead we headed to Dead Horse Point. We were greeted with spectacular views and then a pretty serious rain storm. It was all quite beautiful.

The following day we hit Arches, again on the early side, this time to beat the heat and the crowds. Arches gets many more daily visitors than Canyonlands. The only thing we had planned going in was the “March to the Arch” to visit the Delicate Arch. And quite a march it was – not too long, but no shade, and a large portion of it was right up a slab of red rock. We spent the rest of the day checking out the park, hiking pretty deep into the desert to look at arches until Ashley started to feel sick. So we went and took a dip in a canyon creek just outside of Moab, and then grabbed dinner in town.

At dinner we decided that it was time to get out of the desert. But we still had one last thing we wanted to do. So the next day we got up early and headed for the False Kiva. It was a fantastic hike right into a hidden alcove on the side of the canyon. The view from the kiva was gorgeous, and the solitude was stunning.

And then we headed north, for the mountains.

The Four Corners. Visit four states in seconds for only $5 bucks!

Murphy's Point — View from the Murphy’s Point hike at Canyonlands.

View from Dead Horse Point. Thelma and Lousie drove themselves off a cliff right around here.

The Delicate Arch. Not pictured are the ~100 other people standing around taking pictures of the arch and the other 50 people waiting in line to have their pictures taken in the arch.

View of the Fiery Furnace section of Arches. The rock stacks were wild.

Pine Tree Arch. We waited impatiently with a few other people to try to get a shot with no people standing in the arch. Almost successful.

Navajo Arch. This was one of my favorites. It was like the arch was a doorway to a little room tucked into the rock.

Partition Arch. We were blown away when we came to this arch. An amazing view overlooking the park.

Balanced Rock at Arches. It looks impossible from all angles.

The False Kiva — View from the False Kiva with the kiva in the foreground. What a hike to an amazing view.

False Kiva Pespective — Some perspective for the False Kiva hike – We hiked down in the canyon here, and then over and up into that little hole in the wall.