The Great Adventure 2011 Utah – 8/8/11

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This morning we got up early and headed towards Delicate Arch. Even though it wasn’t a long hike, it was hard when it got hot. The views were as beautiful as I remember but the last time we were here, it was in April and colder. After that we did the Delicate Arch viewpoints. Then we hiked to the Double Arch.

 After lunch we stopped at the grocery store and the knitting shop called Desert Threads. I bought a pound of 100% Corriedale fiber for about $40. The clerk, Nicole, was so nice and we spent a lot of time talking with her. As a former river guide, she told us about rafting down the Colorado River so we ended up booking a rafting trip for tomorrow. Then we drove on Hwy 279 to the Potash Plant. Along the way we saw petroglyphs and another arch. We stopped at a mailing center to see about mailing my spinning wheel home but decided it wasn’t cost effective to do so. Instead we will repack the car and store the wheel in the car.

What I Learned Today:

· Even hiking at 8am, it is still hot outside! We need to get an earlier start if we want to do that 8 mile hike before it gets hot.

· The red thread in the rocks is caused by the oxidizing of iron.

· “To qualify as an official stone “arch,” a hole must have an opening at least three feet (1m) long in any one direction.”

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original Photo: by Pat Hensley