All Arches!

26 Aug 2010--Went back to finish touring Arches Nat'l Park yesterday. We took our tripod with us, using it for the 1st time, so when you see pics of Cathy and I together, looking relaxed, one of us just ran into the picture and is faking it!

We met a husband and wife from Holland in the park, motorcycling around this area for a 3 1/2 week vacation. I would say they were my age, and surprisingly were basically taking the same route as us travelling the west. They had already been to South Dakota, Wyoming, Salt Lake City before here, and told us that on another trip they took they went to Bryce and Zion National Parks, and the Grand Canyon...all of which we are going to from here. What a small world!!!

I found out yesterday that the park is a total of 119 square miles, so you could easily spend a week here if you were into a lot of hiking. We started at "The Windows" formation. It was a surprisingly long walk from the roadside, especially considering the heat. It was another 95 degree day (minimum), and even with the stairs it was tiring. I actually thought the stairs were more of a hindrance...I think they tired me out more than a dirt road would have.

This crack in the arch of North Window is a little intimidating as you look up at it. If you click on it you can see a loose rock inside the crack on the right side.

Cathy feeling triumphant at Turret Arch!

The Salt Valley area is beautiful. This area all used to be under water, so that is where the salt comes from. We took shots from both sides of the valley.

Here are 2 videos, one from each side of the valley.

This is the Fiery Furnace area...we're not sure why, but you can't go hiking in this area without either a guide or a hiking license.

Balanced Rock, that we saw yesterday, and Delicate Arch are the 2 most photographed rock formations in the park. The picture you see on the state license plate is of Delicate Arch. As you look at the mountains you can see a sheen of green on them, almost like someone sprayed them...that green is iron, the same iron that makes the rest of the mountains red, but iron that didn't get as much as oxygen in the past as the red portions got when a lot of the area was under water.

We were in the park a total of about 5 hours yesterday, with the bulk of it spent in this area, called the Devil's Garden. You can hike up to about 4.5 miles into this area, viewing lots of different formations and arches, but we probably only hiked about 1.5 miles into it. With the heat, and knowing that however far we went in we had to double coming out, that is as far as we went. There was lots of rock climbing, combined with a surprising amount of walking in sand, so it was really tiring at the end of the day.

I thought Landscape Arch was the 2nd or 3rd largest in the park, but it is actually the biggest, with a 300 foot span. They no longer let you hike up and under it because of the rock fall mentioned here, and additional ones in 1995 and 1996. Can you imagine how scary it would be if you saw rock starting to fall when you were under one of these things, never mind 180 tons of rock?

Past Landscape Arch, up the side of the mountain, are the remains of what used to be Wall Arch, the Arch that fell overnight back in August of 2008. We hiked up to see it anyway.

Some of the rock remnants of the Arch...and me enticing Cathy to come down with a treat of water-haha.

As we are hiking back out to the car.

Leaving for the day, here are a few shots of our drive. This 1st area is called the Courthouse section of the park.

Great scenery.

Almost at the exit...this was a great place to spend 2 days of our lives!