Not Such An Unlucky Day

Sorry not to post. Here’s some.

Mesa Arch

Our Friday the 13th was just dandy. We visited Canyonlands again, this time to see Mesa Arch and turn in Elise’s and Mom’s Junior Ranger books. Mom has been working hard. She has to do more in the books than Elise since she’s older so she stayed up late last night working on hers. She makes an excellent Junior Ranger!

Our walk along the trail to Mesa Arch was incredibly pleasant. The sun was warm, but not yet too hot and the wildflowers were in bloom. We were able to identify some of the flowers using one of the books from Elise’s backpack. The prickly pear were abundant and we saw their pink and yellow flowers everywhere. We even saw a peach-colored flower on one, a color we hadn’t seen from the cactus before.


View from Mesa Arch.

Mesa Arch frames the ever-present La Sal Mountains along with a few other named features: Washer Woman Arch, Monster Tower and Airport Mesa. The other side of the arch is a 500-foot sheer drop. We saw a few not so bright folks walking out on top of the arch, luckily not too far.

After Elise and Mom were sworn in as rangers, we headed to the Colorado River for a picnic lunch. Route 128 follows the river into Moab. We pulled off at a campground a few miles down the road and borrowed a site on the river for an hour or so while we nibbled on bread and cheese, fruit and gorp. While we ate, we saw a few raft trips go by. The water here flows quickly but there are no rapids. Still couldn’t convince Mom to take a rafting trip, though.



A picnic at the river required lounging at the pool afterward. Elise and I got the party started and Mom, Dad and Bobby joined us soon after. As hot as it was outside, you were cold when you got out of the pool. Elise spent a lot of time lying on the concrete with a towel completely covering her in an attempt to warm up.

Next stop: dinner at the diner! The Moab Diner deserved another visit, so we parted company to shower and agreed to meet at the diner in an hour. I was feeling super hungry so I ordered The Moab Diner’s Sweetwater Skillet, a blend of fried potatoes, bacon, diced green onion, bell peppers, and melted cheese all of which is spiced just right and topped with two eggs any style. In my case, scrambled. It was the perfect meal.

After dinner we went to the last used bookstore we wanted to check out. Bobby bought a book by Franz Kafka (who does that?!) and Elise and I each got something. Coffees and hot chocolate all around and then we were off to Arches one last time. We hadn’t spent any time at the Fiery Furnace area and had read it was a good place for the sunset. It is called the Fiery Furnace because of the light it gets in the late evening from the setting sun. We got there a little late, though and only the tops of the fins were lit up. The sky to the west was spectacular, though, and we happily chatted while we watched the sky change color time and time again.


The Fiery Furnace fins are in the left foreground. Below is the Salt Valley with the La Sal mountains in the background.

We got back to the trailer too late for another game of Ticket to Ride, though we did manage two rounds of UNO. Mom and Dad leave tomorrow and we are sad to see them go. It has been a wonderful week with them, but we console ourselves with the fact that we will be home in a mere six weeks and we’ll have plenty of time with them then.