Driving 4 hours post-marathon can be rough (body gets mighty stiff), scheduling a massage at 6pm – pretty sweet idea 🙂  Passed entrances to both Canyonlands & Arches National Park(s).  Giddy feeling, LOVE LOVE the massive towering rock.  Hotel check-in, Spa Moab on Main Street, Thai dinner.  Early to bed, early to rise.

Not early enough to catch sunrise, but still able to secure parking at Devils Garden Trailhead, far edge of Arches.  Backpack heavy with water.  Perfect post-marathon therapy: 4.2 mile desert hike, up & over boulders, dense sand, landscaped by tall canyon walls. Panorama more reminiscent of New Mexico than neighboring Colorado.

Under a mile to Landscape Arch, longest of the Park’s natural sandstone arches.  Photo stop, long drag on my CamelBak, hike terrain shifted from ‘easy’ to ‘Difficult’.  Brochure description: ‘Requires rock scrambling, climbing, and descending steep slopes near drop-offs.’  Marathon Saturday, Rock Scramble Sunday – heck yeah, count me in!

Scaled large sandstone boulders, UP UP UP – uneven arid terrain, but not 14er hike difficult.  Cactus, sage, whole lotta SAND & lizards.  Amazing vista, landscape opened for miles.  Trekked another mile to today’s hike destination: Double O Arch.  Brochure description: ‘Sandstone fin, reached via a challenging hike, with a large upper & a smaller lower opening.’  What they didn’t mention?  You can actually climb thru the lower arch opening.  FAAANNNTASTIC!

Mercury struck 90; car returned for lunch (ice-chest’d turkey/avocado wraps).  4-5 drive hour from home, work day tomorrow, what to do?  Refilled my (CamelBak) bladder & started the 3.2 mile hike to Delicate Arch (Park’s most infamous landmark) 🙂

65-foot-tall freestanding natural arch…most widely recognized landmark in Arches National Park and is depicted on Utah license plates and on a postage stamp commemorating Utah’s centennial anniversary of admission to the Union in 1996. The Olympic torch relay for the 2002 Winter Olympics passed through the arch.

 

…formed of Entrada Sandstone. The original sandstone fin was gradually worn away by weathering and erosion, leaving the arch. Other arches in the park were formed the same way but, due to placement and less dramatic shape, are not as famous.

UP, down, UP down, UP UP UP – temps now soared above 100.  Crazy hot.  Body bypassed sweating, [went] straight to secreting salt – human salt caked ’round my eyes, sides of my face.  …but that view.  Yea, it was worth it.

Native American petroglyphs on the hike return. WOW!

my 10 day future: enjoying a marathon mini-break.  Next up: R-U-S-S-I-A  #noregretlife

Arches National Park (Moab UT)