Moab

God's creations are amazing. 

We woke up early this morning to tackle the 1.5 mile hike up to Delicate Arch in Moab, Utah.  The hike was described as "moderately strenuous".  I am not a hiker capable of "moderately strenuous".  I am a hiker who enjoys "flat as a pancake" hikes.  

We googled the hike to check the distance and found a site that recommended going before 9am to avoid parking hassles at the trailhead.  Not only do I enjoy being a lazy hiker, I also enjoy being hassle free.  I already had enough stress dealing with the idea of my heart giving out halfway up the mountain, my oxygen deprived body rolling into a crevice, and having my skeleton found by researchers in 2932, at which time they would display my remains in a museum, exhibiting the physically inadequate humans who lived during the 21st century....I didn't need the additional stress of not having a parking spot. 

So we arrived at the trailhead at 8:30am.  There were two cars in the parking lot.  Score. 

The first half mile of the trail was pretty well indicated...we followed a nice little gravel path over hills and through valleys...piece of cake!  

Have you ever heard of slickrock?  I hadn't.  I'm not sure if slickrock is a name for all giant rock slabs angled down a mountainside at an impossible angle, or if it was the name of this particular solid slab of rock, but the name was pretty perfect.  It was rock.  And it was slick.  

After the twenty minute climb up the slickrock (which was actually a lot easier than I expected), we wandered around the wilderness looking for these little rock piles called "cairns".  

They're used to mark the trail.  You walk to one cairn, then look around until you can see the next one, and hike to that cairn.  It's a good idea to remember which cairn you just hiked from, so you don't hike back to that cairn...that would suck.  Your hike would be much longer that way. 

The last part of the hike consisted of climbing along a four foot wide ledge on the side of a cliff.  Fun.  Then we climbed over a rock ledge and the view was completely worth the hike. 

We were greeted by a photographer who was finishing up his shoot.  He took a few more shots, then left.  We were the only ones there, so we were free to climb under the arch, take as many pictures as we wanted, all without getting in anyone's way.  

Something you can't really tell in any of these shots is that the arch is actually on the lip of a giant cereal bowl looking thing.  You arrive from the trail on the northern edge of the lip and have to walk along the eastern inner slope of the cereal bowl to get across the bowl to the southern edge, where the arch is.  Not a single picture of mine shows how steep this cereal bowl slope is.  I had heart palpitations watching William walk on it, thinking he would lose his footing and roll off the slope into the bottom of the cereal bowl a bazillion feet below, so we made a rule that he had to walk behind me where I couldn't see him.  

Will drug  my camera bag up the entire mountain - what a good hubby.  We also brought water and Cliff bars to eat at the arch.  Since we were the only ones there, we sat on the upper edge of the cereal bowl and had a nice little breakfast.  

Being the good little hikers we are, I didn't throw the wrappers into the cereal bowl.  I put them in my pocket.  

We ate our breakfast and yelled obscenities into the cereal bowl to hear the echo. 

Okay, we didn't yell obscenities.  

We yelled the Loogie "huh?" into the cereal bowl.  

I forgot to mention - since our trip to Moab wasn't planned, I didn't have any hiking footwear.  

So I wore my  moccasins.  Halfway up the slickrock I realized how clever my footwear choice was.  The bottoms were extra wonderful at gripping the rock.  No wonder the indians wore moccasins.  

I have no idea if "indians" is politically correct.  Maybe I should've said "Native Americans".  I could google the appropriate term, but I'm tired. 

After we ate, a little family climbed over the edge of the cereal bowl, so we left.  On our way down we passed at least thirty hikers heading up to the arch.  Apparently, 8:30am really is the best time to start the hike.  I don't think a whole lot of tourists have the experience of sitting under Delicate Arch, completely alone, without another soul in sight.  

 I'm happy we decided to go to Moab.