This morning, our adventure started with white water rafting on the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, CO. We were on a raft with four other people and a guide from Blue Sky tours. We started out with two miles in class three rapids and had a great time getting soaked. Then, we had a twelve mile stretch of minimal rapids that was relaxing. We only have one picture from rafting, since we didn’t want our cameras to get wet on the raft. We’ll have a better image when we get back and can scan it instead of taking a picture of the picture.
After rafting, we hit the road for Cortez, CO. The fastest route to Cortez took us through eastern Utah and right by the entrance to Arches National Park, so we took a detour through the park for most of the afternoon.
Inside the park, we were greeted by beautiful rock formations of many colors under the sweltering heat. The temperature was near 100 degrees the entire time we were in the park. Because of the heat, we didn’t do as many hikes off the road in the park as we would have liked.
The most famous sight that we saw in the park was Delicate Arch. The hike up to the base of the arch was 1.5 miles each way and a 480 foot increase in elevation, so we settled for the shorter hike to see Delicate Arch from across a valley. The best sight that we saw was Sandstone Arch, which we were able to hike up to, mostly in shade with a red sand covered ground. Every turn in the park had a scenic view.
 
Tonight, we’re staying in Cortez. Tomorrow, we’ll visit Mesa Verde early before it gets hot (we’re still in the desert, so temperatures are cold overnight and scorching during the day), then move on to our hotel on a hot spring.