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Arches In A Day - Hike 1

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Arches National Park In One Day - Hike 1 This past week my wife and daughter were going on an over night trip in Moab, UT.  I was towed along to drive home when they got back.  This left me with a day to do whatever I wanted.   The Idea We had just purchased a National Parks pass and had a few beers in me when I had a thought...  What if I could hike to and see every Arch in Arches National park in a single day? The night before I pitched the idea to my wife who looked at me somewhat skeptically and said: " that sounds like a lot of hiking. " The Plan Arches National Park is a pretty big place and requires a lot of driving to see all the arches.  Most of them are in an area called the "Devils Garden" and can be seen by hiking a loop.  Most of the others are just off the main road and one of them (the outlier) is in the far west of the park. My plan was to start in the deepest part of the park to get the longest hike done before it got too hot (it was forecasted to r
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Hike to Ouzel Lake

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Hike to Ouzel Lake (2020-07-18) Preparation Location Ouzel Lake is inside Rocky Mountain National Park and required us to make a reservation two weeks in advance.  We wanted to start the hike early in the morning (9:00 AM) but could only find an opening at 10:00 AM.  This turned out to be a good thing as I'll explain later. Weather The weather forecast called for a high of 85 F with a moderate chance of thunderstorms.  This was an improvement over the forecast for our home in Fort Collins with a high of 96 F. Equipment For the hike took my trusty Camel Bak MULE with 2.5 Liters of water, sunscreen, first aid kit, flash light, water-proof matches, Leatherman pocket knife, and 2 CLIF bars.  For clothing I took my regular hiking shorts, my old Asics Nimbus running shoes, Brooks running socks, and a choice of shirts (one cotton the other tech wear). The Hike Getting there Only my wife and I were going on the hike which meant we had to find things for our three kids to do.  This turned o
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