Work brought me down to Moab for a conference and I took the opportunity to squeeze in a couple evening runs after the conference activities wound down.

In Arches I did a loop up into Devil’s Garden. I was in a hurry and didn’t hit Dark Angel or Private Arch but I did hit a bunch of others. On the back side of the loop (the east side) there is a little sand to deal with but mostly super fun single track. It was a blast. I hit Landscape Arch, Wall Arch, Navajo Arch, and Double O Arch.

I hurried to my car, tore down to Delicate Arch, and charged up hoping to hit it at sunset.

About 1/4 mile up I realized I had forgotten my phone in the car. By the time I got up to the arch, I had missed the sunset magic by about 20 minutes. I still managed to get a nice picture though.

The next night I headed to the Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands.

I have gawked at it in the satellite images before and just had to see it. There is a loop that goes around it (unfortunately, around its outside mostly and not up on a rim/ridge) so I hit that. The Syncline Loop. I saw a couple people in the first 1/2 mile and then was completely by myself for the remainder of the evening. It was simultaneously exhilarating to have the desert to myself and spookily quiet. I had hope to make it back to the start to run the mile out to the overlooks for the sunset, but AGAIN missed it – this time by about 30 minutes.