Day seventeen, Arches National Park

The day dawned bright and glorious, and early. We boarded a bus at 8 AM for a tour of Arches NP. We got to see highlights of the park; Leila and I plan to return on Sunday during a free day. We did some light hiking and clambering around rock at Balanced Rock, Double Arch, Delicate Arch, and Sand Dune Arch. Once again the rock formations we saw were completely different from our earlier stops.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Blu Pig, and enjoyed a really nice meal. In spite of the heat (high of 97 degrees today) we then walked around town and checked out the shops. As usual in tourist towns, there were lots of t-shirts. We did get back to the coffee shop for another iced coffee.

In the evening our group had a buffet dinner on the shores of the Colorado River, then went for a sunset boat ride up the river. This excursion came back down river with an interesting light and music show on the canyon walls.

Tomorrow is another 8 AM start. Our group bus takes us to Canyonlands National Park and to Deadhorse Canyon State Park. More to come tomorrow…

Balanced Rock. The gray area at the base of the rock is beach sand turned to stone. Amazing it holds together…
Here we are at Double Arch. We clambered up into the nearest arch, and had a nice view from there
Delicate Arch. It looks a little different in person than on the Utah license plate
Sand Dune Arch. Our guide told us that when his kids were little they’d come here to play. The sand in this slot canyon was just three feet below the bottom of the arch; his kids would climb up the arch, then jump and slide down the sand. Years of tourists since then have lowered the sand dune, one shoe full of sand at a time

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