Arches National Park

August 26, 2013

Arches is the one national park I wanted to visit last year on my grand adventure but didn't find the time. It's really hard to imagine the rock formations in the park without actually seeing them. They are simply amazing. Contemplating how they might have formed is an adventure unto itself. The park isn't as big as I had thought, but it's definitely a must see. To me it's one of the more spectacular NPs in the system.

Park Avenue

And that was that.

It only took about four hours to see the park, so there was plenty of daylight left when I exited. I was tempted to tour Canyon Lands NP which is just next door, but I didn't have a season pass and the schedule pressure was too much. Therefore, I got on I-70 and was off to Colorado to visit the Rocky Mountain NP. I-70 through Colorado is really scenic and I was enjoying the ride as much as possible considering I had been on the motorcycle all day.

Colorado Rest Stop

As I was riding east toward Denver, the color of the sky over the eastern horizon kept getting darker and more ominous looking. It got downright ugly. I really don't like riding in biblical proportion thunder storms, so I got off at the first opportune moment which was Vail, Co. This was a point in the journey where I decidedly was not having 'fun'. I was exhausted, it was getting dark and the skies looked like a scene from a weather channel special. The added pressure of finding a reasonably priced hotel had me vowing to never again undertake such a journey as this.

Luckily, I found a hotel before it started to down-pour. I even managed to walk across the street between rain showers and get a bite to eat before retiring for the evening. All in all, it was a good day, but my mood had become a bit more somber with the realization that I was 1500 miles from home, on a tight schedule and physically spent.