Westward Bound: The Last Few Days

Where were we?  Oh yes, Friday!  According to plan, Friday was the day we transitioned from Telluride to Moab, Utah.  Now, I was really curious.  I had been in Moab before, several years ago, and when I was there, I absolutely fell in love with Arches National Park.  Granted, it was one of the first stops on my first trip Out West (capital letters intentional), and having devoured nearly every Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour novel available at my local public library, it was practically a pilgrimage - a time of deep emotion, to say the least.  So I wondered if, upon second sight, the place would retain its splendor, or if my slightly more experienced present self would be less impressed.

I need not have worried...

Arches is a lot of fun, especially for families with little people, because many of the really spectacular formations are very easily accessible - a matter of parking your vehicle in one of the [sometimes congested] parking lots and then engaging in a quick, maybe quarter to half-mile walk up to the point of interest.  In addition to that, this park offers the added benefit of being an unbelievable natural jungle gym, as, in many cases, the trails lead right up and onto the rocks, providing ample opportunities for the adventurous to clamber around.

Now, here's where I start a bit of a play-by-play, just so I have an excuse to post more pictures...

Our first stop was Balancing Rock, pictured above.  (I'll let you guess which formation that moniker refers to...)

We then proceeded to Double Arch.

Double Arch is in the middle.

 

I know this picture isn't particularly pretty, but I include it to try and give some sense of scale.  You can see Isaiah and kids there on the bottom right.  I have never experienced anything like the sensation of standing at the foot of one of these gargantuan structures and looking up.  You literally have no point of reference; you feel swallowed up.  I almost felt a little vertiginous at times.

This picture was taken [very gingerly] from the window of Double Arch, looking back over the road and across the plateau.  Again, it is nearly impossible to grasp the scale, but the little dots in the lower left of center are people, just to give you an idea.  (For the record, I was extremely proud of myself for climbing up here.  I'm not afraid of heights per se, but I do develop an extreme...slowness of movement.)

From here, it was on to the Windows (North Window and South Window), as well as Turret Arch.

 That young man on the right was in hog heaven, scrambling all over those rocks.  Nothing was too high or too precarious, to his way of thinking, and wherever he goes, his sister must follow.  Meanwhile, their aunt sweats bullets and sprouts extra gray hairs...

Climbing Buddies...

 (Let me go on the record as saying that boy's Grandpa was WAY TOO SUPPORTIVE of his rock-climbing escapades.  Sincerely, Gray-Haired Aunt)

We grabbed a quick picnic lunch, and then it was off to see Delicate Arch.  This is the iconic one - the one you've seen if you've ever seen a Utah license plate.  (The great disappointment of this trip is that I did not get a Utah plate for the front of my car...)

This is the view from the lookout point that the trail we took leads up to.  Notice the ravine between where I stand and the arch.

Now, see how much closer it is?  We weren't able to cross the ravine for obvious reasons (see next picture; approximate depth: a mile), but we did hop over the "Trail Ends Here" sign and continue on, hiking over the cliffs.  The view was utterly spectacular.  At the end, we were perched on a promontory overlooking afore-mentioned ravine, across which was Delicate Arch, surrounded by mile upon mile of red and green mountains, and overshadowed by black, threatening storm clouds.  Our shouts seemed to echo for miles and miles.  We did hurry back down, due to those storm clouds, but being up there, seeing and hearing and feeling that incredible landscape was one of those moments that burns itself in your memory.

These pictures are not great, my camera kept washing everything out really bad, but I am so desperate to try and capture a little bit of what it was like up there... This is looking down into the canyon.

Here, I am standing on the point, looking back and down at Dad; you can see Isaiah and Annistyn way off in the distance and the valley spread out below.

If this was in better color, it would be a good shot.  Parking lot lower left;storm clouds in the distance.

We made it to the car in the nick of time; just after we got on the road, the heavens opened and the deluge began.  Rain in the desert is a many-splendored thing.  I'm telling you, seeing those monstrous rocks standing there, water and wind beating against them, their red rock turned white with the water pouring off of them, surrounded by torrential rapids cutting ravines in the soil around them was awe-inspiring, to put it mildly.  There are times when the power of Almighty God and his spectacular creation comes before one's face and one is struck silent.

This was taken from the window of a moving car.  Not so impressive until you understand their sheer size...

Annnndddd..... just like that, the rain was over!

We were pretty wiped out from our day of driving and hiking, so we were all up for some good, solid Mexican food.  (Word to the wise, for as much as Telluride is a super-hip, crunchy cool-kid town, Moab reeks of tourism.  Lots of "Helicopter Rides! One Hour Boat Rides! (um, yay?) Bungee Jumping! Ziplining! (I could not get any takers on this) T-Shirts! Pottery!  RV Hook-Ups!  You get the drift...  For as great as Arches is, when it comes to the town itself, I vastly prefer Telluride.)

Check out the rad decor... And the cute (sleepy) girl.

I do not do selfies.  Except for when I have one of my favorite seven-year-olds in the whole world to take one with.

Next morning, we were up early, for a last couple of hours in Arches, before it was back on the road; this time, home-ward bound.  We used our time in the park to hike out to Landscape Arch, Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch.  The sun was out; the pictures responded accordingly...

Tunnel Arch...

The view through Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch in the background, cute kids in the foreground...

And a last few shots for the road.

And on that note, we aimed our compasses south and east and started the long, long drive back home.  Friday, we drove through the Rockies, passing through Glenwood Canyon (very beautiful) and the outskirts of Denver, before finally coming to rest in Limon, Colorado.  This was an absolute blast.  We stopped at maybe 7 PM in a little one-exit ranch town, dropped our bags at the Holiday Inn Express, trooped across the road for dinner at Denny's, chased by orange dream shakes and turnovers at Arby's, McCafe Frappes at McDonalds, and early bedtime.  Pure, junk-food, small-town America heaven.  I had so much fun, I bought a coffee mug to commemorate the occasion.  

Yep.

After that, the fun and games were pretty much over.  We spent the next two days covering thousands of miles, passing through Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and then, finally Florida.  Along the way, we saw empty ranchland, one lonely antelope, miles of railroad tracks, farms, small towns and big cities, storms and sunshine, swamps and rivers and bays.  And then, at long last, we were home.

Good going out, and good coming in.  All good.