September 30 2012
J.’s 30th birthday on 30th September.
Happy Birthday.
Caineville, UT– Cortez, CO
Miles driven: 367
Night spent: National 9 motel, Cortez, CO
Time traveled: 6.06 am – 5.25 pm
Well, we had some difficulties to figure out this day. My
original plan was to visit Natural bridges park, but with all the wonders we
seen, we thought we should see Arches and Canyonlands parks. But, that did not
fit well together for travel. At the end, we decided to skip Bridges and drive
north and see other two parks. We as well decided to leave early, so it was
really dark and the sky was pretty.
Gasoline and coffee in Hanksville (cluster of three gas
station and few houses). And driving and driving and driving. Pretty boring. We
got on freeway 70 for a while, got confused because of the map and then were
heading south towards the park and town Moab. Not much of civilization
along the road. For Canyonlands
Park, we had to drive off
main road and go about 30 miles into the park.
It was nice drive, the road was good, but there was nothing
really impressive, especially after seeing so much already. We stopped few
times on overlooks and other places. Unfortunately, the weather was not really
cooperating. It was nice day, but it was too hazy. The views of the canyons
were pretty and really interesting, but the horizon was hiding in the haze.
Still, it was great.
And … we had to drive to the main road and pretty soon found
the Arches Park. The visitor’s center (with a lot
of people) was in the valley and we could see the road winding uphill. Too many
people, pretty warm – not the greatest beginning.
Driving up and enjoying the views, we entered the park. Few
annoying moments, when people were driving too slow. And … a lot of red rock
again. The park covers quite a lot of land, there are places, where you park
and walk to see arches or other incredible rock formations.
The first real stop for us was Sand Arch. Big rock formation
looking pretty solid from the road. We walked into it, having hard time walking
on red sand. And inside, there was this incredible arch. Nice …
Just to make sure we are on the same page, this is arch:
At the end of the road, there was Devil’s garden. Packed
parking lot was not good sign. We had to drive around once and then were lucky
to find the spot almost at the trailhead. There was several options, the
longest was about 7 miles to number of arches. We did not have so much time, so
we walked to the first couple of them. Again, too many people. Really
interesting formations in relatively flat landscape.
The next stop was called Windows. There was several arches
in close proximity. We walked towards those to be impressed by size and
formation. Crying baby, loud people, teenagers. That kind of ruins the
experience of it. But … it was really amazing.
As impressive and beautiful those two parks were, there was
shadow of previous visits. We already saw so much incredible and pretty places,
that it was hard to fully enjoy these new ones. It was really great and
unbelievable, do no take me wrong.
And it was time to get on the road again.
We stopped in Moab and had late lunch there. It
was average looking town, many places closed (it was Sunday). We had average
meal, enjoy sitting outside and looking at big red rock formation. It was nice.
And a lot of driving. The landscape got kind of boring.
One turn and we were heading into Colorado. It got a bit different, there was
a lot of farming.
I have to say, we were really happy, when we got into
Cortez. Midsize town, really nothing special. We drove on main street for couple
of miles without seeing anything special or interesting. Because of J.’s
birthday, we stopped by bakery and got couple of treats (to discover later,
that they were not super good). And my
small surprise for her …
By the way, this was J.’s idea of our travel:
