US Trip 2014 - From Arch to Canyon

After visiting Delicate Arch yesterday, we were now ready to visit the rest of Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky).

After getting some breakfast in the hotel, we went straight to Arches. After getting through the entrance, which took some time (we got to drive the service road, since we had an access pass), we did a stop at the visitor center.

We stopped at the first earthcache shortly after leaving the visitor center. After completing that, we drove straight to the end of the park. The parking lot was full, and we did not know if we wanted to do the hike to Landscape Arch or not. After a short discussion, we figured out that we would regret it if we didn’t do it, so we parked the car and got ready to do the hike.

We didn’t get far before Heltinnen noticed that something wasn’t quite as it should with my shorts. For the second time in a few days, I got a small rift in my shorts! But this time it wasn’t too noticeable.

When we got closer to the arch, we noticed a lot of people leaning over something and taking photos. Turned out to be a lizard, and we had to take a few photos ourselves!

When we got to Landscape Arch, we did our best to find the answers to the earthcache there. After some thinking, we got what we needed, and started taking photos. I’m glad we decided to do the hike, we would have regretted not going here!

It didn’t take long before someone asked me to take their photo. And as usual when taking photos, I sat down to get a better angle. Completely forgetting that I had a rift in the back of my shorts. Well, that rift wasn’t small anymore! Hopefully, their happy with the photos I took.

Heltinnen had to walk behind me, acting like a shield, all the way back to the car. For the first time since leaving Seattle, we did not have our suitcases in the car. So this was the only piece of clothes that I had! But since we’re geocachers, we had duct tape! After patching up my shorts with duct tape, I was ready for the rest of the day.

We started on the route back towards the entrance, stopping at each cache/viewpoint along the road. We got to learn about the creation of these marvelous arches, and see several of them. But Arches is more than just Arches, so we also stopped at Balanced Rock and Park Avenue.

When we met AmayaTom in Seattle, we learnt that he is the owner of the earthcache GC337QW Arches National Park – Park Avenue. And it was easy to understand why this is called Park Avenue! While we were taking photos, we noticed some people ignoring the posted signs, and wandering way outside of the designated trails. It’s sad to see how little somebody care about the park.

After Park Avenue, we headed towards Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park, finding a few caches along the road.

The first stop was Dead Horse Point State Park. We did a stop at the visitor center, and got something to eat. We’re glad they had the small food truck there!

After taking some photos, and eating, we headed over to the overlook. The view was simply amazing!

After doing the earthcache and virtual, we stopped at the traditional cache placed by the park itself. It was hidden in a nice picnic area, next year we probably have to use these picnic areas a bit more!

After entering the Island in the sky district of Canyonlands National Park, our first stop was Mesa Arch. It was only a short hike before we arrived at the arch itself. And amazingly enough, we were almost alone! Only a handful of other people around. We got to take lots of photos, and study the arch well enough to answer the earthcache questions.

We walked along the side of the arch, and onto the top. I was quite surprised when I realized how far down it was from here. There was a gap between the arch itself and the edge where we took the photos. The view from here was simply amazing. I do understand why photographers enjoy sunrise here! I hope to be able to take sunrise photos here next year.