Well, this past weekend we ventured to the wild and wonderful state of Utah to visit Arches N. P. We arrived in Moab, UT late Friday night / early Saturday morning and promptly checked into the Sleep Inn and, appropriately, went to sleep.

Saturday morning we got brunch at the local diner. Their green chili, taters, egg, and bacon skillet is fantastic, by the way. Then we headed up to Arches, where we decided to hike the Devil’s Garden trailhead to Double O Arch. We had hiked the trail once before this past winter, and wanted to try the primitive loop. While the sign warned us of difficult hiking, we didn’t pay it too much attention. After all, what’s so difficult about a sandy and rocky trail? Answer: a rocky trail that climbs almost straight up a smooth rock with no hand holds and a tiny little ledge with a downward slope for your feet. Especially if your shoes don’t have good treads. However, while Louisa was clinging to the rock, Tony had no problems.

Double O Arch is a really neat arch, there are two arches on top of each other. So, that was definitely worth the hike, especially because we didn’t get that good of a view of it when we hiked the trail this past winter.

On Sunday we decided to hike up to Delicate Arch, and then head back to Denver around 1:30. The hike was very nice, much less extreme than Saturday’s hike, and the arch was as pretty as ever. We also got to listen to the Bills’ and Steelers’ games, although we decided that listening to the Steelers on the way back from Arches somehow jinxes them. Oh well, there’s always next week. On the plus side, the Bills won!

And then we got back to Denver. After realizing that drivers from UT can’t pass, and get mad when you zoom up behind them. Even if they’re going 5-10 mph under the speed limit. In the left lane. C’est le vie.