Underneath the Arches….

Salt Lake City to Arches
NP

Slept well last night, after the
folks in the room next to us finally finished having noisy, enthusiastic
sex, so woke almost refreshed and raring to go for our first full day’s
adventure!  As predicted the Howard Johnson free breakfast was a carnival
of carbs and sugary cereals but – as its my day off from my protein-tastic body
building meal plan – I wrestled a bagel into submission without the least trace
of guilt.

Today’s itinerary was to drive
out of Salt Lake City, heading south and then east to Arches National Park, the
first stop on our Southwestern adventure.  Here’s a map of today’s route:

That’s a whole lotta balls

Before leaving SLC, we stopped at
Wal-Mart to stock up on snacks and plenty of water (no dying out in the
desert due to dehydration for this gal, thanks very much).  The
Wal-Mart was enormous and full of entertaining people-watching opportunities
but was strangely completely devoid of oranges.  Not a single citrusy
globe anywhere to be seen.  Are oranges illegal in Utah?  There were,
however, plenty of cheddar cheese balls – i guess if you screwed up your eyes
hard enough, they could be mini-oranges, right?

After wandering around Walmart
for a half hour or so, we finally set off – styrofoam bucket full of ice, water
and snacks at around 10.45am for our 4hr drive to Moab.  AS IT WAS MY DAY
OFF MY MEAL PLAN (Ashley!!), it wasn’t even 11am and we’d already chomped our
way through ice-cream and salt and vinegar crisps.  Yey for vacation
snackage!  The drive was pretty straightforward, all highway, and wound us
through mountains and valleys of an impressive scale.  At times, we really
were in the middle of absolutely nowhere – not a sign of human habitation in
sight (other than the road, obviously!).  

About an hour or so into the
drive, we came upon a series of hand-painted signs by the road advertising
FRESH JERKY!  REAL TASTY!  GET SOME!  ELK!  BUFFALO!
 JUST AROUND THE CORNER!  ALMOST THERE!!  JERKY HERE!!   It
was very exciting.  How could we pass that up?  So we duly stopped,
enticed by the advertising, and had ourselves an impromptu Jerky Tasting Menu,
happily doled out by Don the Jerky man and his Happy Meat Shears.  I
hadn’t tried proper Jerky before, so I thought ‘what the hell?” whereas
Lori is a Jerky Aficionado she knew what was what!

First up was the Sweet Peppered
Beef Jerky, followed by its equivalent in buffalo then elk.  It was
actually pretty tasty and was, by far, the best one – I didn’t care much for
the teriyaki or hot sauce.  A bit too weird for my liking.  Also, the
Elk (in case you are wondering what Elk jerky tastes like) had a slightly
sweet, gamey flavor to it, so again not my favorite but was fun to try.  Just
don’t think too deeply about where Don’s scissors have been and never, ever,
ever read the ingredients list on a pack of  Jerky.   Some things
cannot be unlearned.  *shudder*

Anyway, back on the road and,
after another hour or so, we arrived at a town called Price where we decided to
stop for lunch.  And, where else to go than to a place called
“Groggs”?  It had pretty good reviews on Urbanspoon, so Groggs
it was – and I proceeded to demolish an ENORMOUS bacon cheeseburger.
 Ahhh… the glory of my Meal Plan day off!!  It was yummy but, as I
found when we got back on the road, calorie-coma inducing!  The monotony
of the landscape didn’t help so, to stay awake, I periodically wound the window
down and stuck my arm outside, to feel the 104 degree heat and get some wind
(other than my own) moving through the car.  

After another 2hrs on the road,
we finally arrived in Moab.

It felt like we had landed on
Mars.

You’ll see in the pictures better
than I can explain, but the sheer redness of it all, the weird rock
formations, the mountains and vast shifting dunes of red sand were just
incredible.  So alien-looking.  I wouldn’t even have been surprised
to see the Mars Curiosity Rover on the dusty red plains and for its trip to
Mars to have been one big hoax, while it hangs out here in Moab!

By this stage, it was about 4pm,
so time to check into the Ramada.  I was feeling very smug, as the Ramada
was directly opposite the Moab Adventure Center, where we’d booked our tours
from, so no driving needed for our Fiery Furnace hike tomorrow morning at
7.15am.  Maximum snoozage time.  

Except we weren’t.  

As the
poor guy on the front desk searched in vain for my reservation and I waited
(very patiently, I might add) for him to spell my name correctly and find it, I
dug out my paper copy of my confirmation – to find I’d actually booked us into
the Super 8 for this evening, not the Ramada!  The Ramada was for tomorrow
night!  Oops!  Feeling rather sheepish, we hopped back into the car
and headed over to the Super 8 were we (finally) checked in.   Again, it
was fine – the room was basic but it was very spacious and clean, so
nothing to complain about. 

Finally!  Huzzah!

We were both still in the grips
of lunch coma, plus the added snooze factor of the afternoon heat, so consensus
was that it was time for a quick Power nap, before heading out to watch sunset.
 An hour later, I woke up in a pool of my own dribble (which was nice) but
feeling somewhat refreshed and ready for our first trip proper into the park.
 We were following a lead from one of the guys from the Moab Adventure
centre to head to a place called The Windows to watch the sunset.   The
drive would take about an hour, more or less, and we needed to be there by
around 8.15pm, so just after 7pm we clambered back into the car and headed out.
 

 Here’s a map of Arches NP so you
can see (if you have extremely good eyesight, I suppose)
where we were and the location of all the various viewpoints and
landmarks:

We started off at the base of the
park and then drove up through the Courthouse Towers, through the Petrified
Dunes and Rock Pinnacles before turning right at Balanced Rock and heading east
towards the Windows Section.  The guy’s advice was spot on.  This place
is seriously beautiful.   Though there were a few people about, catching
the sunset like we were, it wasn’t too crowded and there were moments when you
could stop, perch on a warm red rock and hear… nothing.  Silence.
 Just perfect.

Park Avenue

Here are a few of my favorite pics
from our first excursion into the park – they don’t really do it justice, but I
hope they give you some idea of the magnitude and grandeur and sheer scale of
these imperious rocks.  I’ll load all of my pictures into an online Google Web album so you can see more if you would like.  Just stunning.

The drive back didn’t seem to take as long (isn’t that always the way?) and it was about 9.30pm by the time we got back in town.  Fending off the severe temptation just to roll in and call it a night, we decided not to be completely lazy arses (plus it was my Meal Plan Day off, so I had to get my full value in!!), so we finished the day by unwinding in a very cool restaurant and bar called Eddie McStiff’s (it had to be done, with a name like that).   There was a great band playing, we were well taken care of by a lovely waitress called Molly and we finished off the day with a kick-ass apple pie.  Along with the best blueberry mojito I’ve ever tasted, I think I did my off-meal plan day proud.

Anyway, now its time to finally head back to the hotel to rest up before our 5.45am (eek) alarm call for our 7.15am Fiery Furnace hike tomorrow.  Am just a little nervous about it – fingers crossed we make it out alive!!