Arches National Park - Moab

Tuesday, October 19

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day, the high expected to be around 75 degrees. We packed up the van for a full day of some serious hiking. The Beagles stayed in today, as Arches does not allow pets in the park.

Off we went - really excited in anticipation of what the day would bring. We'd heard and read so much about Arches N. P. that we just couldn't wait to                                                                              

experience it for ourselves.

 

Windows Arch
North & South Windows

 

Balancing Rock





The Three Sisters

 



Arches N.P. is only one mile from Moab. The park boundaries actually butt up against the northern city limits. The city father's had the foresight, after the new UT Hwy 191 was built, to make the old alignment into a cycling, running and walking path. It starts right at the city limits and its sole purpose is to take cyclists, runners and hikers (no motorized vehicles allowed) to Arches and Canyonlands N.P.'s. Imagine that! I ran on it on our final day in Moab. Awesome!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           We pay our entrance fee

and immediately begin ascending a huge cliff face. Geological beauty everywhere! If Canyonlands made us breathless, Arches made our hearts stop!! We probably drove a mile or two before the first arches came into view. What a sight! Magnificent stone arches standing in the middle of the desert amongst red rock cliff walls. Small arches, medium arches, and huge arches are everywhere. We could only imagine what the early pioneers crossing this way on their way to California must have thought seeing these strange rock formations.



Delicate Arch





Landscape Arch

 

Arches is a very large park. You can hike to all the arches, but you must drive to get to the various trailheads. Some hikes are very short, some are long and strenuous into the backcountry. Backcountry permits are required to hike to some of the arches.

We hiked and hiked to as many arches as we could. Windows Arch, Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch are the Big Three of the




An arch shaped cactus found by Ruth on the side of the trail
How cool is that? We named it Cactus Arch.

 

many that we visited. Delicate Arch is the most photographed arch in the park, appearing in many commercial advertising photos.

Later in the day, as we hiked to Landscape Arch, we took a spur trail to a smaller arch. Upon reaching Pine Arch at the end of the spur, with a beautiful vista beyond, Ruth and I stood next to each other, under this arch, with tears in our eyes. The overwhelming beauty and enormity of this place, this park, was just too much. It really tugged at our hearts.

Drying our tears and reveling in the joy this park evoked on our emotions, we backtracked and proceeded on to Landscape Arch. We took photos of where, in 1991, a 60 ft. slab of rock broke off from the arch and fell to the ground while hikers were underneath! They did manage to get away before tons of rock hit the ground where they stood. This shows the fragility of these arches, how nature is both creating and destroying them over eons of time.

Unfortunately, it was time to head back to Moab. Getting dark, we were out of food, out of water and out of energy. Time to feed The Beagles, clean up, and head out to the Moab Brewery for some 3.2 beer (it is Utah you know), and great food. Will we be back to Arches? Absolutely!! So much we didn't have time to see in this sacred place.

"Damn! This is stinkin' hard!"




This says it all