Black Canyon May 16, 2009

Delicate Arch Moab May 2009

Renae in the window overlooking the Delicate Arch.

Me in the window overlooking Delicate Arch

My invisible friend in the window overlooking Delicate Arch.

"Eddie" the Raven begging for food in front of the Delicate Arch.

Renae at the bottom of the Arch.

Well we played tourists this last weekend. Renae had won a free night at the Red Cliff Lodge outside of Moab so we headed over to Utah on Thursday night. It was quite the experience for both of us. After we got checked in, we strode around the property and talked about either going rafting or horse back riding on Saturday morning. We had dinner reservations at 7pm at the Lodge. We showed up for dinner and was seated between multiple tourists from I'm sure California. Renae and I cracked up pretty much throughout dinner listening to various idiotic conversations; such as "Have you seen a reindeer yet?" and "This is the best ranch I've ever been to." Hello, it's a lodge not a ranch, ranch implies "W..O..R..K..I..N..G" and reindeer, geez. Not to mention 30 billion dollars of camera equipment being pulled out during dinner to take pictures of the cows grazing. Grandma we could have made a fortune selling a vacation at the farm to Californian's to take pictures of the livestock. So after the dinner experience we decided we couldn't handle the, "stupid question people" during a rafting or horse back riding trip so cancelled our horse back trip. We sat out on the deck of our room and watched the bats fly after whatever it is they eat at dusk. It was the first time I have seen a bat fly up close other than at the zoo, and no I didn't take any pictures.

The next morning we got up and headed to the 9.99 breakfast buffet at 9am in the hopes to avoid more tourist stimulating conversation, but to no avail. We checked out at 11am and filled up our hydration packs with ice and headed into Moab. I really can't tell you what we did to waste 4 or 5 hours other than to pick up supplies at the City Market, but we wasted time. We had decided to head out to Arches National Park to see the sunset at the Delicate Arch. This meant we would car camp Friday night. We set up the tent early before heading into Moab at the Oak Grove Campground (7 sites for tents only). We got to the trailhead for the Delicate Arch around 4pm. The lot was full full and we hoped that most people would be headed down. It only took us 38 min to hike the 1.28 mile hike to the arch. We sat around and watched the people come and go. Of course we hadn't intended on getting there 3 hours before sunset, but we did. We played cards (yes Kristen the same cards we carried on the Bataan Death March, and we still have 2 pairs of gloves in the packs), ate some of the bread, cheese, and meat we carried up, and people watched. Around 6 o'clock I thought the place had pretty much emptied, the cheese and meat had gotten to me and I started farting. Well apparently we weren't as isolated as I thought, because I heard snickering from above. I poked my head up (we were down below a ledge) and there were probably 25 people there at this point (professional and amateur photogs) waiting for the sun to set. I started cracking up. I made friends with Eddie the local Raven. He would come within about 3 feet of me to see what was going on and if I had any good crumbs. He cleaned up after me and my bread feast.

Finally the sun started to set and by that time there were literally about 75 people there to take photos. Of course there was also the tourist type there who actually walked out to the arch as the sun was setting and sat down and ate an apple. Finally one of the photographers asked him to move because everyone that was there wanted to take pictures and he didn't fit well in the scene. About a dozen people cheered including myself. After the sun set, Renae and I headed back down to the car. Going down was much faster than heading up. I think the 438 feet of elevation gain is a little underestimated. As the trail gains and looses several times before actually getting to the arch.

We headed back to the camp ground and fell right to sleep listening to the crickets and Colorado River. The next day we went into Moab and ate breakfast at the Pancake Haus and meandered home.