Day 11: Arches NP and petroglyphs to Red Cliffs Lodge.

We got up early and packed up and headed for Arches hoping to beat the crowds.  It's Sunday with unseasonably warm weather so we expect the park to be crowded.  There are a lot of families with kids eating breakfast at the hotel.

We got to the park and the unmanned toll booth says the park was open.  We headed to the Wolf Ranch parking lot which is the trailhead for the Delicate Arch Trail, a three mile round trip trail to the iconic arch.  It starts out at Wolf Ranch which is a one room dwelling that the original settlers used, very rustic.  Behind the ranch were some very good petroglyphs etched into a rock face.

The trail started out well defined, but when it got onto the rock face (slick rock) we were to follow the rock cairns.  We found those markers were few and far between so we tried to follow the footprints when we found them and other hikers -- not too many.  It was quite a climb up the rock (although no comparison to the Angels Landing hike) and we took a few wrong turns, but finally ended up on a rocky overlook across from the arch.

There were already three guys there. They were very good natured (Australian?) and gave us their spot as they continued on the path up the rock face to the arch.  I told them to wave (which they did) when they got there because we were going to stay right here.  The light was right to view the arch from here and we were tired.  You had to go around a rock ledge to get to the arch and it would be backlit.  We saved that hike for another day.  

We got lost coming back down, but found some hikers coming up and got back on the trail.  Then as we got to the top of the first climb, we passed a park ranger going up the trail and putting up rock cairns.  Made the trip much easier to follow the new cairns from there.

We got back to the car and drove to the end of the road and took the hike to landscape arch stopping at pine arch and tunnel arch on the way back.  The park was getting quite crowded by then.

Then we drove to the Windows section of the park and parked at the trailhead to Double Arch.  We climbed around and took pictures then hiked back to to other windows section.

This section had a great view of new arched forming.  We stopped by Balanced Rock an the Visitor Center and left the park around 2pm.

We took the Potash highway (279) along the Colorado River to the west in search of more petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints.  We didn't find the dinosaur footprints, but did manage to finally spot the petroglyphs along the cliff face along the highway.




In the process we passed a number of rock climbers with their ropes climbing the cliffs.  It was a beautiful day with the colorful hills reflected in the Colorado River on one side and shear cliffs on the other.

We had been told that the Red Cliffs Lodge would not be serving dinner tonight so we went into town for gas and a Subway sandwich to take up the river for dinner.  Strangely enough Teresa gave the kid at the cash register a 20 dollar bill and he gave her a roll of quarters ($10) as change then just disappeared before she could object or offer to pay by card.  Seeing this, I used my card with the girl that had stepped up to the cash register.

We stopped at the rock shop before heading up the river to the lodge.  They had lots of dinosaur bones, but none as nice as I remembered and the polished ones were from Mexico.  No joy.

We headed up the river to the lodge (milepost 14).  It was a little farther up the river than I remembered, but beautiful country with bike trails and parks and places to launch water craft.  The lodge was in a beautiful setting with horses grazing in the field.  It is right on the river with red cliffs close by.  The winery was closed (opens in two days, but I can't get Teresa to stay that long.) But the restaurant was OPEN so we saved our subway sandwiches and made a reservation.  

There were very few guests, we had a whole section nearly to ourselves.  Rooms were great.  I highly recommend this place.  Very nice and peaceful setting. Not sure how peaceful it is in high season (we did find a BUS parking area...  We walked along the river then visited the gift shop where they were selling wine (no tasting).  I bought some wine and Teresa asked if they would like $10 in quarters.  We were all happy.  Dinner was great.

We will be homeward bound tomorrow.  This was a great end point for a great trip.