I had booked a ranger-led “Fiery Furnace” tour for 9:30 am. We got up at 6:00, ate oatmeal, and got on the road by 7:30. We drove to Arches National Park, where there was a line of cars and RVs waiting to enter. We finally checked in at the visitor center and learned that we had only 30 minutes to drive to the other end of the park. Dan had to pass some slow sightseeing traffic on the narrow winding road, but it was fun for him. We arrived with enough time to apply sunscreen and use the restroom. Whew! We were a bit concerned about the heat, since the park is at about the same elevation as Moab. However, the hike was quite comfortable, since it was mostly in the shade. The ranger, Juliet, had us do lots of silly sharing about our feelings about wilderness. Otherwise, the hike was great. We were clambering over rocks and through narrow slots, and the views were terrific.

Next was a picnic lunch at the Devil’s Garden and a hike to see Landscape Arch, Tunnel Arch, and Pine Tree Arch. The heat, wind, and blowing red sand made for a challenging slog. Our car thermometer said 95F, but it felt much hotter in the sun with the hot rocks radiating additional heat.

We stopped at the visitor center again to watch a short movie. Unfortunately, I can’t say what it was about: Zzzzzz.. Then we went back to Moab for ice cream and showers. Feeling more human, Dan was ready for a fun retail experience. We went back to the outdoor store, and he bought a Yeti, the Cadillac of coolers. It is super-insulated and certified bear-proof, so we can leave it outside instead of in the hot car.

After dinner, I discovered that everything inside the tent was covered with fine red sand. We were aware of the forecasted high winds, so we were careful to weigh down the tent with our duffel bags, put on the rain fly, and tie the tent to the sun shelter with rope. It took awhile to clean off the worst of the sand, especially from the nylon sleeping bags. (We’ve been chewing red sand ever since.) Bedtime was not a good time for this task😐.

We were very sad to leave our lovely little cabin, since it was so peaceful and cool. Dan left an entry in the guest book. We took the scenic route through Castle Valley and along the Colorado River. Dan wants to come back and hike up some of the features and mesas, but not in the summer.

We arrived in Moab well after noon, so we looked for a place for lunch. Unfortunately, many places were closed on Monday (or for the season) or had no wi-fi. On the fourth stop, we succeeded and had a lovely lunch at the EclectiCafe. I worked on the blog and Dan checked email and google. We then stopped at an nice outdoor store for maps and free water, and filled up on food and gas.

We drove to Dead Horse Point State Park on a high plateau above the Colorado River. All their water is trucked in from Moab, but they bring enough for drinking, flush toilets, and dishwashing. Sadly, there are no showers. Wingate campground opened last year, and each site has a sturdy metal sun shelter with 2 walls. No bears live in the park, but the ravens are good at opening boxes and helping themselves to food, so again we have to put everything away after every meal. The temperature was slightly lower than in Moab (89F), but it was still uncomfortable. Even though the park brags about their “dark sky” designation, the light on the nearby bathroom was unnecessarily bright. Sunset was gorgeous.

We set off at 9:30 for a hike. There was a sign for Haystack Mt. (elevation 11,600 ft). We planned to climb it, but could find no obvious trail. We headed out on the “WE” trail and ran into a lot of mountain bikers. Apparently the WE is the “Whole Enchilada,” a long bike ride. Shuttles from Moab take the bikes and bikers into the mountains, and they pedal back. We took the first available fork onto a different trail, since it seemed dangerous hiking with all the bikers.

We kept climbing until we reached Mann’s Peak, at 12,272 ft. We went slowly with the altitude, but felt it was good training for the Grand Canyon. I lost the poorly marked trail on the way down. The talus kept shifting under my feet, and eventually I fell, hurting both hands on the sharp stones. Too bad we forgot our trekking poles. It seemed a long way down; our total time was 7:15.

I had left our sun shower on top of the car, and the water was a comfortable 98F. We both had nice showers.

Laundry was the first order of the day. I washed clothes by hand, starting with the least dirty, using as little of the provided water as possible. By the time I got to the river clothes, I had to switch tactics. The rinse water looked as silty as the Colorado River! I had to change it several times, and I decided to re-wash the clothes when we had access to a washing machine.

After lunch, we hiked from the campground to Gold Knob, about 4 miles. The elevation there was 11,000 ft, so we felt winded on the uphill climb. The view was gorgeous, with many interesting rock formations at varying distances. We decided to try to take a longer route back to Moab to see some of them up close.

Although the temperature was very comfortable, we were sweaty after our hike, so I boiled water on the stove, poured it into the sun shower, and Dan hung a rope over the chimney to hold it. I also rigged up the tarp to make a privacy curtain. We hadn’t had real showers for 4 days, so it felt great. However, we didn’t have enough water to get all the silt out of my hair. Dan didn’t have that problem.

At dinner some mule deer came up to our cabin for a photo op. We also heard elk bugling in the evening.

After a cool night, we continued down the river. We had finished with the rapids, so the rafts were tied together again, and we motored. It was very relaxing and scenic, and we saw more bighorn sheep and deer. We met up with the OARS 6 day tour for lunch. Each group insisted that their guides were the best. Soon we saw our first sign of civilization: the route 95 bridge over the canyon. Dan was impressed by this engineering marvel and took lots of pictures. Next we beached the rafts at the take out point, the old Hite Marina. We unloaded our gear in the blazingly hot sun (well, we watched the guides do the work). It was sad to say goodbye to them, but we hope to do another rafting trip sometime.

After a short van ride to the nearby airstrip (a sloping strip of pavement with a windsock, a picnic table, and a sun shelter), we met our pilot. He was a retired ranger who had worked at most of the national parks in the area. He was very knowledgeable about the parks and the various sites underneath us. He even dipped the wings so that everyone could see the sights, but not everyone appreciated the fancy maneuvers. Quite a few people looked green by the time we arrived in Moab, but we got some great photos.

After a quick van trip to OARS headquarters, we repacked the car (again!), had a light dinner, and restocked our food and gas. Then we had a one hour drive uphill to Warner Lake (elev. 9400 ft) in the La Sal Mountains. The temperature was pleasantly cool at this high elevation, after being 107F in Moab. As we unpacked, we discarded some of our food which did not survive confinement in the hot car for 4 days. I kept my vitamins, but they are hard to separate, having been fused together.

Our cabin, Warner Lake Cabin, is an historic ranger cabin originally built in 1908. It has electricity from a solar panel, a propane stove, but no running water, due to the spring running dry. The ranger had provided 10 gallons of water of unknown origin. We used it for washing. Fortunately we still had 3 gallons of purified water in our Aqua-tainer for drinking.

The Confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers:

Our road trip is planned around seeing the sights, but we are meeting lots of people along the way. Some people strike us as particularly awesome for one reason or another. (We’re sure that everyone is awesome in their own way, but maybe we just aren’t talking long enough to discover their awesomeness.) We meet people at campgrounds, on the road at various stopping points, and on the trail and in the back country. Since a lot of our nights are spent in campgrounds, you would think that we would have lots of stories of awesome campground people. This is not the case.

One thing that we learned early on is that we are not “camping”. In order to “camp” you need a “camper”, honey. Since we only have a tent, we are “tenting”. Campers (the equipment, but I suppose the people also) come in various sizes from gigantic-humongous to quite small and cute. The larger the camper, the less likely we were to meet the occupants. Why would anyone ever want to step out of a climate controlled motorized McMansion into the nasty hot/cold/windy/sandy/wet/dry/snake infested outdoors? Tenters are a minority in the campground world, so just due to the small population we didn’t run into many of them. Therefore, at campgrounds we mostly met inhabitants of the small and cute campers, who were all very nice but not particularly awesome. Demographically the campground population is 90% really old retirees, 9% families with bratty pre-school kids, and 1% other. I imagine that if we were at the campground in the middle of summer that there would be a fair percentage of families with sulky teenage kids. Just as well.

On-the-road is the most diverse group. Anyone we meet on the road has gotten out of their vehicle for some reason. They are not necessarily campers (or tenters), they could be locals doing their thing.

In the back country we’re all tenters of course, except for the super awesome sleep under the stars people. The back country is surprisingly white – I would even say whiter than Boxford, if you could imagine.

We exchange names and sometimes contact info with some of the people we meet, but mostly not. My estimates of age decades are based on appearances and stories. If you see your name here and you are older than I estimate, chalk it up to your youthful good looks. If you are younger than I estimate, that is a reflection of your advanced wisdom.

So, without further ado, here is our list of five star awesome people so far:

At campgrounds:

• (None yet)

On the road:

• Volunteer couple (80s) at Wildcat Guard Station (80s). We talked a long time about little known sights in Utah. The husband presented us with a carved wood miniature shovel that he had made, inscribed with the year and the name of his guard station, in recognition of our interest in their state.
• The Jenny Lake (Grand Tetons NP) back country rangers (40s) who made sure that we were well instructed in the local bear protocols, helped us lighten our backpack load (we didn’t need to carry as much water as we had thought), and assured us that we had chosen an appropriate route for our experience level.
• Elaine (60s), jack of all trades at the Cowboy Inn in Escalante, rearranged the room assignments so that we could have two nights after our planned back country hike. Listened to our stories after the hike, and then gave us excellent suggestions for local day hikes.
• Rayden (20s) at Escalante Interagency Visitor Center, spent about an hour with us helping to plan our back country hike. And then another half hour the next day helping to modify the plan to address some additional worries.
• Couple from Pennsylvania (50s): sold their house and most possessions. Touring the country in their mini-van with their dog for the foreseeable future. Living at Airbnbs.
• Hiker (80s) with an REI tour (Capitol Reef and Escalante). His 5^th year doing the same tour!
• Sadie Hansen (20s), working the ice cream counter in Iowa. We talked with her about her family’s dairy and our Richardson’s back home. She insisted that we take some complimentary milk with us so we could see how much better theirs is. (http://www.hansendairy.com)
• Lynette and family for taking care of us for almost a week.
• Clerk at McGuckin’s (an iconic hardware store in Boulder) who tried to help us figure out how to fix our 30 year old Coleman camp stove, rather than pushing a new one.
• Two motorcycle dudes (70s): leather chaps, etc. Matching baby blue BWMs. (DAR: “Maybe they’re brothers.” RAR: “They’re not.”)

In the back country:

• Two fearless Australian ladies in sandals, skirts, and hippie jewelry (40s). They arrived at our campsite separately from different trails; one of them had just waded alone through a waist-deep pool not knowing how deep it was. Plus, they had just come through a canyon wall passage that we wimped out on. (Next time we’ll do it!)
• Mark, Matt (30s), and Caroline (20s). Met for the first time at the visitor center and decided to hike in the back country for three days together. Caroline also gets fearless points.
• Dean, Russell, and any other river guides on the planet. These people love what they do and have the best views from their offices.
• Red Jeep dudes (40s) who picked up RAR’s errant camera from a sand bank, looked at some pictures, drove ½ hr. down a dirt road until they found the subjects in the pictures (us, of course), to return the camera! (We’re still paying back that karma.)
• Four ladies from North Carolina. Dispersed camping in UT for three weeks. Only had to pay for a campground once. $10.
• Mountain biker (30s) on the “WE” (Whole Enchilada, bike trail to Moab). Stopped to share his map with us as we were cluelessly trying to find Haystack Mt.
• The Sheriff and his posse, looking for someone or something between the middle and the edge of nowhere in Southern Utah. Big pickup trucks, cowboy hats, guns, badges. Look like they’ve never been to a Dunkin’ Donuts. Ever.

After breakfast, we did rapids #3 and #4 in the inflatable kayaks. Steering these crafts was difficult. The river would carry us where it wanted and we were lucky to keep it pointing downstream. We scouted rapid #5 with the guides. Russell gave us very detailed instructions on the hazards that we needed to avoid on this particular rapid. His discussion was enough to scare us back into the large rafts. Also, it was cool and rainy, and we were getting chilled.

We did lots more rapids (most with numbers) and got soaked. Eventually we put on warm layers and our rain jackets. The sun came out again, and we stopped for lunch and dried our clothes on the warm rocks. Dan spent a lot of time trying to get lizard photos. He finally figured out how to use the close-up mode on his new camera. We both miss the days of printed manuals.

We stayed in Dean’s raft after lunch. Every rapid drenched us, but the sun kept us warm. It was great fun. Dean entertained us with lots of river stories, which mostly sounded believable.

Our camp for the night was spectacular, with high canyon walls on both sides. Every sound made an echo. The guides enjoyed thwacking their gear, which made a sound like a gunshot echoing through the canyon. We set up the tent on a high dried mud plateau (no more sand), hung up our wet stuff on the tent, and bathed in the river.

After an excellent breakfast of bacon, eggs, and fruit, we took a short hike to see some more granaries. The granaries are constructed in alcoves high on the cliffs and sealed up with rocks and mud. It is believed that fires were lit inside the granaries before the final sealing in order to deplete the oxygen inside. We traveled down the river, and then Dean dropped us off at the “Loop,” a section of river that makes a long detour and turns back on itself. We hiked about one mile up and over a short canyon wall, while Dean motored 4 miles downriver. After hiking in the hot sun, we put on our PFDs and floated in the cool water for awhile. Soon it was lunch on shore, where we saw some fossils (crinoids, apparently quite rare), and then Dan’s nap time. I had to wake him up so that he could see the “most important confluence in the world,” that between the Colorado and Green Rivers. At times, the rivers are different colors, but today they both were brownish. Since the Green has about the same flow as the Colorado, the result is a doubling of the Colorado’s flow.

About mid-afternoon, we stopped and Gavin inflated two double kayaks, one for Dan and me, and one for Sarah and Mark. We paddled down some quiet water before coming to two rapids: Brown Betty and #2. Dan and I managed to stay upright, but it was a very wet experience. After rapid #2, we camped for the night. It was peaceful listening to the gentle sounds of the water. The guides stayed up with us past sunset and identified the stars. The night sky was dark with no moon, so we could see the Milky Way, shooting stars, satellites, Venus, Jupiter, and many constellations. We went to bed around 9:30, a late night.

Day one of the rafting trip was relaxing ride down the Colorado River. The guides, Russell and Dean, tied the two rafts end-to-end, and we motored down the river. Gavin (a 16 yr old OARS warehouse employee) tagged along to help out and see the river. Sarah and Mark were our fellow rafters, so we were a small group. Dean very carefully found the deepest water, so that we didn’t go aground. We stopped every couple of hours for canyon hikes to see petroglyphs and granaries (built by Fremont people about 1000-1500 years ago) and petrified wood. We also saw wildlife: black-crowned night heron, lots of great blue herons, bighorn sheep, and blue willow beetles. We stopped for lunch on a sandbar, and everyone had a swim. Dan napped on the raft in the morning, and we both napped in the afternoon.

We stopped for the night on a sandbar. The guides unloaded the rafts, and we set up our tents. Suddenly the wind picked up, and we were hanging onto our tents and trying to stake them down while being sand-blasted. Fortunately, the wind died down in time for dinner, but by then all of our stuff was quite gritty.

Russell set up the camp bathroom and then gathered us together for “toilet training.” Skip this part if you’re squeamish about such matters. The waste stream is separated into two parts. Liquid waste goes only into the river, so guys could take the direct route. For the ladies, a bucket with a seat was available, but no toilet paper was allowed. Ladies can opt for the direct route option also. Small pails were available to bring to your tent (outside the tent strongly recommended) for collecting nighttime liquid waste, which you bring to the river in the morning. Solid waste needs to be packed out, so we had a custom aluminum chemical toilet, which would accept toilet paper, but NO liquid waste – so you’re not exactly relaxing with morning paper while taking care of business. This chemical toilet was known as a “groover,” as earlier models were simply ammunition boxes without seats. If you sat on it, you got grooves. This system of separating waste streams turned out to be good practice for our later trips. I bet you can’t wait to hear about that!

We had breakfast at the Lodge and soaked in the hot springs again. It was much less crowded than last night. After packing up, we had an early lunch and said goodbye to Lynette and Eric. They recommended that we stop at the Colorado National Monument. There was a lot of discussion about whether we had time to eat lunch and make a stop, but we eventually agreed to a short visit.

This monument is great if you enjoy pretty rocks, which we do. However, the road through the park was steep, narrow, and winding. The shoulder was soft gravel at 45 degree angle, leading to a drop off. Yikes!

We arrived safely in Moab, checked into our hotel (a luxury!), and met the group for our next adventure: whitewater rafting on the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon.