Moab Part 2: Sunrise Hike

Two years ago when I was getting ready for our Utah trip I decided that we were going to drive on I-70 through Colorado rather than go on 80 through Wyoming again.  Then when I was looking at the map I noticed that 70 also went right past Moab.  That was way too close to drive by without at least stopping overnight in Moab, and so we did.  We drove the beautiful road along the river, visited some arches right before sunset, and then watched the stars once it got dark.  The next day after a lot of deliberation we decided to hike to Delicate Arch.  It was hot and I felt like I pulled the triplets the entire hike.  But it was so worth it once we were there.

This year I definitely wanted to hike in to Delicate Arch again, but I decided that it would be a great adventure if we hiked in in time for the sunrise. I extended the invitation to everyone, but all of the adults decided that I was crazy.  (My dad & Ramona were going to come, but she hurt her back and could hardly walk.)  A few cousins did decided to come with us, so we all set our alarms for 3:15 the next morning.  Crazy, I know!

The moon was almost full for our hike, and everyone had flashlights or headlamps.

The hike was much easier this time.  We only had our jackets on for a little while—it was about 70 degrees when we started.  And I didn’t have to pull anyone this time—all of the hiking around our neighborhood paid off.

(I know this picture is blurry—I was wishing I had a tripod to stabilize with!)

We did have one tense moment when I realized that we had lost the path.  Really, there is no path on the slickrock—there are just piles of stones every now and then to mark the way.  And in the pre-dawn darkness we managed to miss one of the piles.  When it became obvious that if we continued any farther we would be on the edge of a sheer cliff, I stopped everyone and we walked back the way we’d come.  After a few hundred yards we saw the pile of stones off to the side, indicating that the path had taken a turn that we had missed.  I can’t tell you how frantically I’d been praying during the time we were trying to find the path again, and how grateful I was when we found it again!

We were worried at that point that we would miss the sunrise, but we arrived at Delicate Arch just in time.  It was surreal to get there and be the ONLY people there.  Surreal and beautiful.  Here is a picture of our first glimpse—you never see Delicate Arch the whole hike—not until you’re actually there.  This shot was through an arch in a wall just before we rounded the final corner.

The kids didn’t waste any time walking down to the arch.

I sat and watched the sunrise with the older kids

 

while the younger kids climbed around like the mountain goats they are.

The sunrise was to our left and Delicate Arch was in front of us, so we had to wait a while to see the sun hit Delicate Arch.  It was well worth the wait.

When other people arrived someone offered to take our picture under the arch

and then in front.

 

I took interesting pictures from all different angles.

And finally I told my little group of mountain goats that we had to head back for breakfast.  It was so funny—it was still not even 7AM, and yet we had been up for hours!

I did let them do just a bit of climbing on the hike out.

I was unsure in the beginning what kind of experience it would be to do the sunrise hike.  I knew that it would be an adventure for me, but would the kids enjoy it, or would they just be exhausted by it?  I was actually surprised by the intensity of their reactions later in the day and in the days after—they all LOVED our adventure.  They thought that being there alone was amazing, and had so much fun climbing on everything.  And of course we all took big naps later that day.

 

PS—I hadn’t really remembered how crowded it had been at Delicate Arch when we went there before, but you can see in the picture at the top that we couldn’t even get a picture in front of the arch without someone else in our picture.  On Friday we went to the Delicate Arch overlook so that everyone else could see it, and I was astounded at how many people we could see at the arch, even though we were a full mile away from it.  I have to tell you, being there alone is magnificant…

PPS—It’s probably a good thing I didn’t realize when we were climbing all over at Delicate Arch that there was a major cliff on the other side!