July 30th: Moab, UT to Mesa Verde, CO or ...a new National Park!

A visit to Moab without going to Arches National Park… No way! What better time than visiting in the morning. On the way to the park the sheriff was cleaning up the streets: someone had left some garbage bags in the middle of the road! As we entered the park I kind of felt happy I didn’t have to cycle: the road quickly ascends and even in the park it is very rolling. On the other hand I do miss being in the outdoors and especially miss being able to see the sky above me! Seeing a park from the back of the car is not all that spectacular. But I felt happy to enjoy the scenery together with family. Since we still had to drive a long way to our destination, we had to choose between Delicate Arch or Landscape Arch. The ride to the trailhead of the latter one showed us some more arches along the way. With my sister looking at the park map, we kind of had a guide telling us what we could see (even if it was still further away than she thought). At Devil’s Garden Trailhead we parked the car and made a short hike to see the Landscape Arch, which is 90 meters long

I vaguely remembered being up there in 1995. Next to it was Partition Arch. On our way back out we turned off to see the Windows section, Double Arch and the Parade of the Elephants. 

I found those quite amusing! A stop next to Balanced Rock (hope it will stay there) and a road sign were the last things we did in this National Park. Before heading out of town we had lunch (what better cool place than the car!) and Gert made sure we had enough gas to get us where we wanted to go. We headed south along the high La Sal Mountains to Monticello, where we turned east on US 495 to the Colorado Border. Cortez had a nice welcome center. Mesa Verde National Park was only a few moments in the car away. Was I surprised to find out how much ascending we had to do before we reached the lodge where we were going to stay for 2 nights.