Day 19 - 20: Arches & Zion NP

Today we visted the Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. The NP consists of big sand stones that have eroded through time and now form different kinds of aches and balancing acts. We did few small hikes in the NP, one through "Windows" which were two arches providing view over the park. The other one lead us to Landscape Arch, which looked like it is not going to be there for long anymore. The hiking path used to go under the arch, until in 1991 there were hikers resting underneath the arch, when tons of rock collapsed from the arch. Luckily the people heard cracking sounds before that and had time to flee.

The most exciting time of the day was a service break at the Visitor Center. When getting out of a car in a parking lot there was a very sudden and strong whirlwind, that almost got A going with the wind. From one car there was all kinds of parts flying around and R watched from the safety of the car how they tried to catch those. Also the small sand/rock pieces can hurt really a lot when hitting you with hard wind. Ouch!!

Since after this we are already feeling a bit canyoned out, we decided to skip Canyonlands NP and head instead for Zion NP. The free entrance week continues, and today again 10$ saved ;) We grabbed quick lunch from Wendy's (standard burger and something called Baconator...) and continued our way from Moab. We have US map that shows all interesting places tagged with yellow. However in Utah the only interesting city is Salt Lake City and that is something we decided to skip already. We picked randomly Cedar City, which is close to Zion NP.

We found a nice hotel and asked to have a map from the reception. We also asked whether there are any special things to see in the city and the guy had a hard time figuring out what that could be. He mentioned there is a movie theater, unfortunately there was only one movie on at midnight. We went walking around the city and stacked up water from Walmart. At the cashier line they asked if we would like to move to the automated checkout line. R responded that since this is our only social contact of the day, please don't take it away from us. I think the joke was taken a bit too literally and we got some puzzled looks :)

We got a list of restaurants with us, and out of ~40 places only 5 or so had a cocktail glass after them. This means, the others are without beer service. Panique! We found one mexican restaurant for dinner, which was okayish.

On Friday we packed our stuff and after breakfast headed towards Zion National Park. Now others have found out also that there is a free entry. It was hard to find a parking lot even this time. We decided to do a few mile hike called the Watchmen. Even though the route was moderate, it felt relatively easy an within few hours we had climbed to the view point and back to our car. After this we drove through the NP and took another exit out. We also saw all kinds of Mustangs driving there, and as we exited we noticed there was some kind of Mustang-gathering going on.

We drove to Flagstaff, Arizona for the night and found a good & cheap motel near the center. While driving we stopped to check out the Horseshoe Bend of Colorado river. That was beautiful, and it cannot but to amaze us that such things can be formed by the power of water. In the evening we walked to the city and enjoyed a real dinner and some bar-hopping. It was nice to eat like a normal person for a change ;-)

 

 

Day 18: Hanging Lake

After a healthy oatmeal/bagel breakfast, we did some calling home over Skype and after that continued our trip. At the breakfast there was overly social guy asking all kinds of things. He thought I sounded Russian, well geographically we are of course close :) Overall we are probably considered as reserved Europeans as we are not talking to everybody we see. R has also outsourced most of that to me :) Usually people are asking where we are from, as they can obviously here we are not from the States. One funny incident was also when we stopped at a store to buy some Ice tea and Dr Pepper. R was wearing a hoodie that said something about Mt Everest. The guy looked at it and then asked from R "So have you climbed Mount Everest?" We couldn't but to take it as a compliment, that someone looking at us would even think that :-D Probably it also means, that the locals in Colorado are used to seeing all kinds of climbing people here.

Before heading to Utah, we decided to stop for a small hike by the I-70. The hiketrail is called Hanging Lake, and it was marked as moderate when we looked at it. We thought we can make it an easy stop since the trail was only 1,2 miles. It was also mentioned to be one of the most photographed places in Colorado. In the parking lot were caution signs, that please note this hike is DIFFICULT and please have good shoes and enough water with you.

We started walking easy paved road from the parking lot and though that well, this is still not too hard. However when we got to the beginning of the actual trail, it turned out that it is 1,2 miles straight up with an elevation of our 1000 feet. Challenge accepted! It took us an hour to get up, with few stops on the way and looking quite carefully where we put our feet. The trail took us across a forest in the canyon to a beautiful "Hanging" lake which was created from waterfalls coming from the top of the canyon. The place was really beautiful and the water was very clear.

And there goes the trail.. Somewhere..

"be aware of falling rocks"

"if you go on that tree I will take a picture"

Bear proof drink machines in the parking lot

Going down took a bit less time, but was not too easy either as we needed to carefully check where to put our feet. Now our knees got some good practice. We put Moab, Utah as our destination to the navigator. Luckily by accident we decided to stop in the Colorado National Monument before this, as it was an incredible place. The pictures don't do justice here. We were waiting for some big statue or similar, but instead we found a big national park -type of thing. And again, free entrance and $10 saved :) across the "monument" went a 23-mile long road which we took stopping here and there. R was categorically jealous of all the people doing the road with bicycles.

The driver..

.. and the cameraman

Not for those with fear of heights

After this we drove to Moab, which is a city in the "desert" of Utah. The city is focused on mountain biking, hiking and other canyon stuff. We found a good motel, but did the mistake of choosing a diner recommended by Tripadvisor. R told later, that any place where the average age is over 80 is not a good one. This is based on the obvious fact that old people don't have taste ;-) Also the diner did not offer any beer, which was either because of the state we are in or then because diners don't serve beer.

We are starting to be halfway our trip and so far everything has been going very well. Only damages are one burned nose, one burned back, one blocked ear (maybe? how do you test that really?) and maybe 2x highered cholesterol :)

P.S. To get over the bad dinner, we bought a small box of animal crackers from the gas station. And one beer for R.

 

Day 17: Rocky Mountain NP

We woke up in our high altitude camp and went for breakfast. We learned a valuable lesson. If in the menu there are different sizes of the portion, always ALWAYS take the smallest one. Luckily also it is possible to get a doggy-bag for brekfast. We said goodbye to our hippie lodge, and headed for Nederland. The town was not giving us vibes of success and prosperity, so we decided to quickly continue our journey towards Rocky Mountain national park.

We chose as our first hiking trip a few mile route near Bear Lake. We were caught by a surprise by the amount of snow there was still on the path. Since we are accustomed to arctic weather circumstances (or at least 50% of us are), we bravely continued. We met along the way a lady from Switzerland, who was living now in the US and had a yearly pass to the NP. (She asked us to also give her regards to Europe, so here they are: Hello Europe!)

On the distance were rain clouds and you could hear thunder roaring. The woman also warned us that in case you see a lightning, start immediately to go down. After some time we saw her coming down from where we were heading. She said she decided to give up the route as it started to rain and the amount of snow increased. We decided to still continue for a bit so that we could reach the 3km altitude. And we did! We could also clearly feel the difference in the level of fatigue when going higher. However after this we headed quite quickly down, we were not intrested to remain and see what would be the highest point in the surroundings, especially when the treeline started to be below us.

We also did a route around Bear Lake which was really small one and even meant for people with wheelchairs. Halfway through we noticed though, that maybe the wheelchair part only applies during the summer months. We lost the route and needed to climb through mountains of snow here and there to get back. It was good we did this "easy" one after, as otherwise we would have probably not done the moderate first hike at all.

This is where we lost the trail

After few hours of hiking we were quite done. We went to see a third route, which was fortunately half-closed so we got a good excuse not to continue :) Unfortunately the driving route through the NP was still closed for winter, so we could not see the highest point in the road which would've been over 3,7km. Instead we drove back few hours and took course towards Glenwood Springs, which is close to the border of Colorado and Utah.

The drive there included the most beautiful part of interstate yet. I-70 goes through Glenwood Canyon for 12 miles. In other states they would make this a National park, in Colorado they apparently have so much things already that they decided to build a highway instead :) in Glenwood Springs we chose the Holiday Inn (nice to get comfortable beds every now and then) and walked around the city. There is also a big outdoor spring water pool. Unfortunately it was closed just today and tomorrow, so we could not go and try it. The city itself seemed to be a base for all skiers in th area, and it seemed very much to be quieting down for the season. After walking around finding most places closed, we ended up having dinner in a nearby Mexican restaurant.

P.S. Since the national park week continues, we again got free entrance and saved 20$. More gambling money for Vegas! ;)