We were not off early today but still got to arches national Park before it was too crowded. We drove to the back, first, and started from there with a couple of brief stops on the way. We parked where there is never a crowd, at the end of the campground loop and took the Broken Arch trail. This 1.7 mile hike has everything. You get to see two arches, you hike through high dessert sandscape, over slick rock, through the broken arch and down a steep drop, naviate a long trail back that has elevation, rock scrambles and often uncertainty that causes one to wonder if they are possibly still on the right trail. The answer is, yes! After that we parked at an overlook, ate our “in-car” lunch and then went to the Fiery Furnace overlook and then the sneaky way to view Delicate Arch, the one on the Utah license plate, and then the old ranch nearby. We headed back to the hotel about 4 and off to a very nice dinner at Thai Bella. After a long walk though town we returned to the room and shared our second pie from the Gifford house at Capital Reef. Tomorrow, earlier, we are back to Arches.
