I woke up quote early and even saw the sunrise, which was awesome! Sun was rising behind the mountains.
Then we ate some buckwheat porridge, packed our tent and were ready to go. We stopped at the fishing pond near by to have a swim. Apparently that pond provides the drinking water to the village. The water was so refreshing and we washed all two day sweat into it!
After bathing we headed to Arches National Park. For entrance we used our National Park Pass which we bought in Lincoln for .
The road to the Arches National Park was very steep and curvy. The views were more amazing the further we went.
We stopped for photos at Park Avenue Viewpoint and Trailhead for photos.
Then quick stop at Balanced Rock.
The road to Double Arch was closed.
Once we reached Rick Art Panel we hiked up to Delicate Arch, which took around am hour. Good we had plenty of water with us. The path was quite steep in some places, also goin on the edge of the rock. There was many people hiking: some with kids, old people with hiking sticks and some who barely can walk. Some people were hiding from fierce sun under scarves and some people were out if breath. It seemed they are having heart problems. Lucky us we had sun protection SPF 50.
The view was worth the trouble! It looked magnificent.
Though the edges to get to it looked very steep and dangerous, especially if wet. One guy went to far and was having trouble to come back. If he would have fallen it would have been long fall.
We also said the petroglyphs on the rocks on our way back.
After we went to Devils Garden Trailhead. We felt relieved that we didn’t risk yesterday to go to the campground there since it was completely closed!
Once we parked the car, we decided not to go full hike as it would be at least 2hrs. So we hiked up to Tunnel arch and Pine tree Arch. The view through Pine Tree Arch was stunning.
On our way back we refilled the bottles if water and also our gallon bottle with fresh free water. We left the park in a hurry to make it to the monument valley for sunset.
We stopped at Moab for quick lunch in the Trailer of Quesadillas (look it up on trip advisor! It got 5 stars!). The quesadillas were delicious. Around each.
We rushed to Monument Valley. It was ling drive and outside was 100F! Air-condition was on maximum!
We passed Mexican hat. A mountain that has patterns of white and red, which reminds Mexican hat.
We also saw a turn to Valley of Gods. Pity we were in the rush!
We arrived at Monument valley around 6:30pm and there was a fee to pay, since the Annual Park Pass was not valid. Once it was our turn to pay, the lady just left the cabin and said “The park is closed, go back and come tomorrow”. We explained that our campground is there. She said that we could go and pay her tomorrow. It looked like she didn’t give a f**k completely.
So we went up to the camping and the lady told us that she just sold the last spot to the family in front of us. Damn!
We went back the road, since we saw private camping there. The camping was at border line with Utah and Arizona. We went in and woman told us it is per night, also we can make camp fire and there is a shower! Sold! We were dreaming of shower, though we had a swim in the lake this morning, but still not the same!
We set up the tent quickly and went back to the spot next to hotel behind the checkpoint. Since lady was not there, we didn’t have to pay anything.
We took some pictures in the last sunlight just before the dawn. The long shadows were everywhere in the pictures.
Many people were waiting for sunset staring at the monuments!
I put Brian Adams – :Here I am” on my Spotify and starred at the skyline and those three monuments. I felt goosebumps. The view was magical and breathtaking. Totally worth it!
We came back to the campground in the dark. Good we had a gas stove, so we made some soup with beetroot and beef. It was so delicious! We also had the last bottle of red wine (1.5L). We were worried that it might have went bad, but it was just a little bit hot. It cooled down outside, the wine as well.
We were zipping wine and looking at amazing skyline with reflections of the dawn.
While we were having dinner we saw Mantis! Just like from Kung Fu panda!
We skipped the natural bridge on our way today as it would have been a detour.
We’ve made 222 miles in total today.