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Across The Great Wall at Arches National Park

Saturday, February 18, 2023

I was originally planning to spend all three days this holiday weekend in the Bears Ears region, but a winter storm had come through earlier in the week that dropped some snow in the area, so I figured I had better postpone that trip for a little while since the roads would probably be a melting muddy mess. Although we got a fair bit of snow in Grand Junction from the same storm, it looked like Moab was mostly spared from new snow, so on Saturday morning I decided to head that direction for one last day trip this winter before things really start to get busy down there. I went to Arches National Park so I could finally do a hike that I’ve been thinking about for many years, which would be to hike across The Great Wall. I’ve driven below The Great Wall may times over the years and thought it was finally time to hike across the top of it for a closer look!

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Canaan Mountain: Water Canyon to the White Domes

Southern Utah Wanderings | Tuesday & Wednesday, October 4-5, 2022

After leaving Escalante on Monday evening, making our way over the Paunsaugunt Plateau, and driving past the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in the dark to the Block Mesas, we then started heading north on sandy Jeep roads past Elephant Butte so we could hike into the East Fork of the Virgin River on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, we ended up running into a number of very washed out sections of the roads that stopped our progress and since it was starting to get late we decided to backtrack a bit and find a campsite for the night. Now we would switch our plans around and hike up Water Canyon onto Canaan Mountain on Tuesday morning instead, and then we would see if we wanted try to find another route to The Barracks afterwards.

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Christmas in Arches 2021

Christmas Day | Saturday, December 25, 2021

It’s Christmastime again, which means that it’s also time for our annual Christmas in Arches visit! This year we were already staying at a hotel in Moab on Friday and Saturday nights since the holiday fell on a weekend, so I thought it would be a good idea to get up early on Saturday morning for our traditional hike to Landscape Arch. This way we could watch the first light of the day strike the arch at sunrise while we made sure it was still standing after another year. Afterwards I planed to do a little backcountry hiking and exploring around Courthouse Wash and Willow Spring for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Here are some photo from our day in Arches National Park!

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Christmas in Arches 2020

Christmas Day | Friday, December 25, 2020

Since Christmas Day fell on a Friday this year, I had booked a hotel room in Moab so we could spend the entire weekend in the area. Of course, this was before COVID struck and changed everything. We had considered cancelling these reservations and figuring something else to do this weekend, but in the end we decided to carry on with our plans. Early on Friday morning Diane and I left home and headed straight for Arches National Park, like we do every year. We drove all the way through the park and made it to the Devils Garden Trailhead shortly after sunrise so we could hike to Landscape Arch to make sure that it is still standing after another year. It’s our Christmas tradition!

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Christmas in Arches 2019

Christmas Day | Wednesday, December 25, 2019

It’s Christmas time again and that means it’s time for our annual Christmas trip to Arches National Park! We left home early on Wednesday morning and headed west into Utah during the tail end of a winter storm that left a little snow, ice and fog in its wake. This slowed down our drive just a little bit, but we still made it to Arches in about two hours. We headed straight to the Devils Garden Trailhead so we could start off the day with our annual hike to Landscape Arch to make sure it’s still standing after another year.