Our first stop was to hike to the Delicate Arch, which I'd been told really should be done at sunset but I knew that would be a long shot with this crew, so early morning was the next best bet. We went through the motions of applying sunscreen, put on our Camelbacks which we'd wisely filled at the campground at a water spigot marked "Drinking Water" and off we went.
About five minutes into the hike we realized that our water tasted terrible. It had a disgusting metallic taste to it and we were all grimacing and spitting it out. It was too late to do anything about it since the nearest water station was a drive away. We decided to tough it out and I began to second guess the fact that I'd filled the Camelbacks from the heavy dirty looking hose that had been attached to the spigot.
The hike was an out and back, round trip of approximately 3.6 miles over rocky terrain, some at times was what's called "slickrock" which means you're basically scrambling up a flat, smooth rocky surface. We saw people out there again with the wrong footwear, no water, a few hardy parents were toting little ones in backpacks. We congratulated ourselves frequently on getting out there early as there was still a nice breeze blowing as we made our way along the edge of a cliff. When the Delicate Arch appeared before us in all its glory we agreed that it had definitely been worth getting up early and choking down nasty water to see it. We stayed for a while to soak it in and take a break, making fun of the idiots who were running along the edge of the cliff face and one Asian tourist who decided to climb down a dangerous precipice to pose for a goofy photo taken by his wife. They were both wearing flip flops.
We hiked back to the RV passing red faced people who had not gotten up early and were hence trekking up to the arch in the beginnings of the heat of the day. Around 10 a.m. it had already climbed to near 90. We decided to crank up the generator and have our lunch early since the hike had made us all famished. So there we were parked on the side of the road, generator roaring, eating roast beef sandwiches at 10:30 in the morning.
We took two more hikes that were much shorter, one to Landscape Arch which had a section that had actually collapsed several years earlier. As a result you can no longer go right up to it but view it from a safe distance. A shorter hike to the North and South Windows was rewarding in that the kids got to do some climbing which always helps to make a hike more exciting. Ella was disappointed that Arches had no ladders for her to climb since she'd enjoyed the ladders at Mesa Verde so much.
We were done hiking by 2 pm which was a good thing since now the temps were nearing 100 degrees. We drove back to our campground and spent the rest of the day relaxing, either in the pool or in our air-conditioned RV. Even sitting by the pool was rough if you weren't in the water, the sun was that hot. Jack and Ella decided that little kids with British accents were very cute. The same brother and sister were in the pool that afternoon that they'd seen the day before, bickering over the score of a game they were playing shouting "No, Nigel, it's Four-NIL!"
Over the past day or two I'd noticed that one of my Facebook friends was also on some type of southwestern National Park tour and as luck would have it he and his family were arriving in Moab that same day. His son played hockey with Jack last season and I'd seen photos of them at Grand Canyon and Zion a day earlier. After several messages we agreed that they would stop by our campground for an evening drink. John immediately ran to the camp store and bought some Stella Artois and Shocktop beer in anticipation of an evening with some other people!
We ate our dinner in the blazing sun outside our RV and struck up a conversation with our neighbor, a nice man from the Netherlands who was riding around in one of those CruiseAmerica RVs that screams "I'm a tourist!!", emblazoned with images of American the Beautiful and 1-866-RV2RENT. He was amazed that we, as Americans, were able to get three solid weeks off for vacation. He told us how in Europe they get six weeks off which meant that when they returned from this vacation they still had another week off in order to recover. We agreed that Europeans definitely have a better work/life balance.
Our friends the Shorts arrived just in time for sunset and drinks. We popped open bottles of Stella and Shocktop and began regaling each other with tales of our travels. About halfway into the evening as we discussed the weird alcohol laws in Utah, we realized that our beers were all 3.2% alcohol despite the fact that they had been imported outside the state. No wonder they tasted a bit watery. The only good thing about that was that I didn't have any type of hangover the next day.
Our friends were also heading to Colorado the next day so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. We warned our kids that the next day was a long driving day. Unfortunately due to poor wifi we weren't able to download any movies for them (story of our trip). We went to bed ready to conquer another day of driving and looked forward to getting into the mountains and away from the desert heat.
Next: Heading into the Rockies!
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