Denver or Bust Road Trip – Day 4
It was an early morning back in Arches National Park. We were hoping to beat the crowds, beat the heat and get some nice sun rise views… we sort of accomplished all three.
The sun was still below the horizon, but it was very bright out by the time we got to the first arch, Landscape Arch. There was one other vehicle in the lot when we left, not sure if the occupants were ahead of us or not, but with no line of people to follow we did sort of take “the wrong way” to get past the first sort of obstacle.
Essentially, once past Landscape Arch, it is very much a more rustic trail. You’re often climbing rocks and crossing barren areas where there is no trail, just maybe an occasional cairn to guide you. Most of the time it wasn’t an issue, but in the video where we were thinking climbing this narrow incline was wrong… we were, and that’s how we ended up coming back.
We took a fairly leisurely pace and so some of the crowds caught up with us, which was fine. We knew we wouldn’t avoid them forever. I would like to go back during a cooler time of the year and spend much more time. In just a few hours the temps well over 100 and the heat sapped a lot out of us by the time we returned. But the views… they were well worth it.
