Canyonlands an Arches with the Family
President’s Day Weekend trip to Moab! It was wet and a bit rainy, but great. We did the Island in the Sky and Needles Districts of Canyonlands and Arches. Pictures will go on the family blog.
Arches and Canyonlands
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.
