Wake up call came at 6am this morning for a 7am park reservation. Imagine that once again there was no line to get into the park. Hmmmmm. I’m not sure I was even awake enough to be able to journal about this part of the morning, but here we are. Since we had to pass Skyline Arch Trail to get to Landscape Arch Trail we may as well stop and get that under our belt too, right?
We were probably at Landscape Arch Trail around 8am (I honestly am not sure – not awake, remember?). There are two more arches off of a short branch of the original trail so we checked those boxes as well – Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch.
The rest of the trail to Landscape Arch was pretty but much of it would’ve been prettier later in the day since the sun was rising and blinding much of the view. It’s a fairly easy trail – thank goodness because I was still trying to wake up. I found it fascinating how the view changed as we wound our way around and closer to the arch. When we first came upon it, there was very little definition between the arch itself and the rock behind it. I love how the pictures show the changes.
Before September 1991 the trail took you right up to the arch and underneath it. But on September 1, 1991 a 60’ slab fell scattered on the ground from the over 300’ arch with hikers narrowly escaping their demise. So that part of the route remains closed to this day. The hikers say they could here what sounded like thunder from far away clouds before smaller rocks started falling from above which gave them time to get out of the way. It’s amazing no one was seriously hurt.
We were back to the parking lot and in the car by about 9:45 and heading out of the park around 10:15. The line of cars to get into the park was pretty long – which is why we did the early reservations.
We made it back to the hotel around 10:30, ecstatic they were still serving breakfast until 11:00! Both of us were starving! The food here (HooDoo Hilton) has been really good and this morning was not an exception. Bob had an amazing Mediterranean omelet and I woofed down Eggs Benedict. After regrouping for a while we walked around town and contributed to the local economy a bit.
After a restful afternoon, we walked across the street to a Thai restaurant for dinner. We both enjoyed our dishes and will be digesting the rest of the night. For now, we’re in the basement of the hotel waiting on clothes to get cleaned and dried. Tomorrow we go on an all day excursion to the Needles part of Canyonlands. Exciting!
It's a Wonderful Life! 