Arches National Park

Jan and I made a weekend trip to Arches National Park. As soon as Jan got off work at 1:30 p.m. we jumped in the car and took off for Moab. I wanted to get pictures of Delicate Arch with the late afternoon sun on it. We made it to Arches about 5:00 p.m. and hurried to the Delicate Arch trailhead. It's a 1.5 mile hike out to Delicate Arch with a 450 foot elevation gain, and we had less than an hour to get there. As you can see from the pictures, we made it with plenty of time to spare, although clouds were covering the sun. Jan has been walking 3 miles every day, and you could really tell she was in shape. I was glad we made the effort to get there Friday afternoon.

We stayed the night in Moab, and then came back to Arches the next morning. It was cloudy, but the weather forecast hadn't said there would be any rain, so we drove out to Devil's Garden and were going to make a 4.5 mile hike out to Double O Arch. We made it a little past half way when suddenly the clouds came rushing over us, hail started to fall, lightning flashed, thunder roar and echoes, and we were climbing on slickrock. It was really scary. You can see the before and after pictures of Landscape Arch. We very carefully hiked back off the slickrock to our car, grateful to make it safely. We thought we might be able to wait out the storm, but it just kept coming down, so we finally gave up and left for home. It was truly amazing to see and hear Mother Nature change so drastically so quickly. It was truly a wonderful adventure.