Moab and Grand Junction

As expected, Moab was hot. After stopping in town, we headed directly to Arches National Park, which is only a few miles north. We had been there before, but had not spent as much time as we would have liked. We had also forgotten how popular the park was when we found packed tour buses at the visitor center and a campground with no vacancies.

We made some chicken sandwiches with Arby’s sauce at the picnic area and headed back to the Park Avenue Trail for our only hope of a shady hike. With the towering monoliths on either side, we were able to have a temperate walk, with massive sandstone sculptures at which to stare.

The nearest state park was also full, so we started to drive northeast on the road that follows the Colorado River until we found an empty Bureau of Land Management campground called “Upper Drinks.” I think that we found the only shady campsite in Moab with pinyon pines and scrubby oaks surrounding us. A path led down to the river where we dipped our feet and sat for the afternoon. We also played some music, which ended with a bird pooping on Lisa’s guitar…obviously not a songbird.

Looking for something cold to drink, we headed back into town and found malts! We sipped them while wandering down the shady side of the street before we headed back to our campsite for an early night.

We awoke at 4:30 the next morning intending to hike to delicate arch, the unofficial Utah state symbol. It is an incredibly popular destination and we wanted to beat the crowds and the heat. We arrived at the trailhead as the sun was rising and enjoyed a comfortable hike into the arch. There were only a handful of visitors and we enjoyed the view until the arch was in full sun.

A National Oddity

Looking up at Delicate Arch

When we returned the sun was getting higher in the sky and the heat was getting more intense. We decided to head east since we knew that a heat wave was coming and as Vermonters, we are not really used to sunshine for more than twenty minutes at a time. We grabbed a hotel room in Grand Junction and spent the rest of the day lounging around.

The next morning, we headed to the lower monument trailhead at Colorado National Monument. We hiked to Independence Monument and looked up at the view that we saw from the campground three years earlier. When we climbed onto a rock for a picture, we saw words chipped onto the flat face of the stone, an odd mystery.

With the sun getting higher in the sky, we downed some water and headed back to the car with our shirt collars raised over our necks. The high temperature in this area would be in the hundreds for the next few days and as much as we would like to spend more time exploring Moab and Grand Junction, the heat is rather stifling.

We grabbed some burritos smothered with green chili sauce in downtown Grand Junction and we are currently climbing in elevation on I-70, heading towards Aspen. The high temperatures in the mountains will be in the eighties and we will be able to explore much more freely!