Rest day in Moab, UT — 0 mi, 0 ft
As Nate began to describe in yesterday’s blog, one of our team’s superpowers is that our very own Caroline Huang is a National Park (and monument… and historic site…) expert. She has been to over 150 of these National designations, earning junior ranger badges from the majority of them. Therefore, when it comes to National Parks, and Caroline says walk, we walk. When Caroline says jump, we jump. If Caroline jumped off a bridge at a National Park, I would jump off a bridge at a National Park. You get the idea.
Anyways, this morning we woke up to our fearless leader’s direction to visit Arches National Park. I obviously was not fully in the loop about what to expect with this park, considering that I asked Caroline if we would only see 1 or 2 arches and she informed me that the park has over 2,000 documented natural stone arches (lol). The geographic formation of the arches is quite interesting, but we will get into that later when we make it to the Visitor Center portion of the blog.
As soon as my phone flashed Nunu’s WhatsApp message in the group chat of “Guys thoughts on stopping somewhere for breakfast briefly,” I knew exactly how our morning would go. After a bit of debating between cheaper fast food and a coffee shop for breakfast, we settled on the coffee shop (shocker) and mobilized with all seven of us and Carlos in our orga{nunu}zed minivan.
At the coffee shop, various team members bought (and split) coffees and bagel sandwiches, but what most caught our eye was the coffee table book displayed near the counter. It was called “100 Photos: The Most Influential Images of All Time,” and it had the photo of the image inspiring the Edgerton logo (which is on our jerseys) directly on the front! We were all extremely excited to match the book, and I decided that I am going to ask for this book for Christmas so that I can display it on my apartment’s coffee table too.
We were almost ready to finally hit the road to Arches, until we decided that we needed to make a brief pitstop at McDonald’s for some cheap fountain drinks and a bit more food. In no time, we finished the side quests, and we were off to the races with Caroline fearlessly navigating our car.
As we drove into the park, I immediately saw that Caroline was not exaggerating. Hundreds of arches dotted the sides of the rock formations we drove by, ranging from collapsed arches to huge free standing arches to little ones that had just begun to form. Despite the hundreds of arch distractions, our eyes were set on the prize: the Delicate Arch. This is the arch that is featured on almost every representation of Arches National Park (plus Caroline said we needed to see it), so we really wanted to visit specifically this arch. We also knew that we wanted to get the 3-mile hike done before it got too hot, so we booked it to the trailhead and started moving!
The hike consisted of a few winding switchbacks followed by a large exposed section where you just hike up a large slab of rocks. It was a great hike, and we were of course rewarded by a remarkable view at the top!
Unfortunately, our success was short lived, since the world decided to show us who is boss almost immediately. All of us were wearing our new Artemis hats, and the wind decided that it was unacceptable that we looked this good. With an extra sweeping gust of wind, Drew’s hat went straight up and over the trail and into the mini valley on the side of the canyon. For a moment, our team despaired, but then our heroes Aarushi, Carmen, and Drew valiantly (and very safely) retraced their steps back the trail to where it diverges from the valley and rescued the hat! We were overjoyed and celebrated by taking 1 million pictures, including the fabulous idea to mog the Delicate Arch with our own clearly superior arches.
After the Delicate Arch hike, the team was a bit wiped, but we decided to gather our strength for a bit shorter hike to see the Double Arch. I stuffed my face with snacks to gather my strength, and then we hiked the 0.6 mi path to see the Double Arch up close. It was actually phenomenal, and I think that from an aesthetic perspective, I enjoyed it even more than the Delicate Arch. All of us climbed up high into the arch for some shade and cool pictures, and even met an MIT alumna who was doing the same!
The rest of our time in Arches National Park consisted of a little more emphasis on driving around and a little less emphasis on getting out of the car (it was so hot… AC…), but we made sure to see the Balanced Rock and the Panorama Point on the way to the Visitor Center. On our way into the park in the morning we had already seen the Three Gossips formation and already spent time debating which team member was which rock, so we decided not to make an additional stop in the heat. See the photo below of me, Caroline, and Carmen trying to recreate the Three Gossips in the background.
At the Visitor Center, we got to buy our cherished postcards, including a Canyonlands postcard for me, which made me very happy because the Canyonlands Visitor Center had been closed the previous day. I am personally hoping to have a postcard from each of the five Utah National Parks so that I can make a pretty collage on my apartment wall in the fall. This means that every time I have to choose a postcard, there is non-negligible thought put into which card looks the best and aligns with my other postcards. With us seeing so many awesome arches, I decided to get a few different postcards and mail them out to my loved ones!
We also learned about how the arches formed in the geography in the first place. Millions of years ago, the area was covered by a sea, and as it evaporated, it left behind salt beds. This salt was later covered by sand and debris, but as water seeped through the top soil layer, the bottom salt layer became thinner, and the top layers above it cracked. Eventually, erosion led these cracks to wear out, creating thin parallel walls of sandstone, also known as fins. Over time, water eroded the lower layers of the fins, which have higher concentrations of clay, leading to the creation of an arch!
Aside from discussing how cool the arches looked, a huge part of our day was also spent discussing the heat and how we would manage it on our upcoming bike rides, especially as our ice has been melting at supersonic speeds. Once our Visitor Center trip was done, we decided to address this issue by heading to a nearby bike gear shop and buying new metal water bottles, rather than our current plastic insulated ones. Though the first shop we visited only had smaller-sized water bottles, the second shop had what we were looking for! A team frenzy ensued, with everyone trying to select a different color water bottle while also being constrained by a limited selection. We ended up with Carmen and I having identical pink bottles, Nate and Nunu having identical silver bottles, and everyone else having their own unique colors. Especially with the discount provided by the kind man running the cashier, we were ecstatic to have completed this mission! I was so happy to have cold water that I couldn’t even wait and filled my water at the water-filling station right outside of the gear shop. Considering that previously, our plastic water bottles held ice for roughly five minutes and left us with hot water by the end of each biking segment, the metal water bottles are my new favorite thing in the world. We are in love with our water bottles. I could kiss my new water bottle. She is amazing and everything I could have ever asked for (and she is pink!).
With some extra time left in the day, we decided to go grab a bag of peaches from a stand on the side of the road and head back to Milt’s, the burger place from the day before. It was THAT good. I had to take a call for 11.011, which is a class called Art and Science of Negotiation that I was a head TA for at MIT last year, so I ate separately from the group, but enjoyed my burger and milkshake tremendously!
While I was taking the call, Aarushi drove Drew back home to rest, and then came back to take the rest of us BACK TO THE AMAZING SHIRT PLACE!!!! What ensued was quite comical. We each wanted to get a shirt with the design that Nate mentioned yesterday in the blog, but we didn’t know if we should all match or get our own colors. This meant that each person had to choose their shirt color, shirt size, shirt style, and color of the design. Lots of decisions, and a couple of indecisive people. The situation went something like this. Nate was immediately set on his pink tank top with no further discussion (it looks sick). Caroline, Carmen, and Nunu did a normal amount of deliberating, with some hesitation from Nunu between tie-dye and a solid color, but quickly resolved on solid for Caroline and Carmen and tie-dye for Nunu. Aarushi and I took the longest, deliberating between shirt sizes and colors. This involved lots of changing and showing other people our shirts for opinions, but I finally settled on a light blue baby tee, and Aarushi picked an oversize rainbow tie-dye shirt. In my opinion, we look extremely lit!
With the shirt debacle complete and our stomachs fed, we spent a bit more time exploring the town and wandering between shops on the main street. Lots of them had artwork from different local artists, including an insane photography shop and an indigenous store, and others were more clothing boutique stores. Not much was bought in this period, but lots of dilly dallying was done, and lots of great vibes were had!
At the end of the exploration period, we realized that we had not taken a photo all together in our new shirts. I made everyone change, to which Nate took a beautiful approach and decided to show off his master “change in public” skills.
The photos, I think, are worth it 🙂
Finally, with a long day of exploring and being outside, we all headed home to rest. Aarushi, Carmen, and Caroline finished Cars 1, watched Planes, ate leftover Thai food, and worked on various tasks. Nunu and Carlos went on a drive together. Drew, Nate, and I each called our various family members and rested. Overall, it was a phenomenal day of Spokes in Moab, and we were so happy to have our own beds to rest up in before our next day of biking.
With more love than the number of arches,
Tatiana ❤
MIT Spokes 2026 
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