After a long drive to Moab and finding a hotel, I finally managed to get into the Arches National Park. It was already quite late and sunset was immanent. So I decided to only briefly enjoy the extreme bizarre, but very beautiful landscape and mountains and head more or less directly to the “Delicate Arch”, probably the most famous arch in that park as its also imprinted on the number plate for cars registered in Utah.
Looking at the description of the hiking path, I knew it would become a very close raze against the sunset. The hiking path stretches over 2.4 km and inclines 146 meters, but the sun would go down in a bit more than 30 minutes. Anyway, I took the challenge and started the route with a very high pace. The closer I got to the arch, the more people where already returning. Did I miss it? No, that is not possible, the sun is still well above the horizon and the arch probably does get the last bit of light as its quite on top of the mountain and therefore not shaded out by a nearby hill. So I continued the uphill race against the sun and time. Finally I could see quite a bit of a crowd operating their photo and video cameras. And just a moment later, I could see it as well – the “Delicate Arch”.
Really spectacular that view – and even in time for some nice pictures barely just minutes before the sun was completely down.
After a nice chat with some tourists from Colorado and a bit enjoying the view until it got dark, I decended into the darkness, searching the path with a small flashligh I took with me. The Colorado folks by the way, have been to Switzerland last year and complaint about the high Swiss prices. Well Moab is not really a cheap place either.
