A Delicate Day

The next morning we woke early in order to have ourselves a full day at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Our main focus was going to be Arches but we still planned on visiting at least one section of Canyonlands. We entered Arches National Park and headed straight for the Delicate Arch trail. It is arguably the

symbol of Utah and in fact if you have ever seen a Utah license plate, then you have seen Delicate Arch. Katie and I were both in agreement that if we just saw one thing at Arches NP, it would be the Delicate Arch. We also were sure that we wouldn't be content with seeing it from a viewpoint miles away. We wanted to sit right underneath it and soak up everything it had to offer. The trail was 3 miles round trip and was

listed as strenuous but I'm not entirely sure it deserved such a harsh rating. As we hiked toward the arch we were passed by 3 different groups of people all making their return journey having already visited the arch, probably to watch the sunrise. By the time we got to the arch itself, we were completely alone and it was spectacular! We walked out to the arch and laid underneath it for a good 20 minutes. The silence was

honestly deafening. It was broken 3 times by three different events, each sounding thunderous and obtrusive compared to the stillness they were disturbing. The first was from the wings of a raven flying by us, later we heard people talking at the observation deck 2 miles away, and finally we heard a plane flying many miles above us. The quiet and stillness of the place still gives me the chills just to think about it. It reminded me of the end of the movie 25th hour. "Every man, woman, and child alive should see the desert one time before they die. Nothin' at all for miles around. Nothin' but sand and rocks and cactus and blue sky. Not a soul in sight. No sirens. No car alarms. Nobody honkin' atcha. No madmen cursin' or pissin' in the streets. You find the silence out there, you find the peace. You can find God." After our 20 minutes of absolute peace we decided that the park had more to offer us and we headed back to the car. On the trail back we passed 3 more different groups all in secession, 1 group even had 2 children with them. We couldn't imagine the experience these people were going to have at Delicate Arch compared to the one that we just been through. The arch would be no less beautiful, but the stillness and calm that we experienced would definitely be lost on all of them. After Delicate Arch we headed to the end of park road and did a hike to three other arches in

the devils garden area. These were all very beautiful and each was unique but we were joined by many other visitors now and the serenity of the park was lost on us at this place. Throughout our travels we only visited one National Park during the peak season and that was Glacier National Park. It's hard to imagine visiting places like Arches or Yosemite or Crater Lake amidst throngs of people as visitors do every summer. We have been acutely aware of the pleasures and pains of traveling during the off season and have agreed that this is the way to do it. Though you have to put up with winter closings and off season construction, experiencing the National Parks and only running into a dozen people the whole time is undoubtedly worth a few delays. Anyway, after

we left Devils Garden, we went to one more Arch concentration back near Balanced Rock where we had watched the sunset the day before. This area was called the windows and was famous

for the double arch as well as the windows arches which looked like a pair of glasses over a mans face set in stone. This place too was severely crowed with people in comparison to our morning hike and we didn't stay long before we moved on and left the park for good. After a 30 minute drive we were in Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands has three distinct areas, all separated by the

Colorado and Green rivers. We were visiting the Island in the Sky section which is named because it is in an isolated plateau which

towers over the other sections of the park. Here we skirted into the visitor center at 4:30 p.m. just before they closed for the day. We drove around in a race against the setting sun, trying to experience as much of the park as we could in the fleeting light. We managed to do everything we set out to do including three interpretive trails and an overlook. After the sun had set for good, we drove for a few hours at night and finally ended up just outside of Mesa Verde National Park.