Romping through the Devil's Garden

I couldn't resist the warm weather today so I got up early and drove down to Moab to do some hiking in Arches National Park. No trip to Arches is complete without a hike to Delicate Arch, so I payed homage to our great states' license plate adornment before exploring new territory in the Devil's Garden. The Devil's garden trail is pretty cool. It takes you down into a maze of Sandstone fins where there were just a ton of Arches.

The highlight of the day was when I decided to go off trail at Private Arch. I crossed through the arch into the canyon separating two fins and decided, in my infinite wisdom, that I could find a better way back to the trail than the way that I came. So, I started to tread up canyon. That worked well until the canyon walls got so narrow that I couldn't fit in between them anymore. There was a section of about 30 feet that I had to traverse by propping myself between the two canyon walls with my hands pressed up against one side and my feet on the other (there is a technical term for this in canyoneering, but I can't think of it now). Fortunately, I made it out alive and without injury. Unfortunately, I didn't think to get any pictures until after I was safely out of the canyon. Oh well.

I had an interesting experience while sitting atop double-o arch. I had climbed up the backside of the arch and was perched a couple of hundred feet above the ground. From my perch I could see a young couple (early 20's) that had wandered off trail and thought that they were hidden behind some rocks. They were totally making out. I felt kind of guilty for watching but, hey, they were totally oblivious to my existence and besides it was all PG rated anyway. The moral of the story is that it made me kind of jealous. No, not of the girl. It made me jealous that I don't have anyone to have a redrock romance with.

Here are my pictures.