Summer has arrived here. Yesterday it got to 100, today maybe a couple degrees higher, but supposed to be cooling off as the week goes on. Since it was so hot yesterday, we decided to drive the 60 mile La Sal Mountain Loop, a nice, paved road. We got up to 8,800 ft. at the Oowah campground, where it was only in the low 80’s. There are a few trails there, so we hiked the 1.2 mile climb to Clarks Lake. It was wooded and pleasant and when we got to the lake there were lots of snow piles still around it. Not sure what elevation we got to but judging by how hard it was to breathe it must have been over 9,000 ft.
The lake was not very pretty but there was a nice stream with lots of small waterfalls.
After lunch in the cool shade, we started driving back down the mountain. We had views of Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands way off in the distance.
The drive comes out on scenic Rte 128, also called The River Rd, and heads back to Moab. The entire 18 miles goes along the Colorado River. We saw lots of rafters and kayakers, and by then our car was reading 102.
This morning we took a hot hike to Corona Arch, west of Arches National Park on the road to the potash plant.This is a 1.5 mile hike over lots of slickrock, with a couple sections of climbs with cables to hold onto, and then a small ladder to go up before reaching the base of the arch. It was a fairly easy and fun hike except that the temperature was rising quickly. There are actually two arches there. the one on the left is Bowtie Arch and Corona is on the right.
This is a striking area of red rock. We were surprised at how many people were there considering it was in the 90’s.
Bowtie Arch
Corona Arch, which has a 140 X 105 ft opening. It is pretty impressive.
Tomorrow we’re planning another visit to Canyonlands. We have yet to run out of things to do in this area. And to us the heat isn’t so bad since the humidity rarely gets over 20%. Quite a big difference from Florida..
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