Well, for our last day or riding Tom and I went back to Arches and rode one more time including two sections we hadn't been down yet. Before leaving town we stopped and grabbed a couple shots of some old equipment that we have passed every day driving here
Then we proceeded to the park which was amazingly empty. Once again since we arrived before the 730 AM opening, the ranger booth was empty and payment was basically on teh honor system. Since we have the America the Beautiful Pass whcih allows entry into all National Parks for 1 year, we drive right though. BTW, it you are ever going to viist more than one park a year this pass is a great deal! Saved us HUNDREDS of dollars in entrance fees.
The drive into the park was spectacular due to the sun just rising. That combined with empty roads and what I think is smke in the air from the fires in teh west made for some spectacular images! We saw the old standby Courthouse which is really an imposing structure
But then things started really getting interesting scenery wise. The area around Balancing Rock was just spectacular. Below you can also see the Garden of Eden and the Windows Arches which we rode to later in the moring. .
We stopped at Balancing Rock and this is where Tom and I started our ride for this day.
We rode back up the hill to the Devil's Gardenwhere we had visited earlier in the week and then descended into the Delicate Arch side road.
Then we climbed back up towards Balancing Rock but took the side road to the Garden of Eden. Along the way we noticed someone standing on one of the rock pillars. Aparently they had climbed to the top and we standing up there. Crazy! If you look closely you can just see them.
Then we proceeded towards the Garden of Eden which seemed to be an Arch Mecca. The number of arches here was more than anywhere else and the other stone structures were immense. Below are closer pictures of th Windows Arches.
The detail in the rocks is just beyond belief and you can amaing structures looking everywhere.
After this we rode back to Balancing Rock, packed the bikes into the SUV and drve out of Arches for the last time on this trip. The line at teh entrace was the longest we had seen all week. I guess e picked a good time to go!
Here is the ride map from today.
And associated Video
When we got back to the house, Tiffany showed us some pictures of a snake she saw on the back porch.
After our ride we continued what we had been doing all week. Go for a hike in 95+ degree weather. This time we went back down Pot Ash Road and decided to climb up to the Corona Arch. it was a 3 mile round trip hike that frankly was pretty challenging.
The hike started with a short climb up to a rail bed where Tom made another attempt at competing for the Darwin Award. The reality is the way teh tracks were cut through the stone was pretty amzaing.
The hike after the railroad went up and down until we reached a spot where we have to climb using cables and footings that were cut into the rock. Then we had to climb up a metal ladder that was very hot due to being out in the bright sun. More on those in a bit during our descent!
The arch turned out to be pretty amazing also and was quite large.
There we also caves and a hole to teh sky in this area
We took some pictures while we were walking up to teh arch but it's size still isn't really aparent from these.
Here is a picture Tom took of Tiffany standing under the arch .. see that little spec in the red circle!
We finished walking up the the arch and cooled off in it's shade before heading back to the SUV
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On teh walk back we had to deal with going down those ladders and steep rocks. Here are a couple pics that show how that went. Unfortunately they are blurry as I had the focuss set to manual vs auto by accident.
Here's a short vid clip showing how fun it was.
After returning to the SUV we headingback out to town and snapped this pic of the Uranium Mill Tailing Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project t site at the end of the road. Evidently they used to mine a lot of Uranium in this area and they are trying to clean up the mess left behind.
We stopped for lunch one more time at Peace Tree Juice Bar and as you can see, enjoyed our meal.
