Moab 1
After a cold night on the campground, we decided to begin our exploring in Arches National Park, where you can find most of the rock arches formed by erosion, typical in Utah. As soon as we got into the park we were surrounded by immense rocky formations: majestic reddish walls, towers, caverns, arches and galleries that melt together in this grand landscape as a reminder how brief is human life compared with the eternity of these formations.
After many hours of walking and taking pictures, we took a very isolated road that goes through the park this time of the year, a sandy-rocky road that after 15 miles took us back to the highway.
Back in town, I realized that I had to put too much force to turn the wheel, so we stopped to see what was happening and found that the cause of the problem was a broken hydraulic fluid hose. We had no other option than buy the spare part and go back to the campground to change it, that took us the rest of the day.
Early the next day, we met with our friends from Red River Adventures, who offer tours in this area. We left the SUV at their offices and they took us and other tourists in a Van to the initial point of a very entertaining journey
With helmets and harnesses on, we walked a long path to the first challenge of the day, an 80 feet high rappel (24 meters) through a rocky waterfall ending on a cavern. As with all these risk controlled sports, at first you have certain fear on those three or four steps towards the abysm that make your adrenaline flow and hear your own heartbeat, but when you arrive to the bottom you feel such a sensation that only makes you want to go back and to do it again!
A little further, the second descend, a 120 feet fall (36.5 meters) between two rock walls that formed an arch and left more than half of the way in the open. Hanging only by the rope and contemplating the view one goes round and round like a pendulum in the wind. This is an adventure that I really recommend all, is one in a lifetime experience.
Sadly I could not take my camera to the next challenge, Rafting in the Colorado River, so I had to use the little Action Cameras designed for these kind of activity. After walking through three miles of canyons, rocks and beautiful creeks, they took us on the van to another place upriver. We had lunch, which we ate voraciously since we were really hungry due to all the energy used on the 5 hours of this experience. After some brief instructions and security measures, we were ready to challenge to cold waters of the river that soaked us and made us shiver. The difficulty of the rafting wasn’t what we expected since the water level was very high and the rocks were submerged forming small whirlpools and jumps, and not the usual stuff.
A splendid day that made us go to sleep early in our tents.
