Day 4: Monday, September 27: House on Fire!

Day 4: Monday, September 27, 2010
So, Monday we woke up with hopes of catching some great early morning light with the classic view of leaving Monument Valley heading up north towards Blanding, Utah. We were almost good to go except the tent stakes we were required to use for the rainfly were STUCK into the ground. It honestly took us 45 minutes to get them out and the rest of the tent packed. Not a good start to the day!

We did manage to get out of there and head up north and snag a few pictures in the middle of the road back towards Monument Valley. The light was ok, but it sure would have been nice to see a cloud or two! We have seen literally 4 clouds the whole trip so far. Kind of makes for boring skies in the photos!

The first planned stop of the day was to find Fallen Roof Ruin. The drive there took us through a section of gravel switchbacks called Mokey Dugway. It was a pretty insane and awesomely scenic drive. I took some video with Winger’s Canon D7. Not sure how it’ll come out, but hopefully good.
Shortly after ascending up the side of a cliff, we came to the turnoff that leads to the trailhead. Unfortunately we got about a half of a mile down the road and due to a recent rainfall, the road was a little sketchy, and we decided not to risk it in the rental… Definitely something I’d like to check out in the near future though!

We did have a backup plan. Along the way from where we were to where we were going, there was a ruin called House of Fire Ruin in Mule Canyon. We found the trailhead which descended into a canyon and followed a wash about a mile… I don’t have the best sense of distance or height apparently… In the Photography book I have, the author clearly said that the ruin was about 20 feet off of the canyon floor. Well, I thought I saw it (after maybe 2/3 mile) and decided to start climbing up scary rocks until I got up there, maybe 65-70 feet up and realized I was WAAAAY off. Thankfully for Winger, she didn’t come up all the way and saved some energy. After we made it back to the canyon floor, we continued on westward until we saw it, clearly, on the right, about 20 feet up. There was a small climb involved, but it wasn’t much, and it was worth the short hike. We made it just in time where the ruin was still in shadow and the suns rays were reflecting off of the rocks below lighting it up nicely!

After a short snack break we headed back, where there were no unnecessary details!
This brought us out around noon so we still had plenty of the day left as we headed towards Moab. Along the way we took a slight detour and saw Newspaper Rock, some old petroglyphs on a huge rock just off of the side of the road. It was the first time I had seen any that I know of and they were pretty cool.

We headed north to Moab. Winger had stayed in town for a few days last December, so she pretty much knows the lay of the land! It’s a pretty cool/chill little town that I could see myself hanging out in longer in the future!

Our first stop was to swing by the Lazy Lizard International Hostel where we originally had a reservation for a cabin for Tuesday night. We changed it to Tuesday and Wednesday with no problem.

Following this, we stopped at ArchView Campground to see if they had any places, and they did so we got a site and set up our tent for the night.

Along the way up to the campground, I was reminded by my old roommate and good friend Dave that his parents were in Moab during a Southwest Adventure of their own so I called his mom and talked to them for a few minutes. I let them know that we were going to swing through Arches that evening to check it out and take some pictures so maybe we’d meet up.

The drive into Arches was amazing in itself. I didn’t realize that it was so mountainous (I honestly thought it would be flat and all of the features would be sticking out of the flat ground… oops!) It was an amazing first drive through. So much to see, I’m glad Winger was driving as she’s been there a few times before! We headed to the Windows section to get some sunset pictures and there were a TON of people there walking around, checking out the massive arches and taking photos.. We got some pretty good stuff, and then as we were hiking back down to the cars, I was talking to a couple from Pennsylvania and said I was from Nashua, and I heard “HEY NASHUA!” it was Dave’s mom from the parking area, waving and yelling up. It was great to see them and share a few quick stories. They were headed south back towards New Mexico as we were headed north and then southwest from Moab in a few days.

We set up the camp stove for the first time and grilled up some hot dogs for dinner. They never tasted so good, I’ll tell you that much!