Volvo Across America! (Part III)

After Boulder, we drove to Utah. The landscape was so surreal, since you can drive across flat desert for 2 hours without seeing any towns. Thank god we didn't break down! Our first stop was Arches. The landscape was as amazing as I had imagined, but damn it was hot! There isn't a lick of water to be seen, and the temperature was around 107 F (well, it did cool off to around 85 F- at about 1o PM!). We did some short hikes when we first arrived, in the heat of the afternoon.

Park Avenue

John at Windows Arch- I think in this picture he looks like hes standing in front of the abyss.

Heres me in front of Windows Arch

I climbed up to sit in Double Arch.

We camped in Arches park, and luckily our campsite was shady, but still scorching hot. We also had the most amazing sunset. At night we went to a ranger program "sounds of the park". This ranger guy loved sound like you wouldn't believe. When it finally cooled off, we had a gorgeous night under the stars.

The next day we did our biggest hike, to Landscape Arch and Double O Arch.

Our next stop was Zion. Still hot, still lots of red rock. At least Zion has a river running though it. We spent our first 2 hours in the park just standing in the water. Our campsite at Zion was completely shade-less. The next day, we did a crazy scary hike, called Angel's Landing. We heard it was steep, but nothing prepared us for the actual thing. The path was straight up steep, with 1000 ft sheer cliffs on either side, and only chains to hold on to. Believe me, I was clinging to those chains for dear life!