Moab #6—Beyond Delicate: Sand Dune and Landscape Arches

When we got back to the parking lot after our early morning hike to Delicate Arch, everyone was happily eating our portable breakfast.  (As you can tell, Russ had been carrying the backpack full of water and snacks.)

 

At this point it was still before 10 and some of us (mostly grownups) wanted to see some more stuff.  But others of us (young adults and teens) had had enough already.  We decided to split up.  Josh drove all of the young adults and the girls back to the condo.  (From which point he launched his disastrous BMX bike ride.)  We were headed to Landscape Arch but decided to stop first at Sand Dune Arch.  Best. Decision. Ever.

We knew it was an auspicious sign when we saw a piece of a rainbow high in the sky.  Just a piece—no more.

Sand Dune Arch is one that isn’t visible at all from the road.  But the boys were ready to have fun even if they couldn’t see our destination.

Once we started being able to see where we were heading we were all excited—it was a little slot canyon!

It just got better and better, the farther in we went.

 

The color of the canyon was gorgeous, and the ground was covered with fine sand that was the same red.  Every now and then there was some green from a bush or tree.  It was a spectacular place.  Even Jenna, who had been sad that there wasn’t room for her to go back to the condo in our van, ended up being glad she had stayed.  And Rachel ended up wishing she had been able to stay too.

We missed the notice about not climbing on the arch until later.  Ken said that he remembers visiting Sand Dune arch when he was a kid, and that the sand level was so high that they jumped off of the arch into it!  I can’t imagine…but it sounds fun!

After we were all done having fun at Sand Dune Arch we left for Landscape Arch. 

It was a much longer hike to Landscape Arch.  But the scenery was still great, especially Pine Tree Arch.

By this time the kids were climbing on everything that could be climbed on.

Landscape Arch was one that we could see for a long time, but we had to keep walking to get a good view of it.  At one point I was trying to decide if it was worth it to keep going and I asked a couple walking towards me, “Is the view better if you keep walking?  Is it worth it?”  The husband just looked at me, baffled.  And then the wife said in broken English, “It is very far away, and it is not so beautiful.”  Oh…I remembered…Euromonth!  When I started paying attention that day, a majority of the hiker around us were not English speakers.  (And I finally figured out that she was talking about a much farther hike to another arch.)

We finally walked far enough so that we had a good view of the arch against the sky.  We meaning Ken & I and Ann and her boys…Russ and the other kids and decided that they’d gone far enough.

When we got back, guess who had joined Russ & the kids?

You got it.  Kate, who is definitely the star of our show.

And that was about it for our last day of hiking.  When we got back out of the park we got the phone call that Josh was in the ER and that consumed the rest of the day.  Good thing we had already had such a great time!