"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" ^ The first thing I hear whispered into my ear today. It's before 6:00AM MT in our cozy Honda Element bed at our lovely Goose Island campsite on the river and it seems to be getting easier to get moving this early. Our morning routine has evolved into a pretty good teamwork session. He pulls out our breakfast - Clif bars in every flavor - and shouts my options. In the meantime I am stuffing my sleeping bag back into it's sack and then it's time to change, brush my nappy, unwashed hair, and then we fold the bed back up together. I feel like I drank some coffee at some point, but I can't remember anything about where it came from. I guess I wasn't completely awake after all. We both wanted today to be special for me and ended up saving the trail to one of the most beautiful arches for this morning. Delicate Arch is suuuper popular and in order to beat the crowds we wanted to be a part of the first wave of cars into the park.
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Just a short hour drive from Arches NP is the 337,598 acres that is Canyonlands National Park. The route in between is simple; Take the 191 to the 313 to find the park sign to grab a photo. On the way to the entrance you will pass the turnoff to Dead Horse Point State Park; where the horses of cowboys died from exposure frequently in the 19th century. You will also notice plenty of camping areas marked BLM (a.k.a FREE). We passed these by so we could spend the rest of the day inside the National Park. First stop, photo. Second stop, "Island in the Sky" Visitor Center to flash our park pass ($25.00 saved) and purchase some postcards before they closed for the day (5:00PM). The WPA postcards have turned into some of my favorites and finding them at the visitor centers has become somewhat of a scavenger hunt for me to build the complete collection. Tate has begun to collect the free park maps they provide for you and by the end of this trip he will have quite a stack. We opened our map and started along the road to find our afternoon destinations. Canyonlands is huge! Today we will only get 1/3 of the experience by hanging out in the Island in the Sky district. Some of the other portions require a lot more planning and to some extent 4-wheel drive. We didn't know a lot about what to expect at Canyonlands when we first arrived. It's not a park that gets mentioned often when it has to compete with nearby spots like Arches NP. But when we stood at the edges of the Shafer Canyon Overlook we began to see why this place was so special and deserved to be preserved. I wasn't completely clueless about Canyonlands though. Pictures of Mesa Arch have floated in front of me on my computer before and it was finally time to see it in person. This pothole arch isn't much taller than Tate (he's 6'2"), but is more sturdy and wide looking. When I approached it I was confused because when it pops up on my screensaver at work it looks huge! But when I shoved past the other photographers I realized that the reason I was so fond of this spot wasn't because of the arch itself, but because the view that lays behind it makes this arch the most unique and beautiful to capture. The red canyon fields of fins and buttes go on for miles and miles until it casually contrasts into violet mountains and blue skies. So I stared as long as I could before my instincts told me that I was becoming a prop in the photos taken by other people and then I got into position and awkwardly had my picture taken by Tate in front of a large group of people because that's how you prove you were there right? Feeling rushed, we stepped to the side for more views of the canyon below and I felt happy to have made it this far. After Mesa Arch the road comes to a fork. Taking the left route took us past the Buck Canyon overlook and straight to the end of the line to the Grand View Point. This circle lot was reaching full capacity and people were lined all along the wood railing for a glimpse and a photo. Lots of camera rigs with expensive gadgets, ND filters, huge lenses, etc. in everyone's hands. I would've been happy to sit there all day if there was time. The golden hour was in tow and all of the shadows were setting into place. We followed the road back to the fork and stopped at the Green River Overlook before heading towards the Upheaval Dome for a short hike to end our time at Canyonlands. I had just purchased a postcard with the Dome on it at an aerial view and it looks amazing from up above. Standing near the center of the Dome does not feel quite the same. It's difficult to fathom the size of these large scale erosion wonders unless you're there to experience it. The sun was setting as we exited the park and everything around us began to turn to hues of pink and purple and blue. This is my absolute favorite time of day and as we descended down from atop the canyon mesas towards Moab we caught a glimpse of the towers and rows of rocky mazes that we would be trekking through the following morning...the Fiery Furnace. But no day is complete until you've had dinner and this evening marked the eve of my 27th birthday so Tate went the extra mile to make it a special one because he finally found the vegan specialty item he has been searching for for so long, THE BEYOND BURGER!
That's right! I got to eat my first burger since we turned vegan thanks to Beyond the Meat (seriously thanks) and this one really hit the spot. I am going to brag about this thing for the rest of my life. There is no better feeling than to sit riverside with your best friend in one of the most beautiful places in the world, eating a burger (that no animals were harmed for my pleasure) on the night before your birthday. I slept well that night. Getting up earlier and earlier every day it seems. At least today we knew we could drift on without rushing. We already squeezed in another park and shaved two hours of driving time off by staying the night outside Capitol Reef. So only two more hours to Moab, UT where the beloved Arches National Park lies. This year things are a little different at Arches. Evening construction inside the park meant all vehicles have to be out of the park by 7:00PM daily and that there would be no camping inside the gates. Good thing there is plenty of camping nearby on the 128 that follows the Colorado River up and along the park's canyon wall. We pulled into the first group of sites dubbed "Goose Island Campground and found a spot splayed with sunshine, but we didn't want to settle for that. After talking to a few other campers, I found a nice group of gals from NYC offering up their sweet site with excellent views of the river. The only request is that they could leave one of their cars behind so they could all ride together inside the park which would save them an extra $30.00 entrance fee for the second vehicle. It was a great trade and being able to help others out in exchange for the best campsite on the loop was just the 'best case scenario' kind of thing we were looking for. We skipped breakfast during the drive to Moab in order to save room for the vegan breakfast burritos Tate had heard about from a special place called the Eklectic Cafe (yes, with a 'k'). He dropped me off at the door to order up two tofu egg and potato burritos with avocado and I added a big coconut milk latte. $25 breakfast for two was pretty steep, but the burritos were huge and satisfying. We sat in the line to get into the park, flashed our National Park pass and went on our way. The visitor center was packed and our little hearts were sad when we saw the Fiery Furnace tours were booked up for the next couple of days. I spoke to the ranger at the desk and he told us we could purchase backcountry permits and enter the furnace ourselves if we wanted to. The cost was $6.00/person + a 15 minute instructional video. Only 75 people were permitted to enter each day. The ranger pointed us out to Devil's garden to try out the similar landscape there before coming back with our decision. So we hopped in the car for the drive to the very back of the park - a 17 mile trip to the lot. The beginning of the Devils Garden trail is a fantastic 4.2 mile hike out to Double O arches. During the hike out you get to see 5 different arches before you hit Double O and can continue on another mile for the Dark Angel trail or finish the 7.8 mile primitive loop if you're looking to fill the day. •Tunnel Arch •Pine Tree Arch •Landscape Arch •Partition Arch •Navajo Arch Each arch is different from the one before and are easily accessible on your way to Double O, which is the gem at the end. There are some steep sections after Landscape Arch, but don't' give up, it's 100% worth the extra climb to see Double O. It takes years for an Arch to appear through weather erosion, but the erosion never stops and eventually they will collapse, so don't miss out! The trails walk you up to good viewpoints of the arches, but we enjoy finding the good shots from other angles when we can. These natural wonders are so amazing and I can easily see why this park is such a favorite for people. But we wouldn't know how much we loved Arches until the following day. We didn't need any more convincing to realize the trekking through the Fiery Furnace is exactly how we wanted to spend my birthday. We headed back to the Visitor Center to grab our permit and receive the lecture and then hopped back on the highway towards Canyonlands to finish our day.
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AuthorReesa Faris ArchivesCategories |