Dead Horse Point and Arches National Park
Between April 16th and the 22nd, we took time to drive this marvelous loop to take in the National Parks of southeast Utah and south west Colorado. We had a great time waking up our hiking muscles after a rather dormant winter of inactivity. 
On
our way into Dead Horse Point, we stopped at the pull-out to get this
great picture of the Monitor and the Merrimack Monuments. They look
really majestic in front of that beautiful blue sky.
This picture was taken just outside the visitors center of Dead Horse Point. The blue lakes in the distance are really evaporation ponds for mining phosphorous. The shade of blue is quite intense. The snow capped mountains in the distance are the La Sales. By the end of our trip we realized that we had circled them completely.
Here's the famous view of Dead Horse Point. We hiked from the visitors center to this spot where we could overlook the vies of the goose-neck of the San Juan River. It was a mile and a half each way. This was the beginning of maybe twenty miles we put on our old legs during this trip. You can bet that we were a little tired by the end of each day.
We stayed in Moab, Utah the first night and decided to do a river float trip the next day. Part of the thinking for this decision was to give our muscles a bit of a rest.
We used the "Adrift Adventures" company to take us on this adventure. The guy on the left was named Cameron, and he was the chief bottle washer. He paddled us down the Colorado River, giving a semi-humerous commentary on on sites of interest. He also laid out our lunch at the half-way point. The gal on the right was a new-hire for their company, her name was Erin, from Park City, and she was along for the ride so that as she worked their front desk she could answer questions more intelligently. 
We didn't see too much white water. It was mostly a "relax and enjoy" ride.
On the way, we got to witness a courting ritual of two really big turkeys. We heard them before we saw them. The male bird had his feathers all fanned out, and he was singing the "Gobbler's Love Ballad" really loud.
On the 17th, we hiked into see Delicate Arch at Arches National Park.
We followed these stacked rocks to get to our destination.They're called "cairn". Here's what I learned about the word:
... used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile (or stack) of stones. ... They vary in size from small stone markers to entire artificial hills, and in ... The expression "two rocks do not make a duck" reminds hikers that just one rock ... could be the result of accident or nature rather than intentional trail marking.
Near the beginning of the hike we passed these really cool petroglyphs.
Since we took the hike in the spring, we saw a few evidences of the season in this dry dessert.
Just before we rounded the bend to view the Delicate Arch, we saw this small arch, and climbed up about five feet to get our first view of our quest.
Proof that we made it to the end. Our timing was great! A large group of people had just finished taking all their pictures. We nabbed the couple who had just finished their picture-taking, to click a few of us.
We didn't think to make a reservation to hike the guided tour through the "Fiery Furnace". But we've put it on our calendar for April of 2013. It looks pretty cool, even from the road!
We divided our Arches National Park experience into two days of hiking. We love the beautiful red rock! And we saw a lot of arches. I'm not sure if I can identify all of them properly, but here are just a few pictures of the beauty we saw. We think that the one above is "Skyline Arch".
Cove Arch
Sand Dune Arch
Landscape Arch
Interesting spires
We filled our shoes with sand (over and over again) as we hiked through the Devil's Garden. We're so glad that we went in April -- as it was already a little on the warm side. August would be unbearably hot!
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