After my short and improvised experience of running in the 10,000’ elevation of Leadville, I hit the road again and continued westward towards Utah and Arches National Park. I didn’t have much a plan for this leg, I had just been told that if I really wanted to take advantage of my time in the Rocky Mountain region, then I should be sure to visit this place – and that advice turned out to be spot on.
The drive from Leadville to Moab was a drab 4 hours, especially once I crossed into Utah, where it was all dark highway and no signs of civilization in any direction. After spending the night in Hotel Audi[i], I woke up at 6 AM Monday morning to get a jump on the activities[ii].
The entrance to Arches National Park is almost as if it were designed by a landscape architect on a biblical scale and with a flair for dramatic reveals of incredible vistas. The entering road curves up switchbacks carved into the side of a red standstone cliff that rises at least a few hundred feet. Once one reaches the precipice, the road turns into a vast landscape of valleys, rock spires, and geologic formations that look more like a backdrop on Tatooine[iii] than anything earthly.
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| Stillframe from the 1999 Star Wars spoof: The Phantom Menace |
From there, I drove about another 20 minutes on windy park roads, past incredible rock shapes formed from eons of wind and water erosion to the point where they looked geologically and structurally impossible, until I reached the trailhead I’d picked out before my trip: Devil’s Garden.
Having beat the crowds, I had the trail all to myself. I’d learn later this would be partially a very good thing, and partially irrelevant. Also, partial clusters of clouds on the horizon distorted the rising sun, both keeping the temperature cool, and creating some beautiful sunrise scenes. Thus, I set off on my run, looking to just embrace and enjoy my setting.
The first section was very well manicured and smooth trail to the extent that they could have won ADA approval and made it wheelchair accessible. This passed a few large rock faces protruding from the ground, which made for majestic views up close, but limited the kind of far reaching vistas that this park really excels in.
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| Landscape Arch and another smaller arch in the background |
The fun really started once I got past the ‘tourist friendly’ section of trail[iv] and got onto the ‘primitive loop’. Very abruptly, the trail went from flat, hard packed dirt to a sequence of semi-smooth rock faces that just happened to not be perpendicular to the ground, thus constituting a ‘trail’. Consequently, my average pace slowed by about 5:00/mile at this point. I was working down a trail spur that was supposed to lead me to ‘Double O Arch’, but soon came to a point where the school bus-sized boulder I was climbing over came to a straight down 30 foot drop, and I saw no way around it[v], forcing my turn back.
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| Dead end. (The rock drops about 30 feet past where you can see from here) |
From there, I turned onto a soft dirt wash[vi] that twisted through a valley created by the surrounding sandstone cliffs and populated by menacing desert vegetation that piled 10 feet high on both sides.
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| A view of the wash and vegetation from above |
This ‘easy’ section of the trail again quickly turned into a prolonged stretch of climbing over boulders, scaling steep rock faces, and just trying not to get lost in a remote section of desert with only half a bottle of water and one Gu to survive on. The trail was marked not with signs or any other man-made objects, but instead, with small piles of rocks; almost as if they were left behind by some pioneering hiker, erecting them as he went deeper into the remote expanses of the park so as to either find his way home, or lead the rescue party to his final resting place.
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| This picture doesn't convey how steep and slippery this rockfaces that constituted the trail were. You can see the rockpile 'trail markers' in the foreground. |
By this point, I was about 5 miles in, and had done a substantial amount of vertical. Thankfully though, my energy levels only climbed[vii], giving me one last boost in the homestretch back to the trailhead. I was back on the soft-sandy wash, but running faster than I had all morning. I was blazing up hills, and propelling myself with vigor despite the soft, giving surface. Once I got back on the ‘handicap accessible’ main trail, with its smoother surfaces and surer footing, I really accelerated. There was a slightly higher degree of difficulty now as the tourists had started crowding the trail, and they were completely oblivious to everyone and everything beyond their digital camera’s viewfinder. My last mile home was almost a dead sprint, as I felt a stronger connection to the wilderness around me than ever before.
I’ll venture from my mostly objective recount of the experience to try and convey the primitive and savage form of elation that I felt overcome with at this point. I’m a firm believer in the naturalness of running. I believe that we, as a species, evolved and survived thanks largely to our ability to run long distances and effectuate the persistence hunt[viii]. We may have ostensibly lost this connection to nature with the proliferation of treadmills, ultra-cushioned running shoes, iPods, and Big Macs; but it’s still present deep in our DNA and in our most innate emotions. To get off the asphalt and onto the trail is to blow past all modern contrivances and satisfy many of the instincts we have suppressed with civilization and technology[ix]. This is what I felt on the trails in Arches – alone in the wilderness, with an overwhelming urge to move forward and explore, and nothing else mattered. It was an intense focus-on and connection-to the ground underneath me, one that I've rarely felt before, and reminded me that I’m an individual actor, but one in complex and vast ecosystem. I was essentially a dependent of nature at this point, as I was more aware than ever that it was providing me with the sensation of my heart beating and the air I breathed. The best thing I could have done was to embrace the energy and translate it into my run.
With that, I returned to the trailhead and reached the end of my run.
[i] The backseat of my car.
[ii] Travel tip: get to the park before the Rangers report to work (about 7:30 AM) and you can get in free – saves $10.
[iii] Nerd reference: Star Wars planet.
[iv] About 1 Km.
[v] This boulder was wedged at the base two massive rock walls, effectively making it dead end unless I was able to either drop 30 feet onto hard rock without breaking my legs, or scale the rock walls like Spiderman.
[vi] VERY soft and muddy from the preceding night's rain; almost like running on sand.
[vii] Partially due to the adrenaline rush after one instance where I thought I was completely lost and started thinking about what last message I’d write in the sand to stand as my last words, only to find my way back onto the main trail shortly thereafter.
[viii] Basically, our ancestors in Africa may not have been able to outrun a gazelle over two or three miles, but they could over twenty or thirty, which they did.
[ix] I hope this doesn’t make me sound like the Unabomber – I don’t hate technological and cultural advancement. I’ve waited in iPhone lines for hours and have debated the redeeming qualities of the Twilight Saga. However, I do believe in balancing the modern layer of our society with our most basic instincts – the perpetual adventure in nature for survival.
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