Yes we went back to Utah, the state with all these nice national parks. We only saw two of them so far, why we wanted to extend the list with another two. The main reason for the 7h drive (which is extremely scenic, so not boring at all) was Arches National Park, but as Moab is the best location to visit it, we got the Canyonlands National Park in addition.
Unfortunately, we didn’t find a couchsurfer this time, why we took out our tent again and we stayed on a campground in Moab for the next two nights. As usual, we went to the Visitor Center, but this time we were really unlucky with the girl who gave us advices. She was very bored and when we asked her for some good hikes, she just said “None, it’s too hot here”. What an answer… We have to mention it was actually brutally hot with almost 40°C in the shade. Fortunately she mentioned, that we need to start very early (if we were so stupid and decide to hike, what we did for sure 🙂 ) and we went on to our camp ground.
Of course we followed her advice and got to bed very early in order to get off at 6:30. The first target was Delicate Arch, the probably most impressive structure in the park. A completely outstanding stone arch without any connections to the surrounding rocks. Unfortunately the hike was quite easy, why there were too many people (a bus full of Chinese who went there as well). The story about the development of the arches would be a bit too long, but it’s pretty interesting so look it up on google if you want to know it! The short version: Water, salt, erosion, wind etc…
After this highlight early in the morning, we drove to Canyonland NP, which was an advice of (the this time competent) girl in the Information Center of the national park and do the other hike in Arches the next morning (because it got really hot actually…)
Canyonland (roughly 10° Fahrennheit cooler) is similar impressive as the Grand Canyon. Again, one stays on the edge of the canyon, 500m above the ground and you’d think you stay in front of a surreal canvas. It’s really difficult to believe or even try to describe the dimensions. We did some shorter walks to the highlights of the parks: Upheaval Dome, Mesa Arch and the Grand View Point, which offers views on the three main canyons of the park. As already said, really really impressive!
After another short and stormy night, we got up early again (as we had pack our tent already at 5:30) and drove to Arches NP again to do the hike through Devils Garden. We’ve no clue how that name developed, but it definitely makes sense. There are the weirdest sandstone formations and one can basically see the different states of the development of an arch. The around 4h roundtrip offers views on the Double O Arch, Landscape Arche (the hugest natural arch worldwide), Vavajo Arch, Partition Arch, Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch. Afterwards we drove to the Window Arches (South, North and Turret Arch) and saw the Courthouse tower in addition to the Park Avenue (someone thought that looks like a street with skyscrapers, which explains the name). The park and the landscape is extraordinary impressive, so whoever is in the area. GO THERE!
After that we continued to Salt Lake City, but that’s another story…