Trip 2017 - Day 8 - In a groove

The second night at the Hittle Bottom campground on the Colorado River was so good I decided to spend a third night here and depart early Sunday morning.

Yesterday was gorgeous. It was a bit overcast, which made for some patience in terms of getting pictures, but the pictures that I got were that much better with the added drama of the skies. I did most of the main hikes in Arches yesterday, including both the viewpoint to the delicate arch as well as the rather strenuous hike up to the arch itself. Hiking around a bit off the main trails around the arch I risked life and limb to get some good pictures. I even found a "back door" to the arch from the trail.

Hiking around the "fins" that make up the arches was, literally, cool. It's amazing how you could get lost in the chilly recesses that make up most of the park. Too bad that the Devil's Garden campsite was closed -- I would desperately love to spend a night or two there in the future. I think I have the rest of the trip planned out at this point. As a bonus, the unseasonably cold weather has seemed to finally blow over. (The two nights I spent here at Hittle Bottom were some of the best camping I've had!) No more snow -- fingers crossed!

Today will be more just exploring around the area here. There's a couple of hikes I passed on yesterday that I would like to do. Nothing strenuous, but just getting more of the lay of the land.

Tomorrow I'll head over to Capitol Reef and hopefully get a site there and explore around there.

Monday night's destination will be Jordanelle state park -- which has a lot of sites (200) and has showers!!!! After that, on Tuesday I'll head to Three Island Crossing state park in Idaho and explore a bit around there.

That gets me home on Wednesday at some point and I'll get into some clean clothes and take a real shower! I'm starting to miss folks back at home -- and the kitties too!