escaping the arctic conditions in bryce canyon, we arrived in moab looking forward to warm and dry weather. we were not disappointed, moab greeted us with blue skies and really warm weather, quite a shock (a pleasant one) after running through snow showers the day before.
while moab is mainly popular for being a mountain bike mekka (we did a little half-day trip on our second day, the amasa back trail, but only in the afternoon after running in the morning), it also is very close to arches national park, which has beautiful trails and spectacular rock formations. so we did all our running from moab in arches, with one mountain bike tour thrown in for some variety...
park road: the first day we spent mostly with sightseeing, visiting delicate arch and hiking the broken arch loop. our run for the day was then starting at the devils garden campground, simply following the park road to balanced rock. it is basically one long downhill (to the turn-off to wolfe ranch) followed by one long uphill. it took exactly one hour to cover the 14km (9miles), and it was a good speed workout
.
- windows section: the next day we got up early and started for an easy morning run, exploring the windows section road and trails, starting from balanced rock. the previous evening's speedy run was still noticeable, so this was a decidedly easy run... running the complete road out and back and all trails at the end of it (to turret arch, north and south window, and double arch) took a bit over an hour at a leisurely pace, and there are only little ups and downs. probably much better in the early morning, when there are not yet so many cars on the road.
devils garden: our third run started pretty early as well, it's better because of the crowds and the temperatures... we started with devils garden loop, which took us 1:17 with all spur trails (it's only 11.5km/7.2mi, but the
primitive loop
part of the trail takes a bit of rock scrambling and wading through deep sand, but it definitely is worth it!). we then continued to the broken arch trail, taking the trail to sand dune arch at its end, and further down the park road towards wolfe ranch. in the end, we had 1:50 of running, with a lot of sightseeing in between. make sure to climb the first series of rocks directly past sand dune arch. you'll be rewarded with a magnificent view of the dark angel tower in the distance, where you were just one hour ago!
so all the runs we did in arches were pretty short, and none of them ventured far from the major roads and attractions. but that's basically how arches is, it is a very driving-friendly park with only few opportunities to do longer trails in the backcountry. so after three days of running over and through red sandstone in arches, we left moab for canyonlands park's needles district, which has longer trails, more varied terrain, and fewer visitors.
[[ looking for maps? here is a complete map of arches national park. ]]
Comments