Hi Gram,
I didn’t get nearly enough sleep, but I was eager to wake early and get to the park before it got too hot. I grabbed a quick breakfast, then got to the park at 6:50am. I had a timed entry pass for 7am in case I didn’t wake up in time, but it wasn’t necessary as I whisked right through the gate (you don’t need a pass if you get there before 7). I was glad to see that there wasn’t a line, but there were already plenty of people in the park. In hindsight, I wish I would have gotten up even earlier and seen more of the park. Sunrise was around 6am, and the thermometer was already showing 77 degrees when I got there!

I passed the visitors center and made my way to the first trailhead, eager to walk and see some of the park before the sun got too high in the sky. I followed a concrete path to an outlook for a picture, then doubled back and followed a set of crude stairs carved from rock and timbers down to the trail below. The trail was well defined at first, but quickly became a set of footprints in the dust through an alien rocky terrain. Every so often, I’d see a marker to show that I was still on the path, but the grandiosity was just overwhelming! Impossibly giant boulders sat balanced on tiptoe, sure to tip and come tumbling down any moment, upon the shoulders of steep cliffs.

Walking through this foreign landscape, I thought back on all the fun times I’ve had with friends in the past few months and all the awe-inspiring views I’ve seen on my own and with others. I concluded that hiking with friends is better than hiking alone. The only way that I can imagine making this experience at Arches National Park any better is if I had a friend here to share the experience with. If I had to choose between taking in all this gorgeous scenery on my own or walking through a boring grassy Midwestern field with a friend, I would choose the friend every time, without hesitation.

I am very fortunate to have had these experiences and am grateful for my friends around the world that have helped me form so many memories. Even without a friend to share the view with, the scenery still moves my soul.

The otherworldly land was punctuated from time to time when I crossed paths with the few other visitors along the way. I stopped and listened to Ranger Mary explain some of the history of the park and how it formed before moving along and seeing more amazing nature. A few minutes later, it occurred to me that I should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque, as Bugs Bunny used to say. I had veered off the trail somehow and was walking along a dried riverbed, which has the same flat, winding, slightly rocky look and feel as the trail that I’d left. I doubled back and found the junction but decided to head back to the car instead of exploring further. This was, after all, my first trail and the park had so much more to offer.

Something common, I’ve learned, about hiking is that landmarks on the way in don’t look the same on the way out. Combine that with my memory lapses and fact that my brain fills in false details when there’s a gap, and navigating out comes down to guess work. On most paths and trails, the way back is relatively easy – there’s one way in and out. Here, though, the trail isn’t much different from the terrain around it and I later found out that there are a lot of offshoot trails where someone will wander off, then the next people see footprints and follow, then it starts to look like a real trail. This is just one more reason hiking with friends is better. I found one of these offshoot trails and started down the wrong canyon. With plenty of footprints ahead of me, I was sure I was going the right direction until the path narrowed and got into some shrubs, then I was sure that I couldn’t get out this way. A little shrug, I turned around and headed back where I came from. I was almost back to a spot that I recognized when I saw Ranger Mary again. I told her that I got lost and asked where I went wrong, and she assured me that I had been going the right way. She offered to walk along with me and help me find my way, so I turned around and we headed back into the canyon.

We had a great talk about the park, how she’d just gotten the job after having worked at another park part-time, how she loved being out in nature and learning all about the history and details. I told her about my travels and how I almost didn’t come down here but my friend Mark had suggested it, and about my plans for the next few months. It was great to have someone to chat with while we walked, and she was a fun companion. We got back to the point where I had decided to turn around and she showed me what I’d missed the first time…. no, I’m kidding, she realized that we’d taken the wrong path and couldn’t get out of this canyon either. So we turned around and headed back the way we came again. The sun was getting a little higher in the sky and was beating right down into this canyon, so we were glad when we got back to the correct trail where we found other people and some shade. Mary pointed me in the right direction and headed back the way she had come from. I walked for a while with another couple whom I’d seen earlier, then picked up the pace as they stopped for some photos. Shortly thereafter, I was back at the staircase and up at my car.

Thankful for the air conditioning, I drank some more water and drove further into the park, stopping often for pictures and to just gawk at the massive rocks around me. I followed the map that I got at the entrance to a couple of window arches that I had read about. They were a short walk from the parking lot and much more crowded than the trail had been. As I reached the shade of the arch, I laughed when I overheard a child ask “mommy, will you take my picture on that rock?” and her curt reply, “we have enough pictures of you on rocks. Get down from there!” I walked around a little and saw just how much more of the park I could see if it wasn’t so hot. When I got back to the car, the display told me that it had reach 101, although I think that was a little high from the car sitting in the sun. I headed back down the road and stopped at the visitor center, where I was able to get a cell signal again. My phone showed that it had reached 99 already, so my car wasn’t too far off! I headed inside to browse the gift shop and found a pack of stickers with all the national parks. I quickly bought it and sat in my air conditioned car applying the stickers to my water bottle from parks that I have been to in my life.

As I left the park, I was surprised by the long row of cars waiting to get in, glad that I’d seen the park before the sun got too high and the temperatures too hot. I pointed my car north and headed towards Salt Lake City. Along the way, I got to see a helicopter placing part of an electric tower, then return to its base and pick up another, which was really cool to see.

I got as far as Ogden before stopping for the night, where I checked into a random hotel and was BLOWN AWAY! I had just picked a random hotel around a hundred dollars and somehow ended up with a king suite larger than some apartments that I’ve lived in. It had a small kitchenette, a sitting room with a couch and desk, then a room with a king-sized bed and a window looking down into the pool room. This was way better than I was expecting for the price, but then I stepped into the bathroom and was blown away again. The shower was at least four by six feet and had FOUR shower heads! I’m used to tiny bathrooms where you have to step out of the way for the door to open, a small vanity sink, and a bath tub and weak shower head that doesn’t always point where you want. This, by comparison, was gradiose! I lounged about on the L-shaped sofa, took full advantage of the enormous shower, read my book, and did a few video chats with friends to talk about travel plans and personal finance. Exhausted, I collapsed into the very comfortable bed that made me feel like I was an actual king.