Day 14 – 5/26/2021 – Arches National Park, Moab
Beginning our morning eating a quick breakfast and out of
the hotel at around 7:00 AM, we are about a half hour to Arches National Park
entrance. When we get there, we are in a
line that is a couple hundred yards long.
This is the view from the car while we wait.
After passing the entrance, we have Senior Lifetime Passes
to National Parks; this sandstone rock wall greets us as we begin our assent to
the upper elevation of the park.
We get a little elevation on Arches Scenic Drive and look
back to the waiting line of cars. When
we first got here, we were in front of where the motorhome is now. There are three times as many cars there now.
Our entrance to the Park this early will hopefully allow us
to find a parking space at the Delicate Arch trailhead parking lot. We have heard that it fills fast. On our way along Arches Scenic Drive, the
main road in the Park, we pass the formation named The Organ.
Near the Organ formation, and across the road, we see the
formations named The Three Gossips and just to the right of it, Sheep
Rock. Although it is difficult to see,
the formation at the top, if looked on more from the right of our location,
does look like a sheep.
Seeing this sandstone rock formation looks like someone was
making sand castles using wet sand and never finished building the castle.
Driving by we can see why this sections named Petrified
Dunes. With the snow covered La Sal
mountains in the background, this makes a pretty picture.
As we approach the turn off to Windows Road, which we will
take later in the day, we can see Balanced Rock. It almost looks like a goldfish sitting on
top of a corral formation, a 55 foot goldfish.
It is interesting how the weather carves each formation. The rock weighs as much as 27 Blue
Whales.
After finding one of the last parking spaces at the Wolfe
Ranch and Delicate Arch parking lot, we look up at the 1.5 mile, 550 foot gain
in altitude, moderately difficult trail to Delicate Arch.
We have already started our hike and decided
to show you what the trail looks like.
We follow a regular marked prepared trail, and then we will follow
everyone else up the bare rock slope.
Carmen takes a picture over towards the Windows section of the Park and I figure that we are seeing one of the Window Arches, probably north Window.
Now off the marked dirt path, we begin our rock ledge path on the
slickrock. I do not see any markings for
the path, but you can see where people have worn a smooth path. All, all we need do is to follow those in
front of us.
During our water break stop, I turn and see the trail we
followed. It is interesting that it
looks further away than it did before.
The parking lot is in the top left side of the picture. Look how small the cars look.
I get a picture of Carmen when we stop for water, and catch
our breath again. Notice she is wearing a
small jacket that she ended up taking off shortly afterwards.
At the top of the slickrock ledge path, it flattens out and we
then come to where the path becomes a narrow ledge working its way around the
rock wall. You can see people along the
narrow ledge as it winds its way under what looks like another window. That narrow path is anywhere from 5 to 7 feet
wide.
I decided to climb the rock face to get to the window arch above. Carmen stayed behind to take pictures of me,
for insurance purposes, she said.
LOL. Anyway, I get up fine and
while I am taking a picture, she takes one of me.
While I was in the window, which overlooks Delicate Arch, I
took a picture of some people and then they took one of me. You can see part of the window I am in just
above my shoulder and Delicate Arch behind me.
It is so exciting when you first see it in person!
While still in the window arch, I get a picture of Delicate
Arch while people were trading places and no one was there. The Arch is 60-feet tall and the top of most people’s
heads just reached the dark line at the bottom of the arch. I am enthralled looking at the Arch, but
Carmen is still down below waiting for me.
While we are on the narrow path around the rock wall, we can
see just below us the bowls and arches formations that are years in the making.
We are now where everyone else is to view Delicate
Arch. There must be over 150 people
along the rim leading to the Arch. I am able
to get a couple of pictures while people are moving back and forth for their
turn at the Arch.
Having taken pictures of some people at a good picture spot, we
switched and they took a picture of Carmen and me with Delicate Arch behind
us. There are many people walking about that it took four pictures before no one was behind us and after I ask someone to please move.
Taking another picture of the Arch with the bowl in front of the Arch that must be about 200-feet wide and could easily hold the arch standing up. I could stay here all day taking pictures of Delicate Arch, waiting for sunset, but we have to go.
I can see why many people sit and stay for a while
here. The area is calming, even with all
of the people. We have already been here
for some time and it is a couple minutes before 1:00 PM and talking to one man
who said that he came into the Park at 5:00 AM. We
have the rest of the Park to explore, so we begin our descent. As we begin our hike back to the car, here is
Carmen on the narrow path around the rock wall.
Carmen again, on the slickrock path heading
back to the car. We were talking to one woman and she said that she was the
last car they let in earlier this morning.
Thinking back, if she is coming down now, we must have been just ahead
of her in line waiting to get in; good thing we came early. If you plan to come here, leave your hotel by
6:00 AM or before, just to be sure.
Nearing the parking lot, Carmen
heads to the restrooms and I go to the Ute art petroglyphs. These are some of the best looking
petroglyphs we have seen; the horse and rider and dogs surrounding big horn
sheep, typical of Ute Rock Art and carved sometime between 1650 and 1850.
Lizard! While on the path to and from the Ute Wall
Art, I have seen at least seven lizards and two snakes (garter and
gopher). And, since Carmen does not like
snakes, I am not showing them in the blog.
Just before the parking lot, I
decided to get a picture of what is, or was, the one-room Wolfe homestead at the Ranch. John Wesley Wolfe settled the ranch, also
known as Turnbow Cabin, in 1898 with his oldest son Fred. The one room cabin is 17 x 15 feet and housed
six family members. The small building
on the right is a root cellar.
Heading further into the Park, we
drive by Salt Valley, though we do not stop, we are able to get a couple of
pictures.
Not able to stop looking at the way
the formations form, Carmen gets a closer look at the rock fins.
We stop at Fiery Furnace
overlook. The black, brown, or deep
purple streaks on the rock face are created by iron oxide and manganese
oxide. Over millions of years, the many
colors of iron have painted the landscape of Arches NP. The white is cause by the oxide washing out
leaving white sandstone.
Walking along the Fiery Furnace path to the lookout, we see many more of the Hoodoo formations. Most of the rocks in Arches NP owe their
color to the presence of iron and other oxides. The bands
of white, that you see, occur where water has removed or leeched the oxides out
of the rock.
Once again, I cannot help myself
and get a picture of a solitary juniper tree with formations in the background.
Making our way along the path to another
viewpoint, Carmen gets this picture of the rock formations. Notice how everything has eroded away up as
they create the new fins.
At the viewpoint, I get a picture
of Carmen in front of the formations.
They almost look like little gnomes but will probably become hoodoos in
several thousand years.
As we continue our drive, the formations once again amaze. As we get closer to Sand Dune
Arch, we can see all kinds of formations in the rock.
Parking the car at Sand Dune Arch trailhead, Carmen plans to stay with the car, so I make my way up the trail and travel past these
enormous rock fins.
The trail passes between several sandstone monoliths and I
have to suck in the stomach to pass between.
Not really that close, but I do have to go sideways to get through. The sand underfoot is very fine, finer than
beach sand, like its been ground many different times.
Several of us have been hiking to get to the Sand Dune Arch
and parents with their kids are playing in the sand under the Archs. After waiting for over 5-minutes, I ask them
to move so the rest of us can get a picture.
The arch is maybe 18-feet high and 25-feet across, but still impressive
considering where it is located.
I get another picture of the trail on the hike out, we cross about 15-20 feet of slickrock to get back to the parking
lot.
While I was hiking to Sand Dune Arch, Carmen was getting a
picture of Broken Arch. We could have
hiked out to it, but time is not on our side it is getting hot out, and we have much more to see and
do.
Next on our stops is Skyline Arch. It is probably the easiest arch to visit. We are nearly at the end of the Scenic road
and now on Devils Garden Road. It is a
short and easy hike and only need to go part way to get a good picture of the
arch. The arch is about 34 feet high and
after a large boulder fell out of the arch in 1940, the arch doubled in size to
span 71 feet.
Almost at Devils Garden, we begin the loop around the
campground and towards the trail parking area.
We get a picture of the rock formations and look forward to seeing what
this trail will bring. Check out the size of the rock formations compared to the vehicles in the parking lot.
Making it to Devils Garden parking lot, we park and get out
to hike to Tunnel Arch and find emergency rescue at the entrance. We find Park Rangers and a couple of rescue
vehicles along with about 8 – 10 EMTs and rescue personnel. We begin our hike and again find ourselves
pressed between two tall rock walls. At
least we have room to move.
We have to move off the trail to let the rescue workers pass
and later find out that a woman fell and broke her ankle or she has a bad
sprain and cannot walk out. We decided
that we did not need to continue and headed back to the car.
On our way now to The Windows, we see these formations and
the large closer formation almost looks like a giant gnome.
Turning onto The Windows Road, we begin our drive towards
the Windows section of the Park. As we
begin the drive, we stop at the Garden of Eden viewpoint and see more monoliths.
Looking more towards our left, we get a different from
Garden of Eden; you can see balanced rock in the background along with other spires. It looks small now, but the total height of
Balanced Rock is 128 feet.
Turning around we see more rock formations, the white rock
at the base of the spire formations looks like snow.
Looking from the Garden of Eden viewpoint towards
the Windows section location, we can see Turret Arch with the La Sal Mountains in the
background. That is Turret Arch, the one
that looks like someone is giving an okay hand sign.
After parking the car and on way to see the Window Arches, I
see this Purple flower (thinking it is Ranunculaceae Delphinium andersonii from
the buttercup family or generally called Anderson’s Larkspur), but as mentioned
before, we do not know any of these flowers.
Hiking up to Turret Arch to get a closer view, we can now
see another small window forming next to the larger arch. At some point in time this may fall out
creating a much larger arch.
Continuing the loop trail towards the Window Arches, I get a
full view of both South Window Arch (on right) and North Window Arch (on left), this formations is also called the Spectacles. A large “nose”
rock separates the two arches and is 100 feet wide.
This is the view of North Window Arch as I am nearing the
end of the trail loop. The Arch is 52
feet high and 93 feet wide and sitting at an elevation of 5,375 feet, it is no
wonder that some consider this section to be the beating heart of the Park. Look at how small the people look compared to the Arch.
Nearing the parking lot, I have a great view of the formation
named Parade of Elephants. I can see one
elephant, but I do not know about a parade.
Do you see the elephant? Eyes,
ears, and trunk are all visible to the imagination.
At the parking lot, we have decided not to hike to Double Arch,
but instead just get a picture from the parking lot. You can see much more of the Arches from a
wide view instead of one from inside the arch and it is easier to get all of
the 112 foot height from a distance. The
arch takes its name from the two arches that share the same stone foundation
for both legs. Double Arch was also
famous for being in the iconic film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989.
Leaving the Windows section, we can see some of the spires
as we pass Elephant Butte.
Back on the main Arches Scenic Drive and towards our last
stop, Park Avenue, we still see amazing formations. The varnishing from the oxides in the stone
lend greater depth to the rock formations.
Now at Park Avenue overview, less than 2.5 miles from the
entrance, we can see the massive fins of park avenue, named because the sheer
wall formations reminded early visitors of high rises in New York city. Made up of Entrada sandstone and formed more
than 150 million years ago by tidal flats, desert, and beach sand layered in
deposits. Tremendous pressure compressed
the sand into sandstone and hundreds of thousands of years of weathering formed
the fins you see now.
Opposite from Park Avenue, the fin rock formations called Queen
Nefertiti, a sculpted rock formation atop the west wall and looks like the
profile of an Egyptian Queen. A 1.8 mile, round trip, trail takes you down
between the two fins, sculpted pinnacles, spires through this dramatic canyon.
Almost at the entrance and beginning our decent, we can see
the number of vehicles still waiting to enter the park and it is almost 4:30 PM; that is
a one-half mile line of cars for so late in the afternoon.
As we start the switchbacks approaching the Arches Scenic
Drive exit, we see this sandstone wall reminding us that Arches offer a
landscape of contrasting colors, textures, and formations unlike any
other. There are many natural stone
arches, pinnacles, massive fins, and balanced rocks here in the park. We have been to Arches National Park several
times and each time we visit, it is still as impressive as before. If you ever get a chance to visit Arches National Park, do it without reservations.
Tomorrow we head to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse
Point Utah State Park and once again will probably leave early to beat any
crowds.
