We brought our kids years ago. We were on a whirlwind vacation traveling through the west with a houseboat on Lake Powell our main goal. We toured the park for maybe 5 or 6 hours that summer. Sure, we saw the principal arches and really enjoyed ourselves, but we didn’t really experience what the park really has to offer. Brother, if offers a whole lot more than what we saw that day. This trip we’ll stay for 4 days, and to be straight forward, we could spend a week or more here and still want to spend more time. Booking campsites here being what it is, we were lucky to get the time we did in this glorious campground.
On Saturday morning Diane and I decided to hike the Devil’s Garden trail. It is a fairly challenging trail for amateurs like us. Signs warn of not bringing enough water. However, it is a very popular trail in the park so the chances of dire consequences are diminished. Signs also implore you not to stray from the path. This is stressed so that you don’t damage the soil. Research shows that in this area, (and probably everywhere) the soil itself is a web of life with strands of bacteria spreading though it like blood vessels in a body. Keeping it from becoming compacted is very important to its productivity and to the diversity of plant and animal life here. Damage to the soil can take hundreds of years to self-remedy. Truly, this area is like a maze of caverns and fins and spires. I can see how you could also get very lost straying from the path. So, there are good reasons to obey the signs.
The trail is now in my personal ranking among the best, if not THE BEST hike I’ve ever taken. It’s around 5 miles round trip give or take. The combination of challenging climbing or bouldering and thrilling perspectives can’t be beat. It can be a crowded trail, but somehow, that seemed irrelevant to us on this day. At times you are beholding wind, ice, and water carved arches delicate and immovable. At other times you reach a high vantage point and you can see across fins and canyons, plains and washes, to the Lasal Mountains to the east, now snow covered and imposing and hopelessly white against the pure sky... blue and pure. Diane was very hesitant about a mile into the hike as it turned into more bouldering and climbing than walking. I urged her on a little and she put her mind to overcoming the climbs and scrambling. Each successive scramble provided its own reward with new and thrilling vistas. I am so proud of how Diane overcame her hesitation and made it all the way to the turn around point of Double O Arches. She is a champion!
The park can become very, very crowded. I think this time of year, March, is a good time to be here in terms of avoiding both super-sized crowds and the impressive heat of summer. Though it was Spring Break time, and the park was full of college aged folks, we never saw or heard any signs of excessive partying and the like. The college folks seemed very respectful, both of everyone else in the park as well as the environment. It did my heart good to see young people care about the outdoors and the wonders of nature so to speak. So many seem to growing up outside of the “outside”.
It seems unending, this land of chasms and arches and weather-worn sandstone. It’s as if God decided one day to use every tool he created to sculpt a masterpiece on planet Earth. Water, wind, ice, heat, plant, animal, and human have all been joined in the hands of the Master to create a place where every sense is activated, charged, and heightened. Sometimes I think that God gave us our senses and the ability to explore, comprehend, and consider so that we can begin to understand the absolute power at his disposal. Creation. If you can’t feel that power here, you’ll never feel it.