Arches, Portal Trail and Moab

No alarm this morning but we were still up by 6:30am. We showered, dressed and had breakfast. Then we headed for our first destination - Arches National Park. Once we arrived at the Park we stopped at the entrance to get kennamtn's Arches box. A quick and easy find and a nice way to start the day. We drove into the Park and made our first stop at the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint. Of course I took a bunch of pictures and then we headed to the next stop. We made our way to Balanced Rock and walked to the observation area, again I took pictures. Next we took the drive up to The Windows Section. I took a few pictures along the way but I really wanted to see Double Arch. So we parked and started the short hike to the Arch. We climbed all the way to the top and enjoyed the views. It was spectacular! The only other thing we wanted to see in the Park was Delicate Arch. We enjoyed the scenery along the drive and slowly made our way to the parking area for the Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint. We walked the trail to the viewpoint and I took some pictures. We didn't hike the trail to the Arch because we were planning some letterboxing and knew there would be some hikes. So once we got some pictures of Delicate Arch we headed out of the Park. We really enjoyed Arches and will probably make another trip here soon.

Our next destination was The Portal Trail off of Potash Road. We parked at the Jaycee Campground and started our hike. We found one letterbox really fast since it was at the beginning of the trail. After stamping in we continued up the trail. We hiked for a while and looked for some landmarks from the clues we had. We weren't finding any. Eventually we stopped and assessed the situation and we concluded that somewhere we had gotten off the trail. We continued up to this ridge since we knew we were looking for an overlook. Well we found an overlook but no sign for the overlook we were searching for. So we decided to head back down. We hadn't gone very far when Thomas noticed a trail and once we got on that trail I started noticing the landmarks. So with a little detour we eventually made it to the overlook. Incredible views of Moab from up there. I found the two boxes up there and stamped in. Thomas just sat and enjoyed the view. We both needed the rest since the hike was all uphill and longer than it should have been. On the way down we stopped twice to find two letterboxes. This brought our total boxes on this trail to five. We returned to the car, very hot and tired.

So we headed back into Moab for a bite to eat and some rest. We ate at a great little pizza place - ZAR Restaurant. After eating Thomas wanted to return to the hotel and do a little swimming, so that is what he did. I went in search of some letterboxes in town. I found Happy Birthday - Ten Years Box and Downtown Moab. I searched for ARRTOY KPRA but I was unsuccessful. I am pretty sure I was in the right place but the rocks were moved and the hole empty. I wrote the placer and I am just waiting to hear back.

Another great day on our vacation. We are both tired and have made this an early evening. Tomorrow we head for home.