Today is our last full day to enjoy Arches National Park. We wanted to hike every trail in the national park, and by day’s end we almost did (there was one on our way out of the park we skipped). We also used this day to do some laundry and clean the camper and truck up a bit.

Our first stop today was a little overlook at the Petrified Dunes. These don’t look like much, but they are old sand dunes that got covered with other layers of rock. Eventually, the outer layers eroded, leaving the cemented sand dunes in tact!

 

We then drove to the Balanced Rock. A short little walk leads you to the base of this monument. I was way too nervous to hike right up to it- it definitely is balanced VERY precariously!

 

Continuing on, we went to the popular Windows Arch area. There is a south and a north window arch, as well as a short jaunt over to see the Double Arch. We saw tons of Prickly Pear cactus- I really want to try and cook one but I have no idea what to do with it!

 

We then drove to the Panoramic Viewpoint. Another overlook, but with a huge panoramic view of the park!

 

A hike that we really wanted to do while in Arches was the Fiery Furnace. There are ranger led hikes through the furnace, or you can get a permit to hike in yourself! There are no real trails through the fins of this part of the park. With the limited park services, there were no ranger led hikes and no permits allowed. The Fiery Furnace was closed. We could, however, get to the parking lot and look at what we were missing!

 

We got to our last “big” hike of the day- Sand Dunes arch. This is a trail that you can make as easy or as difficult as you choose. We chose the hard route- this would take us to several arches, through the campground, and back! You start at Sand Dunes arch, which is tucked into the fins of the rocks. Very cool!

 

Next, keep hiking through the open desert trail to get to Broken Arch. Contrary to it’s name, this arch is not actually broken. There is a significant crack completely through the arch though!

 

You continue the trail by climbing through Broken Arch. This trail continues all the way to Tapestry Arch. A hidden gem! We stopped for a little while and sat in the shade of the rocks.

 

We continued the trail, heading toward the campground. We got to walk through some of it, and are excited to camp here in the future! The sites looked nice, and it was awesome that there were hikes you could do right from your campsite! The trail continued back toward the parking lot, but not before going through my favorite part of the whole hike. We hiked into the rocks, going through the fins and seeing the inside parts of the rock canyons. I imagine Fiery Furnace is just like this, but a lot more!

 

The rest of our day was rather boring. Some days, you just have to get things done. We got back to the camper, and desperately needed to do laundry. We’ve only been out 11 days, but that is 11 days of hot, sweaty, cold, rainy, and everything in between! We also took this time to clean up the camper and shower. After some camper chores, we went into the town of Moab to go to Moab Brewery. I had seen that Moab had a brewery our first day here and have wanted to go ever since! We decided to indulge by eating dinner out again- I think we only did this twice last summer! The food was amazing- I got the blackened chicken pasta, Scott got this chipotle chicken sandwich with this amazing mango salsa on top! The beer was also fantastic and we got a 4 pack to go! We highly recommend stopping here!

 

Tomorrow morning, we will head out to our next destination: Capitol Reef National Park.