GART Day 10: Red, red rocks

If our afternoon adventures in Arches weren’t enough to innure us to the landscape, today’s trek would be.  After a lovely breakfast outside, we headed to Canyonlands National Park. We assumed it would be more of the same  – and indeed we did see an arch – but this park is all about massive holes in the ground rather than smaller holes in the rock.  I confess that don’t remember much about the Grand Canyon as it’s been more than 20 years since I was last there but I have a hard time believing that it is substantially more impressive than this place.

We got a pretty early start so we went straight for the moderate climb to see Upheaval Dome.  Then a pretty easy trek along the edge of the ridge to the Grand View Point.  A picnic lunch under a scrubby tree for shade and a final wander to see the arch of the day: Mesa Arch.

We managed about 5 miles in all and when the temperature hit 94 during the last hike to the arch, we decided to call it a day.  We headed into Moab for supplies and a quick round of laundry before the drive back to Castle Valley.  A shower and a change of clothes and we were off to a very nice but seriously overpriced dinner at a local resort.

Numbers for today:

• Miles driven: 164
• Steps: 18, 410
• Floors: 32
• Layers of sunscreen: 3
• French lessons: 0 (too much to do)
• French conversations overheard but not understood: dozens {sigh}