4-6 June

Route : Arches National Park-Dead Horse Point State Park-Canyonlands, Island in the Sky section-Moab

A recent change to policy meant that all Arches campsites had been pre-booked, however we spoke nicely to the camp ground host yesterday and she said that she would arrange us a site, if we arrived very early in the morning. We set our alarm for 5.30 giving us ample time to travel the 16 miles through the park taking photos along the way. We added Big Horn Sheep to our list and secured a great site, right in the heart of the park.

As the temperature was already climbing we decided to do the shorter walks today. Erosion of the softer Navajo sandstone has left towering spines of the harder Estrada sandstone, which would be impressive enough. However, adding to the awesome scenery, the action of water and ice over the aeons, of pockets of softer rock has created many arches that span great distances. We walked the trail leading to Broken Arch and Sand Dune Arch first.

The rocks surrounding Sand Dune Arch rise like giant shark fins out of the salmon coloured sand dunes. We then walked to a cluster of arches admiring the beauty of the towering Turret Arch, the paired North and South windows and Double Arch. Double arch has two massive rock arches which share a pier to create a magnificent double arch.

We passed the heat of the day in town strolling through the many tourist shops that line the streets of Moab, returning at 6.30 to walk the 5km trail to Delicate Arch. This popular sunset trail passes over a massive “slick rock” which climbs rapidly to 4830 feet.

There, rises a magnificent free standing upturned U shaped rock known as Delicate Arch. We returned to set up camp at about 9 in the evening, with the glow of the setting sun, colouring the surrounding slabs of rock. What a day.

We are averaging about 10km walking a day, as hiking is the only way to see the magnificence of these parks.

Fortunately the Americans only seem to get going at 10 o’clock, so by us leaving early we get to enjoy the trails alone. Today we tackled the big one – Devils Garden Trail, This 11.6km hike allows you views of seven arches, each unique and beautiful. But for us, Landscape Arch with its extremely thin and fragile looking beam was the highlight.

Deciding to be even more adventurous we returned via the “Primitive Trail” sign posted extremely strenuous and what an excellent decision it was. There’s no way to describe the beauty in words. The only way is to experience it.

Loaded with fresh supplies we headed to nearby Dead Horse Point State Park, so named because a number of wild horses which had been corralled on this narrow strip of land, with no way of getting to water 2000 feet below, had perished.

This park and the adjoining Canyonlands NP-Island in the Sky, are situated approximately 2000 feet above the meandering Colorado River, so offer endless vistas of the jagged, eroded plateaus all the way down to the Colorado River.

According to geologists the rock at level of the river was laid down 275 million years ago. From Dead Horse Point SP, you can see the shimmering, evaporative dams that cover 400 acres of the valley floor.

Water is pumped from the Colorado down into the mine, where it collects minerals, which is then re-pumped to the surface and allowed to evaporate, allowing the harvesting of the crystallized potash, which is used in the fertilizer industry.

Over the last few days we had been constantly bugged by tiny flies known to the American’s, as gnats. We thought they were just an irritation, little did we know that after a couples of days their bites start to itch with an intensity twice as bad as the sand flies of New Zealand. These itches, the heat, the driving wind blowing fine desert sand into our tent and the need for some R & R, resulted in an unanimous decision to take up residence at the Virginia Hotel in Moab, where we spent the remainder of the day.

By the way all our suffering was not in vain, we got to see a Coyote as we were leaving Canyonlands, its similar, but larger than our Side Striped Jakkel!