Lord Lift Me Up....to Higher Ground

Wednesday

July 23, 2014

Wow, I can't believe that we have been gone from home 24 days. It has been an exhilarating journey. We have seen people, places, and things that we'll never forget. Today was another day I'll never forget.

We arrived in Moab, UT last night. Our plan was to get up really early on Wednesday and go to Arches National Park. This we did. We got up at 5:30 AM, got dressed, ate some breakfast, and then headed out. One reason we left so early was to beat the heat. The other reason is that the parking lot at the head of Delicate Arch fills up quite quickly. We made the trip in good time. We arrived around 6:00AM. Plenty of parking. As for the temperature, at 6:00 it was already 89 degrees.

We get on our way. It's an easy walk at the beginning. Nice dirt trail, bridge, some switchbacks. I'm thinking this is a piece of cake. Umm-No! We started gaining some elevation and more switchbacks. Soon we are on rocky ground the whole way with cairns guiding us. Around every corner I think we will see the arch. As we gained altitude, I had to sit down and rest quite a few times on rocks along the way. I think I left my carbon butt print on quite a few boulders going up. In my mind, I'm wondering what George has gotten me in to. I have truly trusted him on every detail of this trip. We finally get to the top around 7:15 or so. We(I) did not set any speed records going up. I did talk to God a lot. Give me strength, help me, I praise you for the beauty of the sunrise.

We spent some time at Delicate Arch. It is beautiful. I am so glad i made it to the top.

We enjoyed the view for a while and talked with some other hikers. We talked with some people from Asheville, NC and a girl who graduated from Carolina.

The hike back to the car wasn't quite as bad. LOL. Gravity does help sometimes. I didn't have to rest a single time. We met so many hikers going in the opposite direction. I thought to myself, "you got a long way to go." The heat was getting oppressive. It was 95 degrees when we reached the parking lot. We also visited several other Arches and viewpoints. Unbelievably there are over 2,000 arches in the park. We did not seek out that many. We were impressed with the stone formation The Fiery Furnace. You must have a guide to go in there. Many, many columns of sandstone close together to form mazes. It was huge. It's easy to see how one would get lost in there.

Here are a few other shots from this morning's adventure.

We had some lunch when we returned. Then we slept a l l afternoon.