Today is our 13 wedding anniversary. To celebrate we went to Arches National Park. We left Friday evening for
Moab stayed in the
KOA and woke up early on Saturday morning to spend all day in Arches and come home on Sunday morning. Because we only had one day in Arches I felt like we were racing
against the clock to see all that we wanted to. Our first big hike was to Landscape Arch. We also did several of the small trails that branched off of the main trail. Jeremy calculated that it was about 6 miles of hiking. It took us 3 hours with our stops and picture
opportunities. When we got back to the truck we were both pretty sore. Our feet were killing us. I knew I probably had a blister or two because I get blisters pretty
easily. After lunch we went on over to Delicate Arch. Looking at the map that one was a 3 mile round trip hike. I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal. So we started hiking and as we were climbing up the hill I started to notice a stabbing pain in my hip. I really did not want to turn around and miss this view so I pressed on. The pain was horrid and Jeremy stop me to ask if I just wanted to go back to the truck. We decided to go on. When we had gone so far that we were thinking it's got to be any minute now I noticed the pain all of a sudden wasn't so stabbing anymore. It still hurt but I was able to bend at the hip and bare it. I picked up my pace to get there before the pain came back. When we got there I was so relieved to see there was a great place to sit and rest. We sat there for a bit. When I stood up to leave there was no pain at all. I don't know what I did wrong to cause the pain or what I did right to make it go away, other than pray :). So the walk back down the hill was at a much faster pace and with much more easy. On the way down there was an Indian family (the India kind) hiking down with us. The man was caring his daughter who was too little to walk, I would guess somewhere between 7-8 months old, and he didn't have his shoes tied. He fell and was
sliding down the hill head first unable to stop himself because he was holding the baby to protect her.
Jer stood in front of him so that he would stop him from going any further and the other man with the group grabbed him to stop them. The baby was crying but not hurt and the man had road rash on his elbows. He tied his shoes to finish up the hike. I couldn't believe some people's choice of foot wear for hiking. I saw a few wearing flip flops, most in tennis shoes. Some in shoes that I don't know how to classify them other than work shoes or old people shoes. I have very sensitive feet so I can't imagine wearing anything but the proper foot wear. I did end up with very nice blisters and
bruises on the bottoms of my feet. I am still having a hard time walking on the balls of my feet where the bruises and blisters are. All in all this was a fantastic weekend. there are still some more things I would love to do down in
Moab. I wold love to do Canyon Lands by night and the
Firey Furnace hike. So maybe next time.
