the poulsen parade: devil's garden

a couple weeks ago kyle and i took a short weekend trip to arches national park. it was so nice to get away for a couple days and spend time outdoors.

our first day there we hiked devil's garden. ok first of all this hike was already the longest hike in the park at 7.2 miles and we had to park 0.4 miles away from the trail head because it was so busy (it was national parks week which meant free entrance-yay!, but lots of people-boo) AND we chose to take the primitive loop on the way up which made the hike even looonger.

ok so we walked the 0.4 miles to the trail, hiked for a bit and then veered off the main trail and started on the primitive loop. at first the primitive loop was really nice, there were hardly any people on that section of the trail so we finally got to enjoy some peace and nature.
but the trail was essentially 3.5 miles of deep sand. and hiking on deep sand, in direct sunlight, tires you out pretty fast.
and the trail just wasn't that interesting. we did take some breaks and drank water and snacked on the grapes, strawberries, crackers, cookies that we'd packed. but after the first mile or so i was ready to get on some rocks!

so what felt like hours later we finally left the sandy trail for some red rock! and eventually we made it up to double-o arch! it was fun to climb around and even ON TOP of the arch, so so cool!
alright, so this is where the primitive loop was supposed to meet up with the main trail so we could head back to the car. we saw a trail marker (trail markers here are rock cairns, or basically rocks stacked on top each other, so there was no sign) and headed on the trail aaaaand after about 25 mins of hiking on the new trail we realized that we were definitely going in the wrong direction (we later realized that we somehow ended up on the trail for dark angel), so then we had to turn around and hike back to double-o arch.

back at the arch we were ready to be done with this hike, we'd already been hiking for about 5 miles over sand and rock, and although once we had gotten to the rock part it was really fun, we were getting, tired, sore, and sunburnt.

so once again we were looking for the main trail that would lead back to the parking lot. we ended up just sort of following a group of people ahead of us, 2 guys with 2 little boys. at one point the group in front of us stopped for a water break and we passed them and tried to make our way along the thing that looked most like a trail.
well about 20 mins later we ended up at the edge of a cliff, with definitely no trail in sight. yep we were totally lost. and pretty soon the group that we had originally followed caught up with us, and then told us they had been following us and thought that we knew where we were going.

that was it. that was the point where i knew we were gonna end up on the news or discovery channel for one of those i'm alive shows where we'd have to cut our arms off to survive. or we'd just die. i wasn't sure which.

from our cliff view-point i could see for miles and i could not see ANY people, or trails, or cars and i knew the main trail was crowded. which meant we weren't anywhere near where we were supposed to be.

so we teamed up with the dads and little kids and tried to find our way back to the trail. we had to turn around three more times, but about a half hour later we ended up--where else--but back at double-o arch.
at this point i was beginning to hate double-o arch.

ok so back at the arch we ran into some more people who were able to point us in the right direction and a few minutes later we were finalllly on the main trail. and you know what? the main trail was a blast! i just wished we had hiked up that way instead of taking the primitive loop so we could actually enjoy it when we still had energy.
annnd just a mere 3.6 miles later we made it back to the trail head. hallelujah!! oh wait but it wasn't over yet. we still had to hike the 0.4 miles back to our car. but eventually we made it.

ok i know i made this hike sound miserable and at a few points it was, but overall it was still pretty fun and i would even do that hike again in the future just next time i would stick. to. the. main. trail.

after the hike from hell (ironic that it was called devil's garden, no?) we checked into our hotel, showered, changed, and then headed into moab from some grub. we ate at a fun little joint called the peace tree cafe where i pretty much fell asleep at the table.

after dinner we had planned on using the hotel's hot tub and relaxing for a while, but pretty much the second we got back to our room i conked out on the bed and that was the end of day 1.

day 2 we slept in. and tried to recover a little from the never ending journey the day before. then around noon we embarked on one more hike in arches. delicate arch.

and did we ever make the right decision! this hike was so fun! i completely understand why it's the most popular hike in arches. it was a blast. and we didn't get lost, bonus!

and the view at the top was breath-taking! of course i completely forgot my camera back in provo so i have no pictures of our trip. i'll google some stock photos of the trail so you can see what i'm talking about but if you ever have the chance to hike delicate arch, do it!

and then it was over and we were headed back to provo. but at least we lived to tell the tale!

epilogue: it took about a week for my legs, back, and arms (why my arms?) to stop aching form all the hiking, and my nose was so sun burnt that i looked like rudolph for about 3 days.