Epic Arches - Southern Utah (1)

A few weekends ago we made the long drive (more than 6 hours) from the northeastern corner of Utah to the southeastern corner of Utah, to Arches National Park. Knowing that we may not have too many opportunities to take road trips given that we are here in winter and road conditions are a critical determinant of what we can and can't do, we took our first opportunity of a fair weather weekend to head down to Moab, where Arches National Park is located.

The ride down was fairly uneventful, until near the end. The last major stretch of road is a distance of 110 miles, of which there are no signs of civilization (other than the road itself) for more than 80 of those miles. So they warn you, when you leave the town at the beginning that there are no services (gas stations, shops, nothing) for 80 miles or so. We were gassed up at about half a tank and felt sure we'd be fine. The road was a series of ups and downs in some places carving through incredible rock structures.

Here is a pic of van, evidence of the drive and the gorgeous sandstone landscape.













The van did a good job until we were about 70% of the way through the zone of nothingness (in terms of human development). About 70% of the way through the area, with about 30-40 miles to the next gas station, the oil measure on the dashboard starting blinking red, warning us that we had little or no oil left. The other gauges were fine, but I was freaked nonetheless. I was envisioning scenarios of us stranded on the side of the road, needing a tow truck, and loosing a lot of cash in the process.

Fortunately, my imagination was much worse than reality (as is often the case). We made it to Green River (the nearest truck-stop-town) bought some oil, checked the gauges... Only to find out that while the oil was low, it was not that low. So that is the lesson, the party van gauges are not all together accurate once the engine gets really hot.

When we finally rolled into Moab we found our way to the "Lazy Lizard" a youth hostel/camping/log cabin place. We stayed at a basic log cabin.















It was just one room, the bathroom and shower were in a locker room type place not so far away. It was chilly the first night to get the roomed warmed up with an electric heater, but after that it worked out pretty well.














The morning of our first full day in Moab (and Arches)started off brilliantly, check this sunrise out!