09-14-2023 Entry

First day visiting Arches National Park. We got up early, I had a shower, and we drove to the entrance before sunrise and before the 7:00 time reservation start. Got to the Park Avenue viewpoint, had some yogurt and fruit, and saw this vista in pre-dawn light. Amazing! Then we watched the sunrise at the next turnoff, and the light really accented the rock features. Ann's sides and back were bothering her, so we took it slow. The Balanced Rock was cool, I hiked a little more here. Really beautiful at the Windows turnoff, with North and South Arch and Turret Arch. We hiked up to North Arch, and I went a little further to get a picture of her from the sun-facing side. At South Arch, I hiked around the back and came up that way, got a good Pic of me alone in the arch. Turret Arch was also nice although not as impressive. Then we hiked, slowly, over to Double Arch before heading on. A couple more viewpoints before we hiked to Sandy Arch. Saw a group of bike riders along the way, and that was some serious climbing form them on this day. Ann was done hiking by then, so we drove back to the campsite after stopping at the store in town. Later, we went swimming in the KOA pool and I got my phone wet. It still worked, so I powered it off and am hoping for the best.