Descending into the Fiery Furnace

Friday was Rog’s day to hit the mountain bike trails again and he did 29 miles on the Klondike Outer Loop trail. He was back on his hardtail and wanted to see if he still liked riding it after trying out all those super-cushy full suspension bikes. He did, and although an upgrade is still in his future, he’ll happily continue to thrash the trails the hard way for now.

Still happy on the hardtail. :)

Duck! The trail goes under the overhang. Lol.

I was happy to hang out at the coach, read, and do a little work on the blog. The highlight of my day was an amazing encounter with a Collared Lizard. These guys are the jewels of the desert lizards. Both Rog and I had seen one during our bike ride on Wednesday, but neither of us got a picture and I was bummed. When I stepped out of the RV and saw one flash past I was thrilled. He stopped on a rock about 20 yards away and I quickly used my full 30x zoom to snag a picture. Slowly, I advanced a few steps and snapped a few more shots. He sat on top of the rock and eye-balled me. Another few steps and a couple more pictures. I kept expecting him to bolt at any second. Step, snap. Step, snap. He didn’t budge. By the time I was almost within touching distance, I’d taken 75 phots and he still hadn’t moved. Lol. What a ham!!!

Collared Lizard. We had quite the photo shoot. Lol.

Spring flowers.

Sunset at our boondock site. It will be hard to leave.

Saturday, 5/5, we had tickets for the 9am Ranger-led hike into the Fiery Furnace at Arches. Long rows of alternating fins and canyons create a maze of sheer walls, narrow passages, exposed cliff edges and dead ends. To enter this area, you either have to be on a ranger-led hike or get a safety briefing and purchase a special hiking permit. The tour sells out days in advance, so we were glad we snagged our tickets on Tuesday.

The ranger-led hike was fun, informative and best of all – no worries about getting lost! Lol. Ranger Mike talked about the wildlife in the canyons, the environmental challenges, and some of the history. He also showed us how to navigate some of the more, ahem, interesting obstacles. Lessons that will serve us well in the future, I’m sure. 😊  The ranger-led hike lasted about 2 ½ hours and we’d highly recommend it!

Ranger Mike gives us an introduction to the Fiery Furnace.

In we go!

Twin Arch. But the rangers call it Skull Arch (look at it upside down).

Side stepping above a crevice too narrow to walk through.

Life is tenacious in the desert.

Lovely view from the Furnace.

Conga Line. Lol.

Yeah, it would be easy to get lost in here. :)

After the tour, we headed over to Delicate Arch. This is probably one of the most popular arches in the park and its image is plastered on pretty much every souvenir imaginable. There’s a reason, it is absolutely stunning and, if the light and weather cooperate, and you can get gorgeous pictures of the La Sal mountains framed in the arch. Well, light, weather and the crowds. It takes an amazing amount of patience or crazy luck to get a shot without a tourist mugging for the camera under the arch. I totally get that folks want their picture taken with the arch in the background, but are the handstands, glamour poses, and yoga positions really necessary people??? Lol.

Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch pano.

The La Sal Mountains framed in the arch.

There are several viewpoints, but to actually get out to Delicate Arch it’s about a 3-mile roundtrip hike – 1.5 miles up and then 1.5 miles down. Usually, that would discourage the crowds, but Delicate Arch still draws hundreds at a time. As we made our way there, the clouds were getting darker and the winds kicked up. We picked a spot with a nice view and were treated to thunder and lightning behind the arch. Very cool! When the rain started in earnest we headed back down. Slickrock loses its amazing traction properties when wet and I wasn’t interested entertaining the crowds with my “Bambi on Ice” impersonation. 😊

The hike to the arch runs along the edge of the cliff.
Not interested in sliding down this trail!

Storm clouds are beginning to clear.

Luckily the rain was short-lived and by the time we started on our last hike of the day – Park Avenue Trail – it was sunny and blue skies again. Yeah! The sheer walls of this canyon reminded early visitors of the skyscrapers along a big city street, hence the name. The sheer red-rock formations were impressive, but I also loved the colors and patterns in the sandstone wash.

Park Avenue.

The storm has passed, leaving blue sky, white clouds and red rock.

Park Avenue pano.

I adore the patterns and colors in the sandstone.

We crammed a lot into our last day at Arches, but still left plenty to do on a return trip. We leave in the morning for Goblin Valley State Park near Green River, UT. The park campground is very small and we doubt we’ll score a space so Rog has a couple of boondocking locations lined up just in case.