Moab Day 5 Fisher Towers & Morning Glory

Fishers Towers

A closer day to home was needed today in preparation for tomorrow.  Though, we still packed in 20 kilometres of hiking on possibly the hottest day yet, it may have hit 36 degrees Celsius.  Our drive was short so we were able to be home earlier to rest and prepare.

We arrived soon after sunrise to hike the Fisher Towers trail.  I hiked a small portion of it back in the day, today's plan was to head in further and higher until we could go no more.  There were two other vehicles in the lot, so others also wanted to beat the heat while climbing.  It was very soon into the hike when the views opened up and we had them the entire trek. 

What was not to love here, we had pinnacles, spires, towers, blue sky, clouds, some hiking, scrambling, route finding, a ladder, a natural bridge! We had it all. We worked our way in behind the Fisher Towers....

                            .... to where we had a full on golden view.

                             The further in, the closer we made our way to The Titan!

                                        

The sensational scenery was never ending.  There were so many unique things to admire, big and little, like this display of mini cairns.  Back and beyond, we did fully rely on cairns to show us the way.  They lead us....

....to more and more beautiful views.  The ground cover was fun to be on, it is amazing how sticky that slick rock is and how so sturdy you can be on steep slopes.  The clouds danced all day and as the morning went on, a breeze developed.  My hope was that it was bringing in cooler temperatures.

                                                seeing forever

                                                    The Titan from further back.

                                    

We made our way to our planned spot and stopped for snacks.  It was still too early for lunch.  The place was a bit precarious for destination shots so opted to save that until later.  This is that later spot.  We purchased technical shirts at Dead Horse yesterday, so decided to wear them today and present a pose to show them off.

                   my happy to be here shot up front and Center with The Titan

On the return portion of the hike, we found a spot in the shade for a proper lunch to fuel up before driving down the road to begin our second hike of the day, into Morning Glory Bridge.  Today I felt like maybe I was getting a handle on hiking in the heat.

Morning Glory Bridge

After not that long of a drive, we arrived at the parking lot for the hike into Morning Glory Bridge.  By now it was scorching hot again but I remembered this hike having shade and lots of time beside a creek and pools of water.  I was surprised the further in we hiked, the damage to the trail we found.  There was obviously flooding since my visit back in the day and the trail was unrecognizable in parts.  There was a bit of route finding too because of the damage.

colorful cactus

There were many many creek crossings and I was thankful for that.  I cooled down my hands every chance I got.  In sections, the pools were large enough to offer up reflections and of course, I needed to capture that. 

We arrived at Morning Glory Bridge and enjoyed the shade and the reflections and a snack.   I stood under and looked up and remembered when I repelled off the side of the wall next the Bridge.  

reflections

After our snack and savouring sthe peace and quiet, we made our way back along the trail.  

I took one last look back and one last photo of where we just came from.

Today, I looked forward to getting back to our home away from home and enjoying more time relaxing.  Our days have been long and busy and I really needed some down time.   It was a short drive and I was luxurating in no time.

I have no BaseCamp info or elevation profiles to share for these two hikes.  I accidently deleted them from my collection and had already deleted them off my GPS.