Arches National Park

May 2, 2009

We had breakfast at the Pancake Haus near our hotel. The pancake was huge but chewy. This place is not a good pancake place.

We then proceeded to Arches National Park which was just 5 miles away. Since the weather report at the visitor center indicated 90% chance of rain, we decided to start going to the viewpoints and hiking right away. The rain started, light but steady. Fortunately I brought with me my 100% guaranteed waterproof rain jacket…and it passed the test! It kept me dry. Dek at first wore a water repellent jacket which got him wet. He had to change his shirt (fortunately we had a souvenir shirt in the car) and he wore another jacket after that. We even used our umbrella. We came prepared!

We hiked for an hour to the Landscape Arch, the second largest arch in the world (don’t know what the first is). It is bigger than a football field. Visitors used to be able to hike directly beneath the arch but in 1991, an 18 ton piece of the arch fell while some visitors were resting beneath it. Fortunately they were able to scramble to safety. The thinnest part of the arch is now just 6 feet thick. We were planning to continue hiking to 2 other arches from the Landscape arch, but I had to go really bad. Tumatayo ang balahibo ko dahil ihing-ihi na ako.

After seeing all the viewpoints, we went back to the visitor center. That was when a really huge thunderstorm struck. Lucky for us. It lasted about 20 minutes. So we spent the time browsing the gift shop, the museum, and watching a short film about Canyonlands and Arches. Bought a book on the southwest parks and another souvenir shirt.

Water is the main force that has shaped all the parks we’ve visited. Its freezing, thawing, flowing has shaped the rocks and canyons for thousands of years.

We left the park and had a late lunch (2 pm) at Shingha, a Thai restaurant in Moab. We chose this place because according to the TripAdvisor reviews, this was a great Thai place. We ordered Tom Yum soup, pad see yew, and beef curry. The dishes were tasty but we’ve had better in L.A. The place also needed some cleaning and updating, I think.

We then went back to Ramada Inn to rest for the rest of the day. We’re planning to just have noodles tonight (part of my food supply) since we’re still full from the late lunch. Dek right now, at 5:50 pm, is snoring. All the walking and hiking is taking its toll.

I mentioned in a previous blog that Moab has a lot of young ‘local foreigners’. The waiter at Pancake Haus is Thai and he mentioned that he works with a 20 year old Filipino. I found out that a company recruits them from their countries as ‘exchange students’ and they work in the hotels and restaurants in the area. I wonder how legit this is…another type of slave labor? Would be interesting to research this.

On to Monument Valley tomorrow, stopping at several state parks along the way. I am looking forward to our stay at Monument Valley because our hotel is right in the park. I hope I won’t get disappointed with the accommodation…the hotel is new and the most expensive one during our vacation.