Thursday, September 14, 2006: Arches N.P., UT to Goblin Valley S.P., UT

On to Arches! Our time is totally our own today, and we will see some of the wildest terrain on Earth. With "both" of our dogs:

Arches National Park is right around the corner from where we camped. We visit the visitors' center, where Laika deigns to greet her adoring fans outside. Nice visitors' center. Arches NP has an in-and-out drive with a few branches to different trailheads and view points, about forty miles for us.

While I'm waiting with Laika outside amid the animal sculptures, a tour bus arrives and people are suddenly swarming the visitor's center. Laika is practicing her "ups" by leaping onto the low wall I'm sitting on, and she stops and sits next to me like a statue. A man stops by and admires her, saying how pretty her bearing is. A while later, a woman with interesting rings approaches and says much the same thing, petting Laika and being delighted at Laika's patented butt wiggles. I ask about her rings and find that they're a form of arthritis treatment. She says that women in the restroom had been whispering about them until she just came out and explained what they were. I thought they were ornamental, but was interested that a medical device could be so aesthetically pleasing (at least to me). The man who first noticed Laika comes back, and turns out to be the husband of the woman with the rings. She sits next to Laika and me and says, "Take my picture with Laika!" Later, we field more requests for "Can I say hi to your dog?!" And this is what it's like to travel with a lovable pooch. Pretty nice.

Again, no thousand words; just a few pictures.

The Delicate Arch is on some Utah car license plates. There's a nice little trail, maybe half a mile each way and up a pretty constant slope, eventually on a continuous upsloping rock, parallel to the slope where Delicate Arch sits.

As in most national parks, dogs are not allowed on the trails, so Steve and I tag-team on the sites. We have a brilliant stroke of luck at this stop, as there's a nearby 4x4 road (which dogs are allowed on), and Laika and I explore it, finding our own view of Delicate Arch.

Driving on to the Devil's Garden Trail, we continue dumbstruck.

Steve does the hike out to Landscape Arch while I happily take a break with Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and Laika at a picnic table. It's an utterly amazing experience to read his words of being here, while actually being here. And so I read about the terrible future of tourists driving right up to arches and scenery, while we continue along our route doing exactly that. I don't regret our driving tour, but I do regret that we don't have time to enjoy it as much as we might. I'm starting to feel sore and tired out from too much car riding, and disappointed to be passing by all of this so fast. But I know I'll be back here; this area deserves more time than we can give it now.

As we're sitting there enjoying the scenery, some nice folks from New Zealand arrive back from their hike, and settle at the next picnic table. Laika goes nuts about the Kiwis, barking and carrying on as if it's the most terrible infringement on her territory. I'm embarrassed and walk her around the parking lot, meeting Steve on his way back. Not all of her celebrity status is well-earned!

Rain, so far only seen in the distance, now arrives in close proximity. It's not really a factor yet, but we are reasonably certain that it will be before the vacation is over.

Canyonlands National Park is close by, an out-and-back drive like Arches, but on the top looking down instead of the bottom looking up, so there's a good deal of climbing to a sort of plateau where the visitors' center sits. The four AA batteries I've used in the camera up to now end up dying just as I get out to the Mesa Arch (see Terrie's photos), but I get good shots of a friendly raven, part of the trail to the arch, and some later views into the canyons. Let me chime in re: Ed Abbey and Desert Solitaire. Great book—and perfect for this place that the ornery old curmudgeon clearly loved.

While I walk to Mesa Arch, rain is falling in the distance and never hitting land, evaporating into the air before it reaches ground. Lightning flickers in the distance, but too far away to hear thunder. The path winds along juniper trees where the berries are a beautiful dark blue against the red rock around us.

And then there is Mesa Arch. This is not just an arch, this is an arch that's perched on a (s: 500-foot vertical!) cliff, looking out into a Canyonlands vista. The view from Mesa Arch made me cry.

We tour more of Canyonlands, and then leave all too soon on our way to the night's camping...if there are spaces available!

Someone has recommended the San Rafael Swell to us as an interesting place on (Utah) state land where our dog would be welcome. We zero in on Goblin Valley State Park as a place that would probably appeal to us. It's a bit of a drive, but in the right direction. When we check in, we find a positively cushy campground. Covered and wind-resistant-walled picnic table, free hot showers, kooky mud scenery right in the campground. The firewood burned hot and fast, with sparks flying.

Great recommendation from Keith! And what he didn't know was that four weeks before our visit they opened new bathrooms, and two weeks later they opened new showers. Our timing was perfect and we enjoyed the luxuries completely.