July 26, 2021 - Dedicate Arch and Canyonlands NP the Needle Section

Originally Jason planed to hike up to Delicate Arch with Tony only in the early morning.  Eventually, Talia and Fei joined the hike.  We left the hotel at 6AM and headed out to Arches NP.  Comfort Suites has nice gesture by providing bagged breakfast for early birds.  We took three bags and started our venture to Delicate Arch.  On the way driving to Delicate Arch we were lucky to see the sunrise.

When we reached the Delicate Arch Trail parking lot, there were a lot of cars already.  Lucky, we found one spot and started to join the crowd to hike the trail.  It is a 3 miles round trip hike with incline on huge rock and some narrow passages along the cliff.  However, the weather was nice in the earlier morning and we did not feel any difficulty of hiking this trail (NPS rated this trail as Difficult).  

There was wow factors when we reached the Delicate Arch.  It was so magnificent, the natural reaction was to take more photos.

There were a lot of people at the arch area, and there was also a long line for people waiting their turn to take pictures on the arch with beautiful sunlight.  Everyone was patient and cheerfully helping each other to handle cameras and iPhones.  We got in line and had our share of picture taking.

When we got back to parking lot, it was about 8:30am.  Got back to the hotel about 9am for breakfast.  It was a wonderful experience of seeing the famous Delicate Arch.

After a relaxing breakfast, we rest and had lunch in the hotel with some leftover food.

After lunch we heading out again to Needles Section of the Canyonlands NP.  The drive was a little long (about 2 hours).  The road construction just before we reached Needles did not help either.  But we finally got there.

The first attraction we visited was the Big Spring Canyon Overlook area.  We just wondered around to see wonderful rock formations.

Then, we went to Cave Spring Trail which is a 0.6 mile hiking trail with caves and ladders as part of the trail. Due to the hot weather, we only hiked the caves portion and just viewed the ladders part.  However, Talia was so interested in climbing up the ladders, so Theresa and Tony accompanied her to just climb up the ladders for the experience.  

Then we drove back to the hotel around 6PM. We ordered burritos from Giliberto's Mexican Taco Shop, took back to the hotel and ate at the hotel's dinning area.  We were the only people there, it was pretty relaxing.