Usain’s first day in a national park! We got our reserved entry time to Arches National Park for 8:00 am, and drove to the Windows arches as they are very popular. There are easy walks up to the arches and a short “primitive” walk around the back of them where you can get away from the crowd.

Our second hike of the day was to the Double Arch across from where we parked for the Windows arches.

There were also some petroglyphs near the trailhead. And the ravens are very curious and on the lookout for handouts. We put out the Dishy McFlatface so Tony could work a bit after our hike, then we drove to the Delicate Arch Viewpoints and did yet another hike. It was uphill, but easier—we had on sandals at this point. I love my Chacos!

Hike number 3 was more challenging. We hiked up and up and up – a huge rock face, narrow ledges, but then, around the corner, was the iconic Delicate Arch – the one on the Utah license plates. It was a big “wow” moment to come around the final turn and see it.

For our last hike of the day, we parked at the Courthouse Towers viewpoint and walked to the Park Avenue Viewpoint. This is mostly in shade at this point in the day, and that was wonderful to get relief from the 90-degree hot sunshine. This hike is listed as ”moderate”, but decided we could do it in sandals.