Last Updated on September 5, 2024 by Jill
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I will make a commission at no extra cost to you should you click through and make a purchase. Read the full disclosure here
We are super excited we are going to be Picking up friends in Moab! They are going to join us for a week and hike several of the parks in Utah with us. We have known them for years, two of our best friends. It is going to be a great week. Left the Grand Tetons around 8:30 am to start working our way to Moab. We plan to make a couple stops along the way. The first stop was in Dutch John.
Dutch John
Shortly after we arrived and got hooked up the air conditioner unit stopped pumping out cold air. Now, as I mentioned we are having visitors, and Moab temperatures range in the 108-110 range, we can’t be without air. Dave troubleshot the situation and figured out the issue. The next day we headed into Vernal a town close by to get parts. The parts we needed no one seems to carry. So, Dave bought several other parts and built the ones we needed. It is really nice to have such a handy husband. While Dave worked on the A.C. I was going to get all laundry taken care of. Unfortunately, the office said the laundry was closed. This park has not been my favorite stop.
The next morning we decided that I would drive the car to Vernal and then hook up the vehicle there. The route to Vernal has a section with 10 switchbacks and 8% grade. That is a lot of strain on the motorhome and having to worry about the car being pulled. Off we went with no issues, hooked up in Vernal, and down the road, we continued.
BLM 194
Our original plan was to make a stop in the McInnis National Conservation area. Google’s route took us down BLM(Bureau of Land Management) road 194. It was gravel and kind of rough but if we turned around we would have to go a long way to get to the highway. So, we plugged on hoping that we would come to a paved road shortly. Well….the road just continued to get worse and now we were ascending and descending mountains.
Then we saw the switchbacks and decided time to unhook the car. I drove the car and Dave the motorhome. I wish I would have stopped and taken pictures of the road we were on. It was really something. Anyway, after another hour, we got to the paved highway. We decided to just get to Moab. that way we could get cleaned up and clean up the car and motorhome. Our friends were coming in a few days, Dave also had work to do and I now had A LOT of cleaning to do. What an experience! We will remember and laugh about it forever.
Arches National Park
We picked up our friends Saturday afternoon, grabbed a bite to eat at the blue pig, and dropped their stuff at the motorhome. They are coming from Florida so they are dealing with a time change and elevation change. We decided to just do the scenic drives this afternoon and short hikes. In the morning we will do the big hikes.
At 9 am we started the Devils Garden Trail. This leads to Landscape Arch and many others. It is 1.8 miles to Landscape Arch and back and considered a moderately easy hike. It is ideal to get started as early as you possibly can because once that heat hits it gets really brutal. I don’t recommend doing any hikes from 2-4 when the heat is at the worst. Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch are other arches you see on the way to Landscape Arch. At that point, you could carry on and go to the Double O arch. We really wanted to see Delicate Arch which was a separate hike so we decided to head back to the car and do the Delicate Arch hike before the brutal heat set in.
Delicate Arch
Delicate Arch is around a 3-mile round trip and classified as a Difficult trail with 480 ft elevation gain. They stress bringing at least 1 quart of water per person. They are serious about the water, it was amazing how many people we saw with a small water bottle or no water at all. We brought plenty of water for the 4 of us, but it did get tight near the end. This is a difficult hike, mostly going up, but if you take breaks and do it in sections anyone can do it. It is defiantly worth the hike. This Arch is the most famous in the park and there is a reason for that. The beauty is remarkable. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach the Arch and only 40 minutes to get back to the car.
On the way back to the car we were in the heat of the day, it was after 1:30 pm and you could tell. There is very little shade on the is a hike, so we were very happy that we did it and didn’t wait any longer. I was shocked to see how many people were going up the trail as were coming down. There were two rangers that were at the beginning of the trail trying to persuade people to hold off. They were recommending doing the hike later in the day (when it cools down) or come back in the morning. Most people just ignored them. They told our friends that they end up doing a lot of heat-related rescues.
What a beautiful day full of friendship, hiking, and photography! Tomorrow we head to Kodachrome.
Jill
