June 6: Arches National Park, Utah
Hondacar started at 118, 685 miles. We woke up early at our sub-1-star hotel so we could hike when it was cool. I was lucky in that Joan let me sleep on the bed next to her all night. She had to pay $10 for me, so she decided bed was okay! I snuggled next to her.
We drove out to this trail a guy told us about and these other people had their dogs off leash and the sign said to have your dogs “in control” so Joan let me off leash. Yeah! We walked up through this canyon along a river. Yeah Yeah! So, as you can imagine – I spent a lot of time in the water.
I am very adept with my legs and paws on all the rocks – Joan was just concerned when I got too close to what appeared to be a cliff – then she’d yell at me to come back, and I would. We went as far as a small waterfall - since we did not have a map and she had an agenda for the day. So we turned back and at one point, she saw a man coming up the trail and she called my name and I turned around, saw the man, and barked. The man got scared and almost had a heart attack! He talked with her after that anyway – he and his wife were heading up the way we had just come. We returned to the car by 8:10 AM.
Joan was on the phone trying to figure out the best place to camp, and she decided on Arches National Park even though it is a national park that relegates my kind to only go on the street – where cars go! (Despite their policies, the nice lady at the entrance gave me some treats – I liked her.) This park would give us a spot immediately as opposed to the state park where you had to wait for someone to check out.
Did I mention it was hot? It was hot – like you can’t imagine. We drove around Arches looking at things we could see from where cars can go – some pictures:
Then we set up camp at a spot that had a shrub tree (for shade). Joan ate lunch and we tried to take a nap in the tent, but I was too hot and wanted to be outside. So we went and sat in the shade and Joan read her book. We sat there for hours. I huffed and puffed forever. This is our spot:
I also was introduced to a new animal in this area almost as prevalent as squirrels in my backyard – and that animal is: a lizard. I tried to run after them, but they would run fast. At 4:00, Joan had had enough and we decide to trek out of the park (it takes about 40 minutes to drive out). She did this, in the end, nearly 100% for me. We drove out to the Colorado River and she let me dunk my body in the river and cool off. Phew. Then she went and got herself a cold Coke. She had intended on taking an evening hike but as we descended out of Arches, we saw all the bad weather and when we were in Moab to get the Coke, we could see lightning bolts striking down. So we hurried back to our camp and watched the weather there – there were gray clouds off in the distance and it was windy. Joan made dinner and then we went for a walk around the campground, and we saw a forest fire off in the distance – no doubt made by lightning. Joan read her book a bit and then we went on another walk (on the pavement) to Devil’s Garden at sunset (we wouldn’t be able to go earlier because the pavement would have been too hot for my feet. Then we went to bed!
Devil's Garden at Sunset
New license plates for this day include: