Summary:
Here is a hiking and restaurant suggestion for travelers staying in Utahs red-painted Moab near Arches National Park. Presented as a day trip, this article outlines the trail to Delicate Arch; then recommends a relaxing evening at a popular restaurant in downtown Moab.

Details or Sample:
Pretend like you"re on Mars, or even better, visit Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. Although all may not believe a short drive up a canyon wall to a huge plateau could lead to any place so outlandish, it"s even more difficult to deny the ever-shedding sand texture of the red rocks beneath your fingertips. There are always sightseeing features in every city or park (especially our National ones) that win the "must see" test, thereby assuring that everyone who has been there before you will demand its addition to your itinerary. Whether they make you promise to visit the Cliff Palace of Mesa Verde in Colorado or Arizona"s bustling artist"s dream-town, Sedona, when it comes to Arches National Park, only the Balanced Rock (exactly what it sounds like) claims second to the mind-arresting Delicate Arch in the realm of "must sees".

Like any other major attraction, probably 95% of previous visitors will gladly bet $1,000 that no one who starts upon the head of the trail from the Wolfe Ranch parking area will regret it. The stunning arch, not to belittle the numerous others throughout the park, can be attained after a moderate 3-mile (round trip) hike. The terrain is best enjoyed if you start in either in the morning or afternoon. Even if your ego scoffs at the desert heat, please take this "not-at-noon" advice seriously from someone "anonymous" who experienced the scorch of the noon sun (even with a cap on) for the duration of this two to three hours, because they spent too much of the morning in town. What gives this hike a moderate rather than a beginner rating is the more than a mile length of its trail, and the middle portion of the climb, which entails scaling a red rock the size of a hill; aptly labeled "slickrock" because of the sometimes unpredictable nature of sandstone. After mounting slickrock, you continue uphill for long enough to wonder if you have really brought enough water and whether the famous Arch is going to be as mighty as the postcard suggests. For those who have a bit of vertigo, a short section of the hike, including the area surrounding Delicate Arch, has some drop-offs and thinning of the trail"s width to three or four feet; but most of the time, you are comforted by the stacked, rock pyramids called "cairns" which aptly guide you through the wild vistas. The scenery is very likely what every science fiction film director has plotted upon for other world terrain shots; and the jutting up of rock formations looks like a theater of the absurd with an almost contrived design. After a few more twisting bends, returning hikers may reveal your proximity to the final goal just by the nature-struck, but pleasant look on their face. It is an expression that says, "I just spent the last hour sitting under the ferociously beautiful and huge window of the Delicate Arch looking out over the Martian landscape, and in the distance, at the caps of the La Sal Mountains".

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