Day 11

Today I was up early to get a head start on things. In the morning, I went into the office to let them know I’d be staying another night. I knew I would be exhausted from hiking all day. The original plan was to leave at night and drive straight to California. I figured it would be smarter to get a good nights rest before marathoning it to Cali.

I met a family last night that has been traveling around the country for a while. They said they are bouncing around from place to place looking for a new place to make a home, with no real itinerary or timeline. They are awesome. I was over there trading stories about places we’ve visited again tonight.

Today I did Arches National Park. I hiked as much as possible. It’s impossible to explain this place. The rocks shoot straight out for the ground hundreds of feet in the air. They are absolutely massive.

My first hike was balance rock. It’s really not a hike; you just walk around this behemoth. I read that the big rock on top weighs 3,500 tons. These pictures will do it no justice.

Next, I hiked North and South Windows. There are two massive arches side by side. There is a 1 miles loop around them that I hiked. I definitely recommend doing this. On the front side there are a pretty good amount of people. I probably saw 8 people on my mile hike around the back.

Somewhere on the backside I found a nice place to put my chair down, and soak in the scenery. The view was priceless. I enjoyed just sitting and taking in the view.

Next it was onto Landscape Arch. I believe it is about a 1-mile hike to Landscape itself. This arch is 300 feet across. I got there late in the day, so the sun was right behind the arch. Really wasn’t good for taking pictures. Luckily, when I walked up to the very tip of the viewing area, the sun was sitting right behind the arch itself. I think it made for some pretty spectacular photos.

After that I kept hiking up to Partition Arch. This was the most rewarding hike of the day. You had to walk up this sick slick rock that was pretty steep. Partition had a really cool view into the valley with the Snow capped mountain in the back.

So Moab is an awesome place. I really didn’t know much about it before I got here, but this is like the mountain biking capitol of the world. I definitely want to come back and do some mountain biking. I would also recommend seeing the park by bike. There are some serious elevation changes, but it would be an amazing ride.

Moab is also big for Jeeps, quads, and dirt bikes. There are tons of trails and I heard the canyons are just as beautiful. This is definitely a place that I’ll come back to. If you are looking to something extreme, this is the place for you.

Everything is packed up and ready to go at this point. I’ve decided that I’m gonna go to Yosemite next. Its gonna be quite a drive, but I’m gonna try and marathon it. Hopefully, I can get on with some updates faster.
Until then…