Our first full day at a National Park was spent exploring Arches in Utah.
It was uncomfortably hot (about 95 degrees on the day we were there), there wasn’t much shade, and I wasn’t quite adjusted to the altitude of the Southwest yet. These things conspired to turn me into a crabby and uncooperative hiker at certain points throughout the day, but Justin managed to keep me going (and forced me to drink water even when I insisted I didn’t need it, even though I did).
It was a mile and a half hike in blistering heat up to Delicate Arch, but it was worth it. Wow! What a view!
While we were resting up at Delicate Arch, I glanced behind us every few minutes and noticed that the ominous clouds in the distance were creeping closer and closer. I mentioned this to Justin, and he assured me that storms usually travel west to east. So I pulled out my iPhone, opened my compass app, and informed him that, yup, that was exactly the direction that the storm in the distance appeared to be moving.
When we saw a few flashes of lightning, Justin decided it was time for us to leave the rock garden 4,800 feet in the sky.
So we quickly made our way back down the mile and a half trail, attempting to out-run the approaching storm.
We managed to out-run the storm and stay dry (I don’t think the people who remained up at Delicate Arch were so lucky).
After the storm, the lingering clouds provided some lovely filtered light and some gorgeous golden hour glow.
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