Speaker 1: Let me just say that, thanks to Arches National Park
Speaker 1: in Utah, I now officially have a T shirt with
Speaker 1: an image of myself on it. And even better, it's
Speaker 1: an image of a photo I took of you looking
Speaker 1: all artsy by the dulk at arch. Yeah. It's a
Speaker 1: great photo, got a lot of of on Instagram when
Speaker 1: I first posted it. It was taken of me from
Speaker 1: behind kind of gazing off at this iconic arch in
Speaker 1: the park, and it was transformed into a Parklandia T
Speaker 1: shirt for our online March store with the caption get
Speaker 1: over it, as in, like, yeah, we're close pictures of
Speaker 1: myself on it, get over it, or you know, get
Speaker 1: over it like the fact that this is a massive arch. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a double entendre. I guess I remember having this
Speaker 1: like hilarious interaction with a brieft at a coffee shop
Speaker 1: in Chicago a few months ago. I was wearing the
Speaker 1: shirt of myself at Arches as I want to do,
Speaker 1: and I was patiently waiting for my coffee. Or it
Speaker 1: was September, so I think I was getting like a
Speaker 1: pumpkin spice latte since that's the time of year where
Speaker 1: I exclusively eat pumpkin spice flavored things and the briefs
Speaker 1: that came up to me and he asked me about
Speaker 1: the shirt because he was from Utah, and it caught
Speaker 1: his eye because obviously the arch naturally and then I
Speaker 1: had to explain to him that the shirt is an
Speaker 1: image of myself and he was like, oh wow, I
Speaker 1: had no idea, and we both had a good laugh
Speaker 1: and hopefully he was laughing with me and not at me,
Speaker 1: but I I wasn't clear on that either way. The
Speaker 1: shirt accomplished what we wanted to do, catch people's attention
Speaker 1: and promote the podcast National Parks. I know it was great,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I'm super proud to be a human billboard
Speaker 1: for Artist National Park. Hi. I'm Matt and I'm brand.
Speaker 1: This is part Glandia, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: We packed up our stuff in Chicago, sold our loft,
Speaker 1: and now we're following in the country with our dog
Speaker 1: Fin in an RV exploring America's national parks. Happened. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is about Artist National Park in Utah. When it
Speaker 1: comes to iconic national images for national parks, arches us
Speaker 1: right up there with the Grand Canyon, and then there's
Speaker 1: like Old Faithful at Yellowstone, in the bat Cave, at
Speaker 1: Carl's Bed Caverns, but especially the Delicate Arch, which is
Speaker 1: so popular that's featured on Utah's license plate. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: a biggie. This place is super significant and a big
Speaker 1: buck list priority for both of us once we started
Speaker 1: lipping and traveling in the r V, and it was
Speaker 1: actually one of the first national parks we visited once
Speaker 1: we made that official leap from Chicago to r V.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right, and fittingly, it was the second
Speaker 1: national park we visited on our Crust Country road trip,
Speaker 1: after Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis. So we
Speaker 1: literally went from Arch to Arch. Yeah, we did, and
Speaker 1: that was actually super inadvertent. We didn't play in that,
Speaker 1: but like we realized once we got to Artis in Utah,
Speaker 1: We're like, wait a second, we went from the Gateway
Speaker 1: Arch to Artists Like, that's magical. Yeah, it works for
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons, not just because it was poetic,
Speaker 1: but the weather at the time of the year was
Speaker 1: just perfect too. Yeah, I know, it really was. We
Speaker 1: got to mow Up, Utah, where Arches are located in
Speaker 1: southeastern Utah, in early December. I think it was literally
Speaker 1: like December one, and it was chilly at first. It
Speaker 1: was pretty brisk, but also super sunny and especially comfortable
Speaker 1: for hiking and light jackets. And I was wearing my
Speaker 1: Doc Martins, which are really not at all appropriate hiking
Speaker 1: at higher since they're about as heavy heavy as anvils
Speaker 1: and just really cumbersome. But it looked good and like
Speaker 1: they are now on a T shirt with myself, so yes,
Speaker 1: And but for the hikes they were, they were fine. Um.
Speaker 1: We didn't do anything too long or too strenuous, just
Speaker 1: some of the big popular spots there. Yeah, nothing too hardcore.
Speaker 1: We had a limited amount of time at Artists, so
Speaker 1: we really wanted to maximize it by visiting the big
Speaker 1: like icon trails, and we had to start with the
Speaker 1: delicate Arch trail. Of course, you cannot come to Arches
Speaker 1: and not do this trail. It should be like priority
Speaker 1: number one, and for us it was. I think going
Speaker 1: to Arches not doing delicate art would be like going
Speaker 1: to Universal Studios and skipping Harry Potter World, which is
Speaker 1: really the only reason to go to Universal Studios these days.
Speaker 1: To be honest, it's a little bit of a burn there.
Speaker 1: I think you know how we feel about Universal Studios
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, We're not enthusiastic about it. Harry Potter World
Speaker 1: is another story though. Anyway, the Delicate Arts Trail is
Speaker 1: a must, and not just because it's featured on the
Speaker 1: license plates or or T shirts. It's popular for a
Speaker 1: really good reason. It's the perfect length, the perfect amount
Speaker 1: of comfort, elevation gain, and it's one of those trails
Speaker 1: that's just like an epic wow factor grand finale. Once
Speaker 1: you come around the final bend and then you see
Speaker 1: the arch itself surrounded by hikers getting photos. Um. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was just like this beautiful like landscape of the
Speaker 1: LaSalle Mountains in the background and everything all of it.
Speaker 1: I know. It's really one of those kind of grand
Speaker 1: finale trails. You walk up to it, it's a fun trail,
Speaker 1: and then you round a corner, it's like, wow, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is overwhelming and the best possible way,
Speaker 1: And it's no wonder this place is so iconic, and
Speaker 1: this arch in particular, it's photogenic as hell, and especially
Speaker 1: in a cloudless sunny day like when we visited, where
Speaker 1: everything's just so pristine and majestic. I loved it. It
Speaker 1: really is an amazing site. But let's start talking about
Speaker 1: the trail leading up to this trails. It all started
Speaker 1: for us at the visitor center in Moab, just off
Speaker 1: the main road, which was super close to the r
Speaker 1: V park where we reserved a couple of nights. The
Speaker 1: visitors centers at the base of this massive plateau called
Speaker 1: the Colorado Plateau, and that there's this main park road
Speaker 1: that really twists and turns up to the top of
Speaker 1: the plateau where more than two thousand arches are scattered
Speaker 1: across the colorful landscape. Yeah, some of those arches are
Speaker 1: very tiny, and then some are huge, and you many
Speaker 1: of them you can see from your car or v
Speaker 1: um and then there's something you can't just see at all. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then there are ones like the Delicate Arch, which is
Speaker 1: so major that there's like a parking lot by the
Speaker 1: trailhead that fills up fast. So get there early, especially
Speaker 1: if you have an RV, because you need to snag
Speaker 1: one of those uh few large vehicle parking spots. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you really do. Fortunately, we were fine and we're able
Speaker 1: to get a spot no problem. And I think a
Speaker 1: lot of that how to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: we were visiting off season, since most of the parks
Speaker 1: one point four million annual visitors tend to visit in
Speaker 1: the spring or early fall. We were right at the
Speaker 1: cosp of winter and like literally it snowed a lot
Speaker 1: the very next day, so it was we really locked
Speaker 1: out with the timing on Arches, although the snow totally
Speaker 1: messed up our plans to visit Canyon Lan's National Park nearby,
Speaker 1: but that was a total bum in Like terms of
Speaker 1: Arches specifically, the weather worked out perfectly in our face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really was an ideal day to visit. We mentioned
Speaker 1: in our mas Verity episode from season one that the
Speaker 1: park road they are felt similar to the park road Arches,
Speaker 1: and I stand by that. I think they're both these
Speaker 1: long zig Zaggi roads that start by visitor centers and
Speaker 1: then meander up to the top of these plateaus or
Speaker 1: Maso's and Arches is very Maseveda like, except less green,
Speaker 1: more desert. Yeah, if you drive along this main park road,
Speaker 1: it's super easy to find all of the parks trails
Speaker 1: and everything is like either directly along the route or
Speaker 1: right off the route, including the delicate arch right. So
Speaker 1: it's it's very convenient, very easy to navigate here, which
Speaker 1: is so refreshing, especially when you're driving in an RV
Speaker 1: and you don't want to be like kind of fiddling
Speaker 1: around or going down these narrow, off the beaten path roads.
Speaker 1: So once you get to a delicate arch and you park,
Speaker 1: you start the trail and one of the first things
Speaker 1: you see that we saw was this tiny ranch home
Speaker 1: which tiny tiny like um it's like the O G
Speaker 1: tiny house and it was built by John Wesley Wolf
Speaker 1: in the late eighteen hundreds. This was the time when
Speaker 1: ranchers were migrating into the area in droves, well before
Speaker 1: Arches became a National monument and then ultimately upgraded to
Speaker 1: a National Park in nine and remnants of their inhabitants
Speaker 1: is still there today, as we saw with this citty
Speaker 1: bitty little rancho. Yeah, it's crazy to imagine people living
Speaker 1: in this environment. Uh, it was so much more desolate
Speaker 1: at the time than it is today, and especially in
Speaker 1: such small living quarters. The house was super small. I mean,
Speaker 1: it makes our our V look like a huge like mansion,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's really saying something. It was basically
Speaker 1: just like one rickety little room and this was for
Speaker 1: like multiple people, which is unfathomable. That's not a lot
Speaker 1: of personal space apparently. No, definitely not like it's literally
Speaker 1: no bigger than most people's bathrooms. Um, but you know,
Speaker 1: the trail continues on for about a mile and a
Speaker 1: half after that, all the way up to the arch itself. Um,
Speaker 1: there's like steady inclines. It's like a modernately difficult like trail,
Speaker 1: especially since it's like in directs all night the entire
Speaker 1: time without any shade. Yeah, there's really no tree cover here.
Speaker 1: And even though it's pretty easy to do and not
Speaker 1: that long of a trail, it's an adventure experience for sure.
Speaker 1: You crossed this massive expanse of slick rock at one
Speaker 1: point in the trail then dips down into these little
Speaker 1: grottos filled with shrubs, and then you shimming along the
Speaker 1: side of a cliff as well, with the trail running
Speaker 1: along the cliff wall until it ultimately around the corner
Speaker 1: to delicate arch, and then you have this show stopping view.
Speaker 1: Now it's such a beautiful and incredible site. It's like
Speaker 1: seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time. It's
Speaker 1: such an American treasure, I know. Yeah, it is like
Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty except instead of being made by
Speaker 1: France and gifted to the US, it was made by
Speaker 1: mother Nature over the course of millions and millions of years.
Speaker 1: And this thing absolutely looks like a work of masterful art.
Speaker 1: It's made of sandstone that's been whittled by wind and water,
Speaker 1: and it's got these vivid tints of orange and red.
Speaker 1: It honestly looks too good to be real. When we
Speaker 1: made it to the end of the trail, we definitely
Speaker 1: made sure to sit down and enjoy the views for
Speaker 1: a while. We even packed lunches, and then we ate it.
Speaker 1: We just laid down on the sandstone for a bit
Speaker 1: to like drink it all in. Yeah, we did, and
Speaker 1: kind of um ward off all the crows there was
Speaker 1: went to the large crows that were like slowly inching
Speaker 1: their right closer to us, trying to eat our eat
Speaker 1: our lunch. And I'm like, no, you need to animals.
Speaker 1: Don't feed the animals because then they get used to
Speaker 1: it and they'll just like fly all around you and
Speaker 1: hop around. It's it's a lot. And then so we
Speaker 1: had lunch, we kind of relaxed a little bit, and
Speaker 1: then you went scurrying and down by the art and
Speaker 1: I was afraid that you would slip and plot it,
Speaker 1: but it all worked out fine and I got some
Speaker 1: really cool, like adventurous hands on potus of you being
Speaker 1: a daredevil. I I wouldn't do that doing things. It's fun,
Speaker 1: it is fun, and there were other people doing you
Speaker 1: were the only ones, so I was somewhat reassured. You
Speaker 1: were listening to park Landia from my Heart Radio. We'll
Speaker 1: be back just a moment to talk more about art
Speaker 1: As National Park. Hi. I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This
Speaker 1: is park Landia, and today we're talking about Arches National
Speaker 1: Park in Utah. Geography. Yes, and we've touched on the
Speaker 1: geography and the landscape here already a little bit, but
Speaker 1: we want to get more into the details of Arches
Speaker 1: National Park and what makes this place so incredible from
Speaker 1: a historical perspective. Yeah, absolutely so, Arches. This place took
Speaker 1: a long process to form and get where we are today,
Speaker 1: Like Mother Nature really took her time with this one.
Speaker 1: And you you can't rush art like this. It's it's
Speaker 1: too good. No, not at all. And in fact, many
Speaker 1: of these Arches took hundreds of millions of years to form,
Speaker 1: and it all started when this part of Utah was
Speaker 1: actually under a sea. Yeah. I think the best parks
Speaker 1: always start underwater in some form, because we learned similar
Speaker 1: things when we're at Carl's By Caverns in New Mexico
Speaker 1: and Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and how both of those
Speaker 1: were under subtropical waters at one point and then like
Speaker 1: how amazing they turned out. Yeah, that's so true, And
Speaker 1: just like those parks, things started to take a shape
Speaker 1: once the sea began to evaporate, leaving saltbeds throughout the
Speaker 1: southeastern Utah. Yeah. So over time, these salt beds were
Speaker 1: once again covered in water and other sediments as rivers
Speaker 1: began to flow through the region. Meanwhile, this area turned
Speaker 1: into a desert environment during the Jurassic period. So basically,
Speaker 1: while t rexes and boss raptors terrorized poor herbivores, Utah
Speaker 1: was steadily transforming into a wild landscape of sandstone art. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The sandstone didn't take shape at Arches right away though.
Speaker 1: First it was all covered by lots of sediment material,
Speaker 1: which was also heavy and made the lower saltbeds heat
Speaker 1: up and actually turned into a liquid basically like lava. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So things started to shift around into the earth, and
Speaker 1: some of that liquid salt burst through the upper layers,
Speaker 1: creating these salt domes which made curves in the sandstone.
Speaker 1: And with this foundation in place, a rows of wind
Speaker 1: and water over the years then began to chip away
Speaker 1: at the salton sediment and expose the sandstone underneath arches
Speaker 1: throughout the park are many different shapes and sizes, but
Speaker 1: they're all continuing to erode today. Yes, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot to take in the whole process. Sounds like a
Speaker 1: super elaborating, complicated recipe from like a serious cookbook that's
Speaker 1: as thick as a phone book. It's really take a
Speaker 1: lot of time to make these things come out of
Speaker 1: the ground and turn out. Quit takes time. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: terms of if we're like, you know, cookbook comparison. In terms,
Speaker 1: this isn't one of like Rachel Ray's thirty minute like
Speaker 1: microwave meals or whatever. It's more like one of those
Speaker 1: Julia Child recipes that takes like a full day to create,
Speaker 1: with the whole shopping cars, birth of ingredients. I've never
Speaker 1: even heard of perfect comparison. Yeah, thanks, So when I
Speaker 1: get confused, I this is like a safe space form.
Speaker 1: I tend to compare things to meal preparation, and it
Speaker 1: really kind of calms me down and puts things in
Speaker 1: perspective and I can I can like go with it.
Speaker 1: Are you relaxing enough to talk more about the history
Speaker 1: of arches? Yeah, I think so. Thank you for checking
Speaker 1: sure thing, So I need level. Like salt and sandstone sculpting,
Speaker 1: arches has more history relating to humans as well, right, history,
Speaker 1: So people first started living in this region some ten
Speaker 1: thousand years ago, which feels like this morning compared to
Speaker 1: the two three hundred or so million years when this
Speaker 1: place started to take shape. But but still that's a
Speaker 1: that's a long time ago. Yeah. Native people's like ancestral
Speaker 1: Pabloans and Fremont tribes first came here to hunt, farm
Speaker 1: and gather that grew their crops like squash, beans, and corn.
Speaker 1: I mean it all sounds very similar to like when
Speaker 1: we talked about ma Severde. Actually, yeah, it really does.
Speaker 1: The crops the exactly road, the Plateau's all of it
Speaker 1: very ma severea eat. But a big difference is that
Speaker 1: this area wasn't abruptly and mysteriously abandoned overnight like ma Severde.
Speaker 1: Now it's actually had steady human occupancy in some form
Speaker 1: or another ever since then. Um Mute and Peyote Indians
Speaker 1: lived here as well, followed by Spanish missionaries and European Americans.
Speaker 1: Even Mormon setup shop here for a bit before realizing
Speaker 1: how impossibly difficult it was to farm in this harsh
Speaker 1: desert desert terrain. But other ranchers definitely gave it a go,
Speaker 1: like John Wolfe who we mentioned earlier. Right. And then finally,
Speaker 1: after centuries of human occupancy successful or not, Utah locals
Speaker 1: finally got wise to the idea that, oh, hey, these
Speaker 1: sandstone arches are incredibly unique and special and maybe they
Speaker 1: deserve some federal protection. Yeah. I love how arches got
Speaker 1: It's like start as a national monument. It's a heart
Speaker 1: rooming story of passionate moeb residents trying to get the
Speaker 1: attention of the federal government and the rare example of
Speaker 1: like it actually working out. It's it's beautiful. This Moab
Speaker 1: newspaper writer named John Taylor was so inspired by the
Speaker 1: sandstone formations pretty much right in his backyard, that he
Speaker 1: wrote about them enough to catch the attention of the government,
Speaker 1: enough so that President Hoover designated the region a National
Speaker 1: Monument in Like, what an uplifting story. It's that this
Speaker 1: is so rare. It's usually just kind of complicated and tedious,
Speaker 1: but this is this is beautiful, Yeah, and even more uplifting.
Speaker 1: It was upgraded to a National park in n with
Speaker 1: more than seventy six thousand acres of land, and today
Speaker 1: it's one of the most beloved and visited national parks
Speaker 1: in the country. Magnificent vistas, so there's obviously a lot
Speaker 1: more to see in through here than the delicate Arch.
Speaker 1: So once we were done with that trail, we hopped
Speaker 1: back into our r V and we drove to Double Arch,
Speaker 1: which was a super easy trail and super easy to
Speaker 1: park at even for RV. Plenty of room here now,
Speaker 1: the whole park was generally very RV friendly. When we
Speaker 1: unhooked our trailer down by the visitor center, though, since
Speaker 1: we had asked, like the park rangers, they suggested, like,
Speaker 1: don't take the trailer in, just do the RV because
Speaker 1: it's such a windy, narrow road that it could be
Speaker 1: hard for our vs much larger than ours. But ours
Speaker 1: worked out perfectly and just fine. Yeah, it really did.
Speaker 1: That was a good suggestion from the park Rangers. I
Speaker 1: don't think we would have realized that. We didn't realize
Speaker 1: how like narrow and winding the road was. But it
Speaker 1: turned out to be an easy drive with just the
Speaker 1: RV no trailer. But then again I was doing none
Speaker 1: of the actual driving myself, so I was just kind
Speaker 1: of assuming the driving was. It looked easy, you look
Speaker 1: like you had a nice time with it. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: really wasn't that bad. Um, but the Double Arch is
Speaker 1: like pretty epic. I mean, if the Delicate Arch is
Speaker 1: the most iconic arch here, then this is a close
Speaker 1: runner up. Yeah, I definitely agree with that, and that's
Speaker 1: because double Arch is the largest arch in the park.
Speaker 1: So it's not only enormous, but it's like there's two
Speaker 1: of them right next to each other pretty much, and
Speaker 1: they're just these gigantic, looming, massive sandstone twins. And I think,
Speaker 1: like when I posted my instagram about um, the Double Arch,
Speaker 1: I refer to it as the Mary Kayton Nashley of
Speaker 1: Artist National Park, which is a perfect description, I think
Speaker 1: I might if I might say so, And frankly that
Speaker 1: should be a T shirt as well, because the thing
Speaker 1: is seriously huge. I mean it is like even from
Speaker 1: the parking area. It's gigantic, but then you walk along
Speaker 1: the short flat trail to get close to the base
Speaker 1: of it, and it really looms above you. Um, some
Speaker 1: people were just scrambling up the rocks. Um. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just like this beautiful little rocky base and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you can get a little bit closer for pictures,
Speaker 1: but it's impossible to capture it on in one photo.
Speaker 1: It's just best to stand back. Yeah, it really is,
Speaker 1: like this thing is so huge, Like climate at the
Speaker 1: base would really not really do it justice because you
Speaker 1: can't see or like kind of capture the whole thing
Speaker 1: just in like a single glance like that. So I
Speaker 1: think it's best to, yeah, like you said, stand back
Speaker 1: and kind of drink it all in in one vista.
Speaker 1: And Double Arch is located in what's called the Windows
Speaker 1: portion of the park, which has the largest collection of
Speaker 1: arches and everything. Here, pretty much everything is large and
Speaker 1: huge like Double Arch yea plus sense there's like so
Speaker 1: many arches in close concentration here. You can really see
Speaker 1: a lot from this one trailhead, including the Cove Arch,
Speaker 1: Ribbon Arch, and even the Parade of Elephants, which like
Speaker 1: sounds fun. Yeah, I love it. I love any natural
Speaker 1: formation that makes me think of Dumbo, like Prade of Elephants.
Speaker 1: Great name, and it gets its name because it's a
Speaker 1: section of sandstone that looks like a lineup of elephants
Speaker 1: holding each other's tails in a long, single row. And
Speaker 1: if you love Dumbo references, you're going to love the
Speaker 1: fact that this isn't even the only formation here named
Speaker 1: after elephants. Yeah, it's great. And nearby is another formation
Speaker 1: called Elephant Butte, which is the tallest point in the
Speaker 1: park at five thousand, six hundred and fifty three ft
Speaker 1: of elevation, and that's more than six feet above the
Speaker 1: park road. This is a great hands on butte for
Speaker 1: climbers and hikers looking to get off trail a little
Speaker 1: bit and a little more hands on. It's not too
Speaker 1: scarier difficult as long as you watch your footing and
Speaker 1: use your hands for balance too, So it's good to
Speaker 1: go off and try that. Then there was that one
Speaker 1: portion called Devil's Tower or no, no, no, Devil's Garden.
Speaker 1: That one is a really, really super popular part. It's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very popular. It sounds less cute than mail from informations,
Speaker 1: but it's not as scary as it sounds either, it's
Speaker 1: actually cool as hell no pun intended, double as garden
Speaker 1: cool as hell. Spell that out for you. Oh man,
Speaker 1: we're peaking at dead jokes right now. Yeah. Deuvil's Garden
Speaker 1: is located at the very end of the eighteen mile
Speaker 1: park road, home to the only campground in the park.
Speaker 1: That's also the longest trail in the park. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you know, I like that because it's any I always
Speaker 1: seek out like the longest possible trails, and this one's
Speaker 1: a little over seven miles round tripped, which is sounds
Speaker 1: pretty moderate actually, even though it's it's marked as strenuous,
Speaker 1: which again I seek that out like strenuous lawn trails.
Speaker 1: Side me up. But this one is really not too
Speaker 1: difficult at all. The landscape can get craggy and requires
Speaker 1: a bit of scrambling, which I think is why it's
Speaker 1: probably categorized as strenuous, but it's not bad, and I
Speaker 1: think as long as you're prepared and have the right
Speaker 1: footwear in water and stuff, you'll be fine. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: trail goes by formations like the lands a barge, partition arch,
Speaker 1: double oh arch, and there's a private arch and even
Speaker 1: the Dark Angel. Yeah, Dark Angel. It's nice to know
Speaker 1: that there's a sandstone tower out there named after a
Speaker 1: defunct Jessica Elba TV series. The names there are great, actually,
Speaker 1: like elephants and dark angels and Devil's Garden. Someone was
Speaker 1: having a fun day in the office when they named
Speaker 1: all these things. I mean the left a mark on
Speaker 1: all of us. Yes, yeah, it really did. Arches is
Speaker 1: really killing it with these names here. I mean elephants
Speaker 1: and devils and dark angels. Oh my yeah, okay, that's
Speaker 1: all of it. Love it. In case you're looking to
Speaker 1: get even further off the beaten path, you can get
Speaker 1: a free permit from the Visitor Sentatory of Backpacking and
Speaker 1: explorer more of the back country. Just keep in mind
Speaker 1: that a good map is pivotal, and be prepared with
Speaker 1: more than enough food and water because the Arches landscape
Speaker 1: is an expansive, unforgiving dessert, so you have to be
Speaker 1: ready for that and the potential for like intense weather.
Speaker 1: It's not called Devil's Garden for thing. Let's just say that.
Speaker 1: Another fun fact those that pets are actually permitted at
Speaker 1: overlooks and unpaved roads as long as they're on a leash.
Speaker 1: They can't take a hike to the Delicate Arts with you,
Speaker 1: but the love the views just as much from the
Speaker 1: numerous overlooks. Yeah that's right. Food. Now it's time to
Speaker 1: talk about the town of Moab, which is home base
Speaker 1: to both Artist National Park and Canyonlands National Park nearby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this place is also a very popular hub for off roading.
Speaker 1: Apparently in general, it's like the ideal for small city
Speaker 1: people who love hiking, climbing, and outdoorsy activities. Super outdoorsy.
Speaker 1: I had heard a lot about Moab before visiting here,
Speaker 1: and it was always a place I was curious about
Speaker 1: and kind of wanted to visit. And I'm really glad
Speaker 1: that we're able to carve out some time to explore
Speaker 1: the town as well and the small downtown area too,
Speaker 1: especially because we happen to be staying here during Moab's
Speaker 1: annual Christmas Breed and so we're able to watch some
Speaker 1: of that on our first night after getting some sushi
Speaker 1: for dinner. Yeah right, So I know that, like the
Speaker 1: Utah Desert, is not really the optimal place to satisfy
Speaker 1: a sushi craving, but we really needed it. I think
Speaker 1: like it had been a while since we've had sushi
Speaker 1: and we literally crave it like more than any other food,
Speaker 1: and we were desperate times called for desperate measures, were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of the you know, utah dessert.
Speaker 1: But and it had a spicy tuna role But it
Speaker 1: actually turned out to be really good sushi. But like
Speaker 1: it was kind of surprising because it was also quite affordable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was affordable. It was lovely and it really hit
Speaker 1: the spot. And another good thing was the restaurant was
Speaker 1: like a block off the main drag through downtown, and
Speaker 1: it was super warm and cozy, and it had a
Speaker 1: warm saki. All of it was just really hitting the spot.
Speaker 1: And I'm just warm and cozy thinking about It's such
Speaker 1: a happy little nook that place. And the parade was
Speaker 1: great too. It's such a fun surprise and a great coincidence,
Speaker 1: I know, magical. I feel like we needed that holiday
Speaker 1: cheer too. This is such a recent stop on our
Speaker 1: r V journey and everything was really new, and I
Speaker 1: was feeling kind of really homesick and emotional, missing Chicago
Speaker 1: and friends and such. So it really made our heart
Speaker 1: feel better to watch these floats go by, and it
Speaker 1: was like a Christmas Miracle. We didn't time it. We're like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's a Christmas parade. Let's It really was like such
Speaker 1: a beautiful time. I mean, I just love when we're
Speaker 1: taking this journey through the country and we like randomly
Speaker 1: stop at places and then there's a block party celebrating
Speaker 1: the hundred years of this ice cream shop or the
Speaker 1: annual Christmas parade or things like that, because like it's
Speaker 1: just crazies, really magical moments where your right place, right time,
Speaker 1: and you get a lot of these were like around
Speaker 1: the road, and this is when it was like super
Speaker 1: special places. Um. I mean, I think the next day
Speaker 1: we just stayed in the RV park all day because
Speaker 1: it was basically a blizzard, which is not normal for
Speaker 1: that time, but it's just it's a you know, great yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. So it was kind of nice and coming
Speaker 1: from someone like me who gets so restless nancy like
Speaker 1: it was, it did feel good to like be forced
Speaker 1: to stay in and relax a little bit. I had
Speaker 1: no ideas now that much in Moab, like ever, let alone,
Speaker 1: early December, like this was caught us totally off guard,
Speaker 1: and we just happened to be there for for this,
Speaker 1: like bizarre, crazy snowfall and like gay for that, I
Speaker 1: guess because it was really it actually was super super
Speaker 1: pretty and pristine, and it just worked out and it
Speaker 1: was nice to hold up watch DVDs relax in the
Speaker 1: RV with Finn, and I was also able to sit
Speaker 1: in the RV parks outdoor hot tub all by myself,
Speaker 1: which was so great. Just like I had waited to
Speaker 1: the afternoon where most of the like brunt of the
Speaker 1: snowfall had somewhat dissipated, so like just these like light
Speaker 1: snow flurries just floating and bobbing around in the hot tub.
Speaker 1: And it was a huge hot tub. It was like
Speaker 1: the size of a swimming pool, so I could like
Speaker 1: literally float around and so great. Yeah, that snow made
Speaker 1: like everything just look like this huge beautiful painting, the
Speaker 1: whole landscape, and it was just really beautiful. I mean,
Speaker 1: it had this the orange sandstone desert with this bright white,
Speaker 1: fresh snow. It was absolutely amazing. Yeah, the whole thing
Speaker 1: like looked like a giant creamsicle. Is like seeing these
Speaker 1: orange rocks capped off with like these layers of perfectly
Speaker 1: white snow, fluffy snow. It was it was incredible so
Speaker 1: after enough snow had melted and Moheb had thought, we
Speaker 1: went back to the town again the next day to
Speaker 1: check on some more like local spots like MOA Brewery,
Speaker 1: which seemed like the largest and most popular place in town. Yeah,
Speaker 1: making the rounds and Moaw Brewery was the one that
Speaker 1: I think we had heard about the most. It definitely
Speaker 1: came up at the top of like all our Google searches.
Speaker 1: So if nothing nothing else, they have amazing s c O. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a fun place. Um there was a bar area,
Speaker 1: a main dining area, and merchandise store and they even
Speaker 1: make their own gelato and they also operate a small
Speaker 1: distillery so they make spirits like Fox in Gin and
Speaker 1: this place is really doing it all crazy. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: definitely a great place for beer, especially and they have
Speaker 1: lots of options on tap and cans and bottles, plus
Speaker 1: their own root beer jeez, I know, really impressive. It's
Speaker 1: one of those places that does something for everyone, from
Speaker 1: amber loggers and I pas which I love, two pills,
Speaker 1: nerves and nut brown nales and probably anything else you
Speaker 1: can imagine. And it's always fun to sit at a
Speaker 1: main bar and just have some drinks. The food is
Speaker 1: a bit all over the place. Um, but it's got
Speaker 1: things like poutine, hummus, pretzels and chili and other surprising
Speaker 1: things like ravioli and euros. Yeah, you know, a little
Speaker 1: little random. I think you're probably better off coming for
Speaker 1: beer and then some standard snacks like wings and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, because things are a bit, like like you said,
Speaker 1: a little all over the place and daring. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: remember after dinner and drinks there, we tried to go
Speaker 1: to the was a movie Fantastic Beasts at the local
Speaker 1: movie theater, but for some reason, the theater closed early
Speaker 1: and wouldn't unlock their doors for us, even though they
Speaker 1: could like clear us see us like at the doors,
Speaker 1: like excuse me. You just feel like say, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry we closed down early because there's not enough attendance. Great,
Speaker 1: tell me that. I know. Maybe you want to yelp
Speaker 1: about it, and I don't even I never do that.
Speaker 1: We went to some like tavern for a nightcap afterwards. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that was a kind of fun alternative. I think
Speaker 1: although nightcap might be a stretch like this wasn't anything
Speaker 1: snazzy or fancy. I think you wind up having some
Speaker 1: sort of like red bull shot or something like, what
Speaker 1: do you remember when you had you had something and
Speaker 1: you're like you were familiar with what it was, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you seem a little too comfortable with this
Speaker 1: Red Bull drink like you. I mean, it was probably
Speaker 1: just like, um, let's just say it was a jag
Speaker 1: or bomb. I don't know. I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 1: I think it was like it was a Vegas bomb,
Speaker 1: the Vegas bombs in U right, Yes, Red Bull and stuff.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you because it's been too many years
Speaker 1: since they've actually had one or ordered one. Yeah, for
Speaker 1: the best, I don't remember what I had, but it
Speaker 1: was at this place called world famous Woody's Tavern, which
Speaker 1: is okay, the name is appealing, but I think it's
Speaker 1: like not at all world famous obviously, like no one
Speaker 1: outside of mob probably knows what it is. It was
Speaker 1: perfectly fine though, and like good for kind of basic drinks.
Speaker 1: It was a little rustic and like woods in there,
Speaker 1: the type of place where you like just go up
Speaker 1: to the counter and have like a whiskey coke or
Speaker 1: something like that, or a Vegas bomb apparently. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: now we've pretty much wrapped things up on our time
Speaker 1: in Moab and arches. But we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: animals and wildlife in ecology right after this quick break.
Speaker 1: Hi am Matth, I'm bread. This is park Landia, and
Speaker 1: today we're talking about Artist National Park in Utah ecology.
Speaker 1: Getting to a segment here about ecological concepts pertaining to
Speaker 1: roads and habitat fragmentation at arches. So, roads and highways
Speaker 1: can pose a big threat to animals that require large
Speaker 1: swaths of land to survive. I think that's something we
Speaker 1: can all that's like a given, and that's especially pertinent
Speaker 1: here at art Is because the roads can be scary
Speaker 1: dangerous to animals and human thoroughfares often stop moving between
Speaker 1: neighboring populations of a single species, resulting in habitat fragmentation
Speaker 1: and loss of connectivity between populations. Yeah, Like one of
Speaker 1: those things are the desert bighorn sheep, and the sheep
Speaker 1: are native to the deserts um of the inter Mountain
Speaker 1: and southwestern US and Mexico. They're commonly depicted in the
Speaker 1: Pabloan and Fremont pictographs in the area um. They're very
Speaker 1: different from other big horn sheep and their mammals for
Speaker 1: that matter, because they can go into these long periods
Speaker 1: of time without water, and their body temperature can fluctuate
Speaker 1: a bit to help them deal with the intense heat
Speaker 1: and the cold in their own desert home. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: desert is no joke, and because desert bighorns are extremely
Speaker 1: vulnerable to live stock diseases as well, like anthrax and scabies,
Speaker 1: and because European explorers and settlers have been fond of
Speaker 1: hunting them since the sixteenth century. Populations of desert bighorns
Speaker 1: in Utah were in a steady decline, and in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five, the state's population numbered around a thousand animals
Speaker 1: until the nine eighties, when scientists began relocating them to
Speaker 1: nearby Canyonlands National Park. Now there's around three thousand desert
Speaker 1: big horns in Utah and seventy five in arches Um
Speaker 1: National Park. You can see them along Highway one south
Speaker 1: of the visitors Center. The current problem is that the
Speaker 1: infant mortality rate of the desert big horns has been
Speaker 1: extremely highlyly, possibly due to that habitat fragmentation and increased
Speaker 1: traffic on roads be tween moeb in the park Um.
Speaker 1: Scientists are like still studying whether the deaths um of
Speaker 1: so many desert big horn lambs like might also be
Speaker 1: due to predators like mountain lions, coyotes and foxes. But
Speaker 1: you know, we have to be very careful when we're
Speaker 1: driving on these um roads. Like if you think about it,
Speaker 1: like we're at a point in the National park system where, um,
Speaker 1: this year, for the first time ever, there's more visitors
Speaker 1: at national parks than theme parks. And so when you're driving, now,
Speaker 1: let's say that we increased it from one desert big
Speaker 1: horn got hit last year, now we have this increase
Speaker 1: in parks and now two more getting hit. You know,
Speaker 1: how does that take an impact as we grow these
Speaker 1: national parks. We just have to start to really pay
Speaker 1: attention um and you know, not be wild, not be
Speaker 1: distracted too much. If you're the driver, you have to
Speaker 1: focus on the road. I know it sounds silly that
Speaker 1: we have to remind us, but like I'll catch myself
Speaker 1: doing it, Matt cat catches me doing it, and you know,
Speaker 1: and so you know it's really important to us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: especially and it's like understandably distracting when you're in a
Speaker 1: beautiful landscape like art is, like there's so much on
Speaker 1: either side of you and in front of you and
Speaker 1: behind it that you kind of like are drawn to
Speaker 1: look at it. So it's hard, it could be difficult
Speaker 1: to like maintain focus on the road ahead of you.
Speaker 1: But it's also the double edged sword of increased visitorship
Speaker 1: to national parks into places like Archids National Park in particular,
Speaker 1: where it's wonderful and great that so many people are
Speaker 1: interested in it and planning vacations around it, and that's awesome,
Speaker 1: but it also poses an increased threat to the wildlife here,
Speaker 1: like the desert bighorn sheep. So caution at all times
Speaker 1: and focus and all that, you know, because you can
Speaker 1: have a great time here while also being safe and
Speaker 1: keeping the animals safe. Yeah, and these desert bighorn sheep
Speaker 1: are just so beautiful and such important part of ecology.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've been here for tens of thousands of years.
Speaker 1: It's not like they're new or they're innovasive species there
Speaker 1: originally from here. Yeah, and like they've been through enough
Speaker 1: like the anthroox and hunters and traffic, like they've had
Speaker 1: an ordeal, so they've had to deal with a lot
Speaker 1: of different things. Yeah, it's a lot. And then also
Speaker 1: because arch is located in a high semi arid desert.
Speaker 1: The climate here is extremely variable, so you have this
Speaker 1: whole thing to factor in. Animals have to be ready
Speaker 1: to face both snow storms in the winter, which we've
Speaker 1: we've been through and swaltering summer temperatures that can exceed
Speaker 1: a hundred degrees fahrenheit in addition to water scarcity. So
Speaker 1: animals are often nocturnal, which means active at night to
Speaker 1: kind of get out of this most intense heat and stuff.
Speaker 1: And they're also crape pulscular, which means they're most active
Speaker 1: during dawn and dusk. And then they're really only just
Speaker 1: a few that are diurnal meeting active during the day,
Speaker 1: and that's because of these harsh, brutal temperature swings potentially. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of beautiful animals here in Arches.
Speaker 1: I mean, next, we have the kangaroo rat. I mean,
Speaker 1: these little rodents live pretty like stressful desert lives. For starters,
Speaker 1: they really can't take the heat and they limit to
Speaker 1: the amount of time they spend away from their like
Speaker 1: cool dry burrows um, sometimes plugging into the entrance of
Speaker 1: their bureaus to keep it cooler. UM. But they also
Speaker 1: come out at night, when the temperatures drop and it's
Speaker 1: dark enough to hop around unseen. UM. They are bipedal,
Speaker 1: only using their two back feed for local motion, sort
Speaker 1: of like a kangaroo um. They collect seeds and vegetations
Speaker 1: and the occasional insect if they can get it. UM.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the desert wants to eat them. Coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, owls,
Speaker 1: I mean really, you can just name it. And they
Speaker 1: are the bottom of the chain, almost poor things, but
Speaker 1: they are fast and have extreme intensitive hearing, so they
Speaker 1: have that going for them. They also don't drink water
Speaker 1: at all, which is crazy. Their bodies produced water by
Speaker 1: metabolizing the seeds and plants they eat, so that's also
Speaker 1: a benefit. They don't need to be hopping around in
Speaker 1: you know, vulnerable, exposed, deth erent landscape to get water.
Speaker 1: That's really crazy, isn't it when you think about that,
Speaker 1: Like they just you don't drink water, get water from
Speaker 1: their food. That's such a little amount, it's crazy. But
Speaker 1: there's also those pinion jay's UM. The flocks of pinion
Speaker 1: jay's can be found around the park, traveling in large
Speaker 1: like upwards of like five birds at a time, noisy,
Speaker 1: little like flocks. They're like screwing the ground and like
Speaker 1: tree canopies for insects and pine seeds, especially those are
Speaker 1: the pinion pine, which are essentially pine nuts. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know the ones that like cost around thirty dollars a
Speaker 1: pound at the grocery store. Yeah, they have expensive taste.
Speaker 1: These birds look like small blue gray crows kind of.
Speaker 1: They're very closely related to crows, and they live in
Speaker 1: arches year around. They cash food, carry up to forty
Speaker 1: seeds at a time and their expandable esophagus and storing
Speaker 1: them in a hiding place to eat during times when
Speaker 1: food is limited. So they're quite like industrious animals here
Speaker 1: and have a like large appetite. Yeah. The diversity in
Speaker 1: arches like National Park and the wildlife is just so amazing. Um.
Speaker 1: I would say that's one of my favorite parts, but
Speaker 1: I'm not going to because I think it's time that
Speaker 1: we actually share what our favorite part of Arches. National
Speaker 1: Park is my favorite. So it's the part of the
Speaker 1: episode where we share with each other our favorite thing
Speaker 1: about artists. We haven't told each other what our favorite
Speaker 1: things are, so it's a heartwarming surprise for both of
Speaker 1: us and I love it. Brad loves it. Do you
Speaker 1: want to talk about what your favorite part about artists was? Now,
Speaker 1: this is a tough one because arches is so beautiful
Speaker 1: and so diverse. I mean, all these animals are really
Speaker 1: amazing and the way that they survived is so specific
Speaker 1: to them. That's really amazing and amazing fact. But I'm
Speaker 1: not going to say that's my favorite. Um, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be really basic and say that the delicate arch is
Speaker 1: my favorite. How original, I know, how original, but it
Speaker 1: does come up with that great T shirt and that
Speaker 1: T shirt. It's so funny because like I think of it, like,
Speaker 1: stop being so delicate, get over it, right, because it's
Speaker 1: meaning that was actually I was never very clear, but yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's stop being a delicate arch, get over it? Wow. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of meanings behind it, a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of layers there. But yeah, I mean, delicate
Speaker 1: was just so beautiful, I mean stunning, a fun trail
Speaker 1: like hike. Um, there's a lot of scrambling and it
Speaker 1: was fun. And we actually took some of those shots
Speaker 1: of those like brecon Wood Spot because when we got
Speaker 1: up there, we think these little mini ones because we
Speaker 1: just visit the distill and back and Redge in Colorado. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was wonderful. So I think my favorite was probably
Speaker 1: the next day during the snowstorm and just like seeing
Speaker 1: it and drinking that site in because it was exquisite.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of surprising for me because I'm not
Speaker 1: much of a snowperson. It usually annoys me. Say you
Speaker 1: were soaking it in? Yeah, oh, I was hot top um.
Speaker 1: But I just thought it looked really amazing and I've
Speaker 1: never been in like a snowy desert environment before, so
Speaker 1: it was an experience and incredible. Normally, I only like
Speaker 1: snow if it's like a ski destination and I can
Speaker 1: I get there, spent a couple of days and leave
Speaker 1: and go back someplace where there's no snow. I would
Speaker 1: have loved to go to Canyon Lands. That would have
Speaker 1: been amazing because it was just so close. But because
Speaker 1: it was snowing, um, they share one um snow plow
Speaker 1: between the two parks, and because Arches was more visit,
Speaker 1: they were taking care of them, and then they couldn't
Speaker 1: really get to the canyon outside. So I'll have to
Speaker 1: go back to Actually, we will have to go back
Speaker 1: to yeah, yeah, yeah, please take me. But I know
Speaker 1: that was it was so cool. We we got to
Speaker 1: like the entrance of candy Lands pretty much, are we
Speaker 1: going to get stuck up here? Because we had the
Speaker 1: r V obviously, And it's not an idea of they
Speaker 1: are cool to drive through snow, but it weren't. It
Speaker 1: like worked out fine. So I think we should also
Speaker 1: talk about three things that we would recommend bringing two
Speaker 1: arches National Park. Water. Oh yeah, water, lots of water.
Speaker 1: Desert environment always water, and I know that's silly. Could
Speaker 1: you should brink water to every national park? But this
Speaker 1: one is one of those ones. Even when we went
Speaker 1: it was cool. But just because it's cool does not
Speaker 1: mean your body is hydrating. Um, you have to hydrate
Speaker 1: when you're in any desert environment, no matter what temperature
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, you really do. And it can meet
Speaker 1: us out of two because if you're there like when
Speaker 1: we were there on the snowy day, then you're Audie
Speaker 1: doesn't have like the most obvious reaction where like thirsty
Speaker 1: or whatever. But like even if it's cold and chilly
Speaker 1: and snowy and wet or whatever, like still you need
Speaker 1: to drink a ton of water and then also sunscreen,
Speaker 1: sun protection, hats, sunglasses, all of it, because there's really
Speaker 1: no tree cover here. It's wide open exposed desert, especially
Speaker 1: the portions of trails that are just on these wide
Speaker 1: vasts like rocks, so it's just you and like the
Speaker 1: direct sun and it's pretty high elevation so it hits
Speaker 1: you and impacts you more directly. Yeah, and this isn't
Speaker 1: like one of those huge parks where you're going on
Speaker 1: a lot of like trips. Now if you're back like
Speaker 1: backpacking and like backcountry traveling, like that's one thing like
Speaker 1: don't like, yeah, there's more you have to bring, but
Speaker 1: like from this one, it's just really like snacks, water
Speaker 1: and sun protection. Yeah, a little bits of brock and
Speaker 1: Ridge is not really hard. Yeah brick ridge baka shooters.
Speaker 1: Yeah sure, I mean if you want, that's on you.
Speaker 1: But um, the other thing too, like if you are
Speaker 1: going into the back country or going off the main
Speaker 1: trails and stuff, be sure and bring maps. It helps
Speaker 1: to print out maps or bring a map book or
Speaker 1: something because un surprisingly, there's really no service so you
Speaker 1: can't be using like your phone GPS or anything like that,
Speaker 1: so it would not be good to be lost out there.
Speaker 1: It's since it's such a kind of this plane desert
Speaker 1: um landscape, there's no like distinct landmarks to help guide
Speaker 1: you necessarily if you are like unfortunate enough to be
Speaker 1: lost out there, so best to you know, over, prepare
Speaker 1: a map. Quest dot com, download a download a map. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think it's like safe to say that Arches
Speaker 1: is one of the most iconic destinations in the entire country. Um,
Speaker 1: it's really one of those points where you just get
Speaker 1: to really enjoy it and watch it and take it
Speaker 1: all in. Yeah, and it is one of those places
Speaker 1: that more than lives up to the hype. This iconic site,
Speaker 1: like the delicate arch and the rest of the park itself,
Speaker 1: is absolutely worth a visit. And then also like no
Speaker 1: matter how higher expectations are, it's gonna it's gonna exceed them,
Speaker 1: Like we have an incredible time here and I cannot
Speaker 1: wait to go back. You've been listening to park Landia,
Speaker 1: a show about National parks. Parklands the production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, created by Matt Carouac, Brad Carouac, and Christopher
Speaker 1: has The otis produced and edited by Mike John's. Our
Speaker 1: executive producer is Christopher has The Otis, our researchers Jescelyn Shields.
Speaker 1: A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters
Speaker 1: and the rest of the Parklandia crew and hey listeners,
Speaker 1: if you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you find our show.
Speaker 1: You can keep up with us on social media as well.
Speaker 1: Check out our photos from our travels on Instagram at
Speaker 1: park Landia Pod and join in on the conversation and
Speaker 1: our Facebook group park Land Rangers. For more podcasts. For
Speaker 1: my heart radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always,
Speaker 1: thank you for listening.