Utah Rocks! Road Trip Part 4

            From Colorado we headed west to Utah on Wednesday, June 27.  The drive through western Colorado into Utah was amazing.  We passed the ski towns of Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen, etc. and got out of sitting on the highway during a traffic jam to explore the adorable town of Glenwood Springs.  The small, quaint downtown shops and old-fashioned Amtrak station caught our attention.

The heights of the mountains and the way the landscape transformed easily into colorful, rocky, desert cliffs were quite striking.  It was such a different beautiful than the lush Rockies we had just come from!  Late that evening we arrived in Moab, Utah.

Early the next morning, we set out for Arches Nationals Park, where we conquered a strenuous hike to Double O Arches.  The first mile started out easily enough, with a stroll along a path to Landscape Arch.  Beyond that, the trail got much more difficult and we began following cairns (small piles of rocks) to stay on track.  We came to a portion of the trail where the cairns directed us to climb up and over a narrow fin, a thin, steep portion of rock that dropped off to the sandy floor below.  Molly was only convinced to continue by a middle-aged man who was returning from his hike and reassured us that this was the worst part and the arches we would see along the way were worth the effort. 

We followed side trails to Partition Arch, which overlooked the backside of Landscape Arch that we had seen before, and Navajo Arch, which was located in a shady, secluded area, before pressing on to Double O Arch.  The trail got more technically difficult as we continued and involved climbing over another narrow fin.  We learned that these arches were once part of a mile-deep layer of sandstone on the bottom of the ocean, and that when the ocean dried up, erosion carried away some of the material of the sandstone bedrock, leaving behind first these tall, narrow fins, which later developed into arches as erosion carried away the sandstone underneath them. 

Upon finishing our hike, we drove around Arches to see more of the unique landforms before leaving Moab and heading for Bryce Canyon.  Once again, the drive itself was spectacular and made for a fun afternoon…especially since it meant we could be inside the air conditioned car and avoid the 100˚F afternoon!  We kept stopping at overlooks along the way, and Benno in particular was awestruck by Eagle Canyon overlook.   Though there was an abundance of vistas along the way, there certainly was NOT an abundance of civilizations!  In fact, with only a quarter tank left, we started to get worried about ever finding gas again!  We went through a few small towns, which either didn’t have gas or the stations were closed.  We passed a marina which sold gas for $9.99 and refused it, knowing our destination was close at that point.  At some point along the way, UT-22 became a road that was “no longer maintained by the state,” according to signage.  What a thought!

            We arrived at Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon City on fumes and just in time to catch the sunset over Bryce Canyon.   This canyon was unique in that it had a multitude of red spires known as hoodoos pointing up from the base of the canyon.  We walked around the rim a bit and headed back to our hotel for dinner.

            Friday morning, June 29, we got up early to catch the sunrise over the canyon.  We met some tourists from Japan and Benno chatted them up, especially a man who had been working near Benno’s old stomping grounds in Fukushima Prefecture and in fact had fled the tsunami in March 2011.  We walked into the canyon a little, stopped by the visitors’ center when it opened at 8:00am to get our park passport stamped, and headed out for our 3^rd Utah destination of Zion National Park.

            Zion looked more familiar to us as it was a tree-covered row of mountainous cliffs.   It was hot and we were starting to drag some so we opted to take the shuttle around the park to catch the sites, getting off for a few small walks along the way.  We wanted to be fair to Zion though, so we eventually woke up enough to take a more difficult hike up to the Canyon Overlook Trail.  Of course, with a name like that, we knew it would have, and it did, some steep drop-offs but the great view again made it worth it!  

            We headed out of Zion for Las Vegas.  It began to look more and more like a serious desert—less of the colorful red sandstone and more dry and plain brown hills, punctuated only by scraggly bushes.  We arrived at the airport early (can you believe it?! Remember, this is Molly and Benno we’re talking about here!) to pick up Benno’s sister Chloe, who was flying in from San Francisco to explore a bit with us.  Upon getting her, we headed to our hotel, the Imperial Palace, on the strip, checked in, showered (we’d been hiking all morning and afternoon in the desert after all!), and went out to hit the town.  We enjoyed seeing the bright lights, the Bellagio water show and blown glass ceiling, and the fancy decorations of the other hotels.  Evidence of the legality of prostitution made Benno think that “anything goes” Nevada and conservative Utah made for strange neighbors!