Day 101: Goblin Valley State Park to Arches National Park, UT

“Bring! Bring! Bring!” It’s 5:00 am!

We got up really early today and got busy exploring Goblin Valley before the sun rose. We managed two hours of exploration before sun up and were able to see all three valleys before it started getting hot. The hoodoo goblins were fun. They were much smaller than the ones we saw a few days ago at Devil’s Garden and were tiny compared to the absolutely gigantic rock formations we saw later in the day at Arches National Park.

Following our hike, we packed up, made coffee and showered. We then left Goblin Valley and headed East towards Arches. We stopped for a gas fill up at Love’s and scored some locally grown watermelons and cantaloupes at a roadside farm stand.

We pulled into Moab around noon, stopping again at a gas station - this time for fresh water prior to entering Arches. Upon entering the park - our fourth of the Big Five Utah National parks - we checked in to the Visitors Centre to pick up our hike permits for tomorrow morning and our Junior Ranger booklets. We stuck around to enjoy the air conditioned theatre to watch the park movie and browsed the small museum. The ranger at the desk was helpful in providing advice in selecting appropriate hikes given the extreme heat warning that is still in effect.

Our first arch in Arches! Skyline Arch.

The campground here is at the far end of the park so we drove, drove, drove (about 45 minutes from the Visitors Centre) to check in at site #48. Lunch was fresh melon and we set up and hid out in the shade until supper time. It is crazy hot here. Sigh.

Seamus on the mountain top. OMG. He figured out that it is easier going up than coming back down. He had me a bit worried for a minute.

At 6:30 pm we braved the heat to hike out to Landscape Arch. The terrain is so cool here. There are enormous fins of sandstone that sit in parallel lines. As these fins erode, arches are created. Apparently the park boasts over 2,000 arches, though only about two dozen are on established hiking routes. Landscape Arch is one of the older ones, stretching as long as a football field and quite thin at one point along the top. This arch is enormous. The scale of everything here is massive - the fins, the boulders, the arches - all huge. It looks like this place was created for someone much bigger than us tiny humans.

Our last event of the day was the evening ranger program held at the amphitheater on our campground. Unfortunately, Ali couldn’t hold it together after such a long day. His listening ears turned off and he and I had to head back to the trailer for bedtime while the rest of the family remained for the talk. He fell asleep almost immediately despite the heat and has some apologizing for bad behaviour to do tomorrow but such things are to be expected when one is seven and trying to roll with the big kids.