The Arches!

No, I didn't say the Archies - Arches! As in Arches National Park.

When I was a kid I went on a couple road trips with my family but we never made it into Utah. I've seen pictures of the arches and other monoliths and knew I'd enjoy seeing them in person. Well, Rick and his daughter flew through this area last year on a road trip (in very HOT July!) and he knew he wanted to come back. So this was a big part of our plan for this vacation / family meet / help trip.

In my last blog I introduced you to one of my younger half brothers who lives here in Utah but has never made it to the Arches. He really needs to make the effort, it's unbelievable!

I left you as we drove into Moab , Utah, which is 3 miles from the entrance to the Arches Natl Park on Sunday night. So Monday morning we drove to the park after breakfast. But first we had to stop at a small city park right on the edge of town that is located on 2 sides of the Colorado River with a picturesque bridge connecting them. It was rather still and we got some nice reflection shots. It was beautiful in the sun but rather cold in the shade. Now on to the Arches.

The first pull off and hike area we ran into is called "Park Avenue" because the monoliths that line both sides of the "canyon" resemble the big buildings that line Park Avenue in New York. That trail is 1 mile 1 way and we walked about 3/4 of the way before we returned to the car. They have names for all the towers but I didn't learn all of them.

We headed up the road to the next turnout which was to see the balancing rock. The rock on top is the size of 3 school buses. We walked all the way around it and played with pictures of us holding it in our hands or pushing it.

Right in this same area is an unspecified rock that many tourists have dubbed "Penis Rock" and for obvious reasons. We hiked out to it as well, although this wasn't a marked trail and we really shouldn't have. We were careful to walk only on what they refer to as "slickrock" or in other people's footsteps so as not to do any harm to the area. They have a saying "Don't bust the crust" which is referring to the weird stuff the soil does when left alone, it crusts up and grows lichens and keeps the water flowing correctly.

Next stop - the "Windows", our first arch! Actually 2 arches side by side with nothing to block the view from either direction. Some arches are in front of a wall and so are kinda one-sided, you can only see the sky through them from one side. These had a trail completely encircling them. Right to the south (?) of them was another arch - the "Turrets" arch, with a little brother stuck up above him. We walked right through him and onto a ridge past so we could get lots of interesting shots from both sides.

Right across the street was the "Double arch", 2 arches that shared one side, kinda triangular. It was very photographic. We climbed up inside it too. I started using some of my special lenses and laying on my back, etc, to get unique angles. We also started offering anyone we saw taking a pic of their loved one in front of a landmark the opportunity to let us get them both in the pic. We did that a lot, and a few folks offered the same back to us.

The next hike was the icing on the cake. The famous arch that's on the Utah license plates - the "Delicate Arch." It was a 3 mile round trip hike but pretty strenous with things to see the whole way. We walked on a lot of that slickrock and there was a lot of uphill climbing. When we were nearing the arch I spotted a small arch up about 20 feet and decided to climb up to it. When I got up to it and looked through - there was the Delicate Arch! It looked fantastic. The hike around the last section was like a video game or the Flintstones. The Arch was gorgeous and there were lots of people. We noticed at one point across the canyon on a ridge a couple people. We decided on our way out to try to find the route to that spot. Rick started blazing the trail and we started noticing a few "cairns," the little stacks of rocks used to mark a trail. So we followed them and found the spot. The view of the arch was even better from our new vantage point because the sun was behind us, at the spot where everyone else was the sun was behind the arch and so it didn't light up very well. It was the best hike with the best goal of the whole day. Oh yeah, there was a little authentic 102 year old cabin that had been lived in by a fellow named Wolfe. There were also some petroglyphs, very neat ones.

On our way back to town we had a spectacular sunset that we stopped to photograph and watched it get brighter and brighter while we were stopped, like someone was turning up the dial.

After a dinner at Wendy's we went in the hotel hot tub that was decorated with the arches and stars on the ceiling. A totally awesome day and still more to see tomorrow!