Happy Solstice! Happy Anniversary!

Today is the first day of summer and our 13th wedding anniversary. How lucky we are to be in such a beautiful place to celebrate.

We made our last trip into Arches National Park this morning, starting at Park Avenue. We made the two-mile round trip hike down into the spectacular canyon named for the resemblance to skyscrapers of the surrounding cliffs and towers. Along the way we walked over rock surfaces smoothed by water rushing through the canyon, with a striped and wavy appearance that made us think of ancient sands.

We passed a couple of small pothole pools, always ephemeral in this desert environment. In one of them, a swarm of little tadpoles were swimming. Where, we wondered, could the parents possibly live in this desert? Later research raised even more questions: could these possibly have been tadpole shrimp? or were they tadpoles of desert toads or frogs--the adults bury themselves to wait for the next rain.

Part of the time we seemed to have this trail much to ourselves, since we got a relatively early start so as to avoid the midday heat. As we walked along, we could look around and see spectacular sights in every direction.

A view looking north through the Park Avenue trail canyon.

Sheep Rock to the left, the Tower of Babel in the center, and the Organ to the right form a panorama viewed from the floor of the Park Avenue trail.

The Tower of Babel

Sheep Rock

After we returned to the Park Avenue trailhead, we drove to the Delicate Arch overlook area, where you can see the famous Utah state symbol from across a gorge. You can get a better view by hiking a half mile up along a ridge line, so of course we did that. Ken got this beautiful shot of the arch--if you look closely you can see the tiny people hiking out to it. We decided to pass on the hike out to the arch itself.

Having completed our morning's missions, we found a picnic area and had lunch in the shade of a pygmy juniper tree. The table had been pushed right up almost against the tree, and the branches were right over our heads. The shade was welcome in the growing heat.

We went on to more mundane chores: laundry, shopping, getting diesel, then headed home to find our indoor-outdoor thermometer showing 90 degrees inside and 100 outside. A good time to find something cold to drink and rest a bit.