Monday, April 3, 2017--Arches National Park

     We had a lovely night "dry camping" at Archview RV Resort (that means we parked in the parking lot as there was no room for us last night but we got reservations for a RV spot for tonite). It was quiet and a lovely view. 

     From our spot in the parking lot, we could see arches on the horizon at Arches National Park 4 miles distant.

     We arrived at the park at 9 am and drove directly to the parking lot for the trail to the Delicate Arch.

(We don't have our beautiful blue sky today so it makes quite a difference in the photos.)

     We got the last spot in a huge parking lot! At the beginning of the trail there was a lineup at the bathrooms! 

     We headed up the trail at 10 am. As the sky was mostly cloudy it was cool at the beginning. The journey was similar to what I have read about climbing Mt Fuji--a steady stream of people, lots of little kids, lots of languages being spoken besides English, some people running, and one man on crutches. 

     The trail is up, up, up for 1 1/2 miles. At over 5000 elevation, your breath comes a little harder. (Below) We were surprised to find Ute Indian rock art.

     A brilliant spot of color on the route.

     Centuries old junipers are the stately patriarchs of the park. You can see the parking lot in the center distance.

     As this is a pilgrimage, the pilgrims pay homage with icons along the trail.

     At places the trail drops off on one side and has a sheer cliff on the other. It separates the wall-huggers from the rest!

     Today's first view of the Delicate Arch!

     As we expected, there was a crowd at the Arch, but very congenial as we had all made the long trek.  

     Paul and I had hiked to the Delicate Arch 40 years ago and the arch was the same, but we passed only 6 people on the whole trek instead of many hundreds today. The trail was much more primitive 40 years ago. 

     We did enjoy the whole experience today very much. It was funny to see another lineup at the base of the arch itself, of people waiting to get their individual photos standing under the arch. We got that photo 40 years ago but did not today!

      This shows the arch as we first saw it 40 years ago--with no other human visitors. Below, today. Thanks, Linda, a perfect daypack for Adventures--overseas or not! I love it!

     It is a stunningly beautiful arch! The subject of thousands of photos today. You can see the parking lot and the park road from the Arch!

     Sofie seemed to not be enjoying RV travel so much today as she was confined to the van. Dogs are not allowed on the trails in National Parks. With the overcast skies, roof vent and fan she was quite comfortable even though she would have rather gone with us. 

     After the trek, we drove to the end of the park road stopping at many view spots and taking lots of photos. The sun intermittently peeked through to help our photos, but we missed the brilliant blue sky of yesterday.

     Then we came back to the RV park where we are enjoying electricity, water, hot showers and internet.   It was a surprise to see lilacs blooming in the RV park!

     Editor's note: Internet at RV parks is difficult at best. At 8 pm when I am blogging, the internet goes into hiding. I think everyone else is on-line at the same time. I almost lost all my work the past two nights, and blogging is a very slow slog. It takes 5 minutes to load each photo!

Today Our Eyes Were On:

Excited, ambitious, out-of-shape, athletic, happy, cranky, tall, short, young, old, generous, selfish people of all sorts working toward a single goal. It was a very interesting and heart-warming sight!