Jun 1 – 3: Arches National Park, Utah (part 2b)
Unfortunately, no shade was to be found so we went to the next hike’s parking area – overflowing with cars and people – and ate a light lunch of cold pasta and salmon salad. I stuffed my pack with Benny’s preferred snacks so we could eat some while hiking. I refilled all four liters of water and also fixed Benny another “Benny Blue” batch of electrolyte drink which I put in his kid-sized camelbak. I nearly decided to bring a mineral water but decided to save it for afterwards.
Delicate Arch (3 miles, difficult, 2.5 hours, 480’ elevation change) – Geez I’m glad I added the extra Benny Blue drink in Little Bear’s on camelback. There was zero shade, I mean zero, on the entire hike. And it was hot. Not as bad as Fiery Furnace but combined with the lack of any shade I was very glad I had also added the neck flaps back onto our hiking hats as well as put an extra heavy dose of high SPF sunscreen on both of us. Benny laughed when he caught me putting the butt cream on the infernal freckles.
The hike wasn’t technically difficult, but the elevation gain is steady and no joke in the heat. The first half-mile is a well-defined trail. Just follow the rock cairns and you can’t get lost. There was also a ton of people using the trail. It was like an ant trail.
The trail climbs steadily and levels out toward the top of this rock face. Just before you get to Delicate Arch, the trail traverses a narrow rock ledge for about 200 yards. That is the part that was the big hold up with the crowds. Each end had to take turns and not everyone wanted to wait their turn.
Heard from a few hikers that the parking lot had been full since six in the morning. Ugh. I should have considered moving this hike until tomorrow morning, but I want to do the Windows area tomorrow. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. We still enjoyed the hike even with competing with way too many other people for space. And it took me nearly twenty minutes to get a picture of Benny in the arch. And then a quick selfie which isn’t very good if we wanted the arch in it but was great if it was just for Benny and I. I was about to move when someone whistled and I looked up. It was the other couple that had been with us on the Fiery Furnace hike and they took a picture of us for us.
“Thank you!”
“No prob Lady. Hey, any news on the other couple?” the guy asked.
I shook my head. “To be honest …” I looked to see Benny was otherwise occupied taking measurements and the like for his Junior Ranger booklet. “… I hope they got her to medical help quickly. I’m no doc but I’m pretty sure she was in the middle of heatstroke. Why she didn’t mention the Benadryl is beyond me. The ranger asked specifically for any meds that were taken in the last 24. Geez.”
The female half of the couple said, “I know right? I take allergy meds and I’ve been off them the last three days so we could come here. Give me the sniffles over the sunburn from hell any day. Anyway, it was nice to meet you.” I stuck out my hand, shook theirs, and we parted company … after I returned the favor of taking a few pics of them with their phone for them.
The hike back to the van took less than half the time the walk up had, even with all the people making it feel like we were swimming upstream. I dealt with our snack trash and then we climbed in and I fought the traffic to get out of there.
“Hey, you up for one last hike?” I asked the energizer bunny.
“Sure! I need another one to complete all of the activities on page six.”
“Okay, then how about this? One is called Sand Dune Arch and the other is called Broken Arch. We can combine the two into one hike if you want.”
Very seriously he told me, “Definitely the broken one. That’s a thing I’m supposed to study. I saw it in the visitor center yesterday but seeing it in person would be better, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, if you’re serious and there’s no weather events or anything. I say we go for it.”
“Yeah!”
The final hike of the day turned into a combo loop of the Broken Arch Trail and the Sand Dune Arch Trail. They have separate trailheads but they both basically lead to the same loop trail. The trail to both of these arches individually is very short and straightforward. Combined they are about 2.3 miles and because we took it easy since the trail was much less crowded – we went before the sunset crowd arrived – it took about ninety minutes start to finish plus gawking time.
Sand Dune Arch was a secluded arch set among fins of rock. It was shady with deep sand on the ground. Broken Arch crosses a large desert meadow and leads through fins with sand dunes and slickrock. There was a moderate amount of scrambling on the north end but not enough to even make it a moderate hike.
We were both ready for dinner and I decided we had earned a burger. Okay the burgers were sans buns but they were still good, like a ground steak and that’s the way we treated them. I grilled them on the Bio-Lite for an even better taste, with cubed potatoes grilled in the burger juices and then steamed green beans that either needed to be used or tossed into the freezer until they could be dehydrated. Yum, yum. We both ate two burgers.
I’d been noticing that Little Bear’s pants were getting to his ankles and I’m not going to put it off much longer. I either cut the pants off for shorts (since they still fit in the waist) or I find a place to get him some new hiking pants. I don’t mind turning the pants into shorts since I have a handheld Singer sewer, but I’d like for him to have at least one pair of long pants just in case he needs them. Gonna need to think on it that’s for sure.
After dinner we headed to the amphitheater. It was on the geology of the park and it was pretty good as they had a slide show set up to go with his posters. Benny waited in line with the rest of the kids – and there were more than a few – to get the ranger to sign off that they had attended a ranger led program. Benny had stood back and let the rest of the pack of little hoodlums go first. That was a lot of pushing and shoving for no reason except they must learn it in school. When the ranger got to Benny he did a double take.
“Well young man, I heard good things about you this morning.”
Benny looked at me and I stepped up. I didn’t have to ask because the ranger continued, “Fiery Furnace. You got a hiking machine right there.” He was pointing at Benny who grew bashful. “No complaints or slowing the group down at all. Followed all the rules including where you asked him to go to your vehicle and stay while the medical emergency was dealt with.”
I finally said, “Privacy laws and all that, but can you tell me if the woman is okay?”
“Will be. She was bad off when the ambulance arrived, but we got word she stabilized as soon as they got her cooled down. Jeff feels bad.”
“The ranger that was our guide? Why? He didn’t do anything wrong. He flat out asked all of us if we’d taken any medication in the last 24 hours. Not his fault if the woman didn’t fess up or think it was important enough to mention.”
“He definitely asked.” It was a statement and a question at the same time.
“Yes Sir. It was a concrete question. No room to misunderstand or interpret any other way. ‘Have you taken any medication in the last 24 hours?’ Plain. Simple. Yes or no. Everyone was required to answer the question themselves. Even Little Bear here.”
“Would you put that in writing?”
I said, “Absolutely. But can I ask why?”
“They had some friends show up at the hospital from what I understand that are talking about a lawsuit. They claim we are encouraging an unhealthy activity and not letting everyone know how dangerous the trail is.”
“Puh-leeze. There’s signs at the trailhead that say plainly no hiking without a permit beyond that point, and you have to sign a form when you get the permit and everyone in your party has to be there when you do it. The form says clearly the particular features of the area. I signed for ours before we could join the hike. It is everywhere online that talks about that particular hike. No way you can misunderstand anything. Where’s a piece of paper and I’ll write it out right now. The other couple are still in the park tonight if you need to speak to them, and the female of the couple said that she’d stopped taking her allergy meds three days ago specifically so they could go on the hike. Her words were she’d take sniffles over a sunburn from hell anyday.”
The man handed me his legal pad and spoke to Benny about what he’d been doing in the various national parks while I wrote out my statement. It turned out longer than I initially meant it to so that I could get everything in – but my handwriting wasn’t bad since I had printed it and I also added my legal name, nickname, and email address if something needed clarifying.
I handed it back to him and saw the amphitheater was empty except for us, the ranger, and a couple of other rangers that had joined the first in talking to Benny. I’d been watching from the corner of my eye but since Benny didn’t seem stressed out I hadn’t said anything.
I was returning the ledger pad when Benny said, “Mr. Wolfe has a cool name and he’s been a ranger over thirty years! That’s longer than you’ve been alive!”
I made a face but could only say, “Uh huh?” While trying not to be embarrassed by Benny’s childish and literal honesty.
Ranger Wolfe laughed and said, “Every one of these silver hairs are a badge of honor.”
“Good to know,” I said trying not to laugh.
The rangers all grinned, said it was nice to meet us, asked for my training and when I explained they were all understanding, some of them having been in the military themselves, or missed going because of their own family obligations. When I saw Benny yawn, I said a polite goodnight and got us back to the van.
As we walked he said, “Rangers are cool.”
“They can be, that’s for sure. Just don’t forget they are human and might sometimes make mistakes without meaning to.”
“Like us?”
“Exactly like us,” I said on a nod.
“Are you sorry you were cranky at that lady that got sick?”
“Hmm. Kinda the wrong question Little Bear. I’m sorry she got sick. I’m not sorry I didn’t put up with her attitude because she didn’t have any reason to have one. I don’t want people to think I’m a hardcase, but her attitude stunk.”
“She didn’t like me,” like that was some excuse.
I didn’t him want to get into the habit of that. Instead I gave him a different take on it. “I think it was more along the lines she thought she knew more than I did about taking you on the hike.”
“Huh?”
Trying to explain I said, “Some people think they know more and better about raising kids than other people. Most of them mean well, they just … hmmm … they just think they know more than they do. On the other hand, they didn’t know us and maybe they were just making a mistake thinking we don’t have the experience we do, and that I’d never intentionally take you into a situation where you could get hurt.”
“People need to mind their own business.”
“Benny Lawrence.”
“Well, you say that.”
“Er … I do. But … look Squirt. I’m an adult and I know it might not sound fair but sometime kids shouldn’t repeat what they hear adults say.”
“You mean people don’t need to mind their own business?”
“No. You hit that one on the head of the nail right enough. People need to stick to pulling the logs out of their own eyes instead of the splinter in other people’s.”
He gave me a “Huh?!” look and I chuckled.
“Something my Dad used to say. It just means that people should stick to improving themselves instead of trying to improve other people first.”
“Oh. So people should mind their own business.”
I laughed knowing I’d painted myself into that corner. “Yeah. They do. Let’s just try and be polite on our opinions in case someone overhears us.”
“Then they shouldn’t be listening in on other people talking,” he said catching me in another phrase that I say too often.
I chuckled off and on until Benny fell asleep and I started up again as I was writing this out. Aunt Gus thinks she needs to start watching her mouth or Benny the Big Eared Parrot is going to get us both in trouble. Geez he is a Barrymore through and through.
Unfortunately, no shade was to be found so we went to the next hike’s parking area – overflowing with cars and people – and ate a light lunch of cold pasta and salmon salad. I stuffed my pack with Benny’s preferred snacks so we could eat some while hiking. I refilled all four liters of water and also fixed Benny another “Benny Blue” batch of electrolyte drink which I put in his kid-sized camelbak. I nearly decided to bring a mineral water but decided to save it for afterwards.
Delicate Arch (3 miles, difficult, 2.5 hours, 480’ elevation change) – Geez I’m glad I added the extra Benny Blue drink in Little Bear’s on camelback. There was zero shade, I mean zero, on the entire hike. And it was hot. Not as bad as Fiery Furnace but combined with the lack of any shade I was very glad I had also added the neck flaps back onto our hiking hats as well as put an extra heavy dose of high SPF sunscreen on both of us. Benny laughed when he caught me putting the butt cream on the infernal freckles.
The hike wasn’t technically difficult, but the elevation gain is steady and no joke in the heat. The first half-mile is a well-defined trail. Just follow the rock cairns and you can’t get lost. There was also a ton of people using the trail. It was like an ant trail.
The trail climbs steadily and levels out toward the top of this rock face. Just before you get to Delicate Arch, the trail traverses a narrow rock ledge for about 200 yards. That is the part that was the big hold up with the crowds. Each end had to take turns and not everyone wanted to wait their turn.
Heard from a few hikers that the parking lot had been full since six in the morning. Ugh. I should have considered moving this hike until tomorrow morning, but I want to do the Windows area tomorrow. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. We still enjoyed the hike even with competing with way too many other people for space. And it took me nearly twenty minutes to get a picture of Benny in the arch. And then a quick selfie which isn’t very good if we wanted the arch in it but was great if it was just for Benny and I. I was about to move when someone whistled and I looked up. It was the other couple that had been with us on the Fiery Furnace hike and they took a picture of us for us.
“Thank you!”
“No prob Lady. Hey, any news on the other couple?” the guy asked.
I shook my head. “To be honest …” I looked to see Benny was otherwise occupied taking measurements and the like for his Junior Ranger booklet. “… I hope they got her to medical help quickly. I’m no doc but I’m pretty sure she was in the middle of heatstroke. Why she didn’t mention the Benadryl is beyond me. The ranger asked specifically for any meds that were taken in the last 24. Geez.”
The female half of the couple said, “I know right? I take allergy meds and I’ve been off them the last three days so we could come here. Give me the sniffles over the sunburn from hell any day. Anyway, it was nice to meet you.” I stuck out my hand, shook theirs, and we parted company … after I returned the favor of taking a few pics of them with their phone for them.
The hike back to the van took less than half the time the walk up had, even with all the people making it feel like we were swimming upstream. I dealt with our snack trash and then we climbed in and I fought the traffic to get out of there.
“Hey, you up for one last hike?” I asked the energizer bunny.
“Sure! I need another one to complete all of the activities on page six.”
“Okay, then how about this? One is called Sand Dune Arch and the other is called Broken Arch. We can combine the two into one hike if you want.”
Very seriously he told me, “Definitely the broken one. That’s a thing I’m supposed to study. I saw it in the visitor center yesterday but seeing it in person would be better, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, if you’re serious and there’s no weather events or anything. I say we go for it.”
“Yeah!”
The final hike of the day turned into a combo loop of the Broken Arch Trail and the Sand Dune Arch Trail. They have separate trailheads but they both basically lead to the same loop trail. The trail to both of these arches individually is very short and straightforward. Combined they are about 2.3 miles and because we took it easy since the trail was much less crowded – we went before the sunset crowd arrived – it took about ninety minutes start to finish plus gawking time.
Sand Dune Arch was a secluded arch set among fins of rock. It was shady with deep sand on the ground. Broken Arch crosses a large desert meadow and leads through fins with sand dunes and slickrock. There was a moderate amount of scrambling on the north end but not enough to even make it a moderate hike.
We were both ready for dinner and I decided we had earned a burger. Okay the burgers were sans buns but they were still good, like a ground steak and that’s the way we treated them. I grilled them on the Bio-Lite for an even better taste, with cubed potatoes grilled in the burger juices and then steamed green beans that either needed to be used or tossed into the freezer until they could be dehydrated. Yum, yum. We both ate two burgers.
I’d been noticing that Little Bear’s pants were getting to his ankles and I’m not going to put it off much longer. I either cut the pants off for shorts (since they still fit in the waist) or I find a place to get him some new hiking pants. I don’t mind turning the pants into shorts since I have a handheld Singer sewer, but I’d like for him to have at least one pair of long pants just in case he needs them. Gonna need to think on it that’s for sure.
After dinner we headed to the amphitheater. It was on the geology of the park and it was pretty good as they had a slide show set up to go with his posters. Benny waited in line with the rest of the kids – and there were more than a few – to get the ranger to sign off that they had attended a ranger led program. Benny had stood back and let the rest of the pack of little hoodlums go first. That was a lot of pushing and shoving for no reason except they must learn it in school. When the ranger got to Benny he did a double take.
“Well young man, I heard good things about you this morning.”
Benny looked at me and I stepped up. I didn’t have to ask because the ranger continued, “Fiery Furnace. You got a hiking machine right there.” He was pointing at Benny who grew bashful. “No complaints or slowing the group down at all. Followed all the rules including where you asked him to go to your vehicle and stay while the medical emergency was dealt with.”
I finally said, “Privacy laws and all that, but can you tell me if the woman is okay?”
“Will be. She was bad off when the ambulance arrived, but we got word she stabilized as soon as they got her cooled down. Jeff feels bad.”
“The ranger that was our guide? Why? He didn’t do anything wrong. He flat out asked all of us if we’d taken any medication in the last 24 hours. Not his fault if the woman didn’t fess up or think it was important enough to mention.”
“He definitely asked.” It was a statement and a question at the same time.
“Yes Sir. It was a concrete question. No room to misunderstand or interpret any other way. ‘Have you taken any medication in the last 24 hours?’ Plain. Simple. Yes or no. Everyone was required to answer the question themselves. Even Little Bear here.”
“Would you put that in writing?”
I said, “Absolutely. But can I ask why?”
“They had some friends show up at the hospital from what I understand that are talking about a lawsuit. They claim we are encouraging an unhealthy activity and not letting everyone know how dangerous the trail is.”
“Puh-leeze. There’s signs at the trailhead that say plainly no hiking without a permit beyond that point, and you have to sign a form when you get the permit and everyone in your party has to be there when you do it. The form says clearly the particular features of the area. I signed for ours before we could join the hike. It is everywhere online that talks about that particular hike. No way you can misunderstand anything. Where’s a piece of paper and I’ll write it out right now. The other couple are still in the park tonight if you need to speak to them, and the female of the couple said that she’d stopped taking her allergy meds three days ago specifically so they could go on the hike. Her words were she’d take sniffles over a sunburn from hell anyday.”
The man handed me his legal pad and spoke to Benny about what he’d been doing in the various national parks while I wrote out my statement. It turned out longer than I initially meant it to so that I could get everything in – but my handwriting wasn’t bad since I had printed it and I also added my legal name, nickname, and email address if something needed clarifying.
I handed it back to him and saw the amphitheater was empty except for us, the ranger, and a couple of other rangers that had joined the first in talking to Benny. I’d been watching from the corner of my eye but since Benny didn’t seem stressed out I hadn’t said anything.
I was returning the ledger pad when Benny said, “Mr. Wolfe has a cool name and he’s been a ranger over thirty years! That’s longer than you’ve been alive!”
I made a face but could only say, “Uh huh?” While trying not to be embarrassed by Benny’s childish and literal honesty.
Ranger Wolfe laughed and said, “Every one of these silver hairs are a badge of honor.”
“Good to know,” I said trying not to laugh.
The rangers all grinned, said it was nice to meet us, asked for my training and when I explained they were all understanding, some of them having been in the military themselves, or missed going because of their own family obligations. When I saw Benny yawn, I said a polite goodnight and got us back to the van.
As we walked he said, “Rangers are cool.”
“They can be, that’s for sure. Just don’t forget they are human and might sometimes make mistakes without meaning to.”
“Like us?”
“Exactly like us,” I said on a nod.
“Are you sorry you were cranky at that lady that got sick?”
“Hmm. Kinda the wrong question Little Bear. I’m sorry she got sick. I’m not sorry I didn’t put up with her attitude because she didn’t have any reason to have one. I don’t want people to think I’m a hardcase, but her attitude stunk.”
“She didn’t like me,” like that was some excuse.
I didn’t him want to get into the habit of that. Instead I gave him a different take on it. “I think it was more along the lines she thought she knew more than I did about taking you on the hike.”
“Huh?”
Trying to explain I said, “Some people think they know more and better about raising kids than other people. Most of them mean well, they just … hmmm … they just think they know more than they do. On the other hand, they didn’t know us and maybe they were just making a mistake thinking we don’t have the experience we do, and that I’d never intentionally take you into a situation where you could get hurt.”
“People need to mind their own business.”
“Benny Lawrence.”
“Well, you say that.”
“Er … I do. But … look Squirt. I’m an adult and I know it might not sound fair but sometime kids shouldn’t repeat what they hear adults say.”
“You mean people don’t need to mind their own business?”
“No. You hit that one on the head of the nail right enough. People need to stick to pulling the logs out of their own eyes instead of the splinter in other people’s.”
He gave me a “Huh?!” look and I chuckled.
“Something my Dad used to say. It just means that people should stick to improving themselves instead of trying to improve other people first.”
“Oh. So people should mind their own business.”
I laughed knowing I’d painted myself into that corner. “Yeah. They do. Let’s just try and be polite on our opinions in case someone overhears us.”
“Then they shouldn’t be listening in on other people talking,” he said catching me in another phrase that I say too often.
I chuckled off and on until Benny fell asleep and I started up again as I was writing this out. Aunt Gus thinks she needs to start watching her mouth or Benny the Big Eared Parrot is going to get us both in trouble. Geez he is a Barrymore through and through.
