Arches National Park and Canyonlands

The horizon is over 100 miles away

Kirk was doing an Indian chant

Salt Crater

Mesa Arch

What Kirk was looking down at over the cliff





Kirk looking down over the cliff

Moab fine dining - salmon, shrimp, veggies, wine and bread. What a feast!

Can't remember this one's name

South Window Arch

Another view of Balancing Rock

Delicate Arch - 3 mile hike to get close - forget about it!

Kirk called this the Pancake on the Hot Rock Griddle

Tunnel Arch

North Window Arch, probably the biggest

The Garden of Eden

Balancing Rock

This was called the three gossips and sheep rock to the right.

Campground host Ron and his umbrella cockatoo

The Traveling Salvation Show left Zion and headed northeast to enjoy a few more days of the southwest. We stayed at a campground where the host had an umbrella cockatoo. It was a beautiful bird: it was 12 years old and they live to 80!

The Arches National Park as its name describes has tons of arches that you can hike to. The visit to this park was more touristy than hiking. You drive to certain view areas and then take short hikes to see the sites or you pull over at the overlooks and take pictures of the scenery which was so different than anything we have seen so far on this trip. There are longer hikes available (3 to 6 miles) but we opted out because it was too hot. After 4 hours of parking, short hikes and picture taking in 100 degree heat we were thoroughly "arched out". We headed to the local Moab Brewery and Restaurant. They offer a $5 sampler of 12 beers. In addition to the beer, happy hour on Monday to Wednesday from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM had $.15 wings. Well, you can bet your booty that we took advantage of that bargain! We ended up spending a whopping $7.00!

Tuesday, we drove to Canyonlands National Park about 30 miles away. This park is rather unique in that there are 3 areas. One, Island in the Sky, is for folks like us. It is a giant flat mesa where you ride to all the overlooks and take in the beauty of the canyons. It is like a mini Grand Canyon. The views were spectacular!. From the Visitor Center you can take a 4 wheel drive route that takes you to the canyon on a very narrow road, hairpin turns and lots of dramatic drop offs. We toyed with the idea of doing but it was a very brief thought! Other than the views being beautiful we fought off the attack of the "no-seeum" gnats. Pesky little bitty bugs that swarm you and at times were a real bother. Another area, Needles is very remote and difficult to venture to unless you are an experienced backpacker (who the hell would want to camp in that heat with tarantulas, bugs, no water) and the only way in or out is on foot. The last area, the Maze can only be accessed with 4 wheel drive vehicles and it too is remote and has its own challenges. We ended up being the typical weeny tourist and took our pictures, sweated, drank lots of water and vowed to head back to the Moab Brewery as soon as happy hour started. We did take a lot of terrific pictures. On the ride back we made a side trip to a local winery and did some sampling. Then we headed for the happy hour! This time we were much more aggressive. We each ordered two pints each and proceeded to snarf down 28 wings (Kirk ate way more than I did). It was a very cheap dinner, less than $15.

So here we are in this beautiful place and our focus seems to be food and booze! Well...that's what its all about at our ages! Interestingly enough we ran into the same couple at the bar both nights and found out they were staying in the same campground and only 4 sites away! So we spent a lovely evening chatting with these folks who called themselves "desert rats" since they ATV in lots of places in Arizona, southern California and southern Utah.

The Traveling Show packed up on Wednesday and headed north. After 2 weeks of red rocks, heat, desert, pounding sun, canyons, vistas, pinnacles, fins, I am ready for mountains, cool nights, green trees and cool clear rivers.