Not Yet Off the Bucket List

Who else but us, (and lets be honest, about 10,000 other people) would have the bad luck of being in Arches National Park the one weekend in who knows how long when the road to Delicate Arch was closed?  That was the one thing we were really planning on doing- seeing Delicate Arch, and all of our hopes and dreams were washed away in a flooded out road.

So we had to make due with Devils Garden, Landscape Arch, Double O Arch, Sandstone Arch, Skyline Arch, Windows, Turret Arch and Double Arches.  Turns out there is no shortage of arches in Arches National Park.  Missing out on Delicate Arch this time only means that we will be making another trip down there sometime soon. We also discovered a whole bunch of places to add to our List of Things Not to be Missed.

This girl was so brave. The hike up to Double O involved about a half mile scramble over steep, slippery, narrow sandstone with cliffs on both sides. She made it 3/4 of the way up before it got too scary. She was sad she didn't make it the whole way, but she did so good, and found out she was much braver and stronger than she knew she was.

 Way in the background over there you can see the Fiery Furnace. In the foreground is some serious sister love.

By the time we got to Double Arches at the end of the day, I was ex-haust-ed. We had hiked over seven miles and I was dead on my feet. By the time Olivia got to Double Arches, she had turned into some kind of desert rat, and was determined to make it up inside the arch. So we kept on going. I thought I was going to collapse. But we made it, and later on, she and Audrey were dancing in the parking lot and running literal circles around me. I am old.

We finished up the night with a lovely Italian dinner. It was delicious and we were even serenaded by bag pipes and Scottish dancers. But. Note to future self. Moab is expensive.

After dinner, we dragged the girls back out to Potash to see stars. I thought it would be  a great night to be out in the open desert and have a star party. We were foiled by the almost full moon though. We could only see a few of the brightest ones. Yet another item that remains on the list: go star gazing.