We got an early start to our Fiery Furnace hike day. In fact, we were the first ones there. Nice. Very nice. With the early start it was a couple hours before we even saw another soul. Even nicer. If you do this hike, the park service really wants you to go on their ranger guided version, rather than on your own. Their version is two and a half miles in two and a half hours. We doubled the distance and time. We had a marvelous morning of exploration. We meandered, lots of fabulous sights to see, and plenty of pointless dead ends. We had lunch with a view. We saw a handful of other people all day long. Some of them were running through the area from arrow to arrow like it was a competition, and you got a prize if you finished fastest. How sad is that. Oh well, you do you. This is the Bob and Susan version.
People honestly get lost with arrows showing the way.
A little arch.
Bob and the baby hole in the rock arch.
Good thing we didn't have too much breakfast.
Bob makes it look easy.
Coming down!
Skull Arch
It is time to walk a ramp.
Squeezy, McSqueezy!
Walk those walls.
No idea how it is still alive.
Going up.
Now, that's a big arch.
Almost done.
Looking back on where we came from.
Should you do this hike? For the average visitor to Arches, the answer is NO, definitely not. The park service has put up numerous arrows, but based on things we read on-line, the average hiker seems to have problems following basic directions and spends a great deal of time being lost. Even with the ranger to show the way, it is too physically demanding for most folks. The hardness factor involves lots of climbing up and sliding down. I spent a far amount of time on my butt sliding along, and had a couple of airy not happy spots. We thought this was the funnest hike in the park, but we spend our days getting cliffed out and having to backtrack. And we only hike on trails when we have to.
For those who want to see this hike as a video, Bob went all Steven Spielberg and made this 4 minute movie.
Video link for those reading by email: YouTube link
Since we survived the doom and despair, oh my, of Fiery Furnace and still had a half a day left, we headed off to see more arches. We hiked to Sand, Broken and Tapestry Arches. A nice flat sandy trail, which we turned into a lolly pop loop by taking a trail cutting through a fin area.
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