The Arches National Park is one of the Utah Mighty 5 national parks and was the one that was highly anticipated during my recent mid west America trip. The park is famous for its geological formations, there are over 2000, including the longest arch in America which we shall see in a minute.
Arches is at just outside a town called Moab in Utah, connected by the Highway 191, which is the road at the top in the image below. The entrance to the Arches National Park is via the little slip road entrance on the left-hand side. You can see there's a queue of cars lining up towards the entrance booth, I reckon we were queuing for about half an hour to get in, and am so glad we're not here during the peak season. After passing the entrance booth, we zig zag up the roads to the park and the arches.
Devil's Garden
We decided to do the 3km hike to see the Landscape Arch. Probably not the wisest decision at noon time, but then it's not like I can easily rock up to visit again whenever I want.
The start of the trail is very welcoming, massive rocks on either side leading to the unknown.
The first arch I saw is the Tunnel Arch. The arches here are of different sizes and shape, likely due to its age, geology, position etc. The opening here is relatively small, hence the name the Tunnel.
A little further on is the Pine Tree Arch. You can walk right up to the arch but it was really hot and I couldn't be bothered. I actually waited ages to get this picture because there was another couple here first and they were taking photos of one another. In order to get rid of them As a good citizen and friendly tourist, I offered to take some photos of the two of them. They were very pleased with my help and left afterwards. Now I had the whole arch to myself😄
It's not fun hiking under the sun at noon, and especially when you're not well prepared with sun lotion and hat. The less than 1 mile walk to the Landscape Arch took me a good half an hour. I was so relieved when I finally reached it, and it was totally worth it.
On the way back from the Landscape Arch, I passed by the Skyline Arch. It seems like one can climb very near to the base, but I really didn't have the energy for it.
Sand Dune
After lunch and a rest, we moved to the next part of the park, the Sand Dune Arch. But first of all we had to go through a very narrow gorge which is only wide enough for one person to pass through. Most of the opening is blocked by a massive rock where I'm standing on, waving to the rest of my group who were coming through.
As you can see, the sun is still shining brightly overhead and the gorge has widened up after the initial entrance. Most of the landscape I've seen so far today are arches or massive rocks. The Sand Dune is totally different, hidden away waiting to be explored. For a start, it's call the Sand Dune because the areas is all covered in sand.
As I venture further in, there are lots of massive sandstone rocks, like a mini playground. It was quite surreal getting so close to these rock formations, and seeing some of them kissing one another. And, they're massive. The Sand Dune is definitely my favourite area in the Arches.
The Windows Section
Moving further down outwards towards the park entrance, the next area I stopped at is called The Windows Section. There are two arches here called the North Window and South Window, and apparently is best viewed by walking a mile to it. It was starting to rain now and I didn't fancy walking, we still had a few more stops to go. I quickly grabbed a photo of these two arches from the car park. And you can see, due to my laziness, the windows aren't very clear.
The Double Arch is on the other side of the car park, I was quite determined to walk the short distance for this even though the rest of my group weren't keen. I had to get fairly near to see the double arch as they aren't parallel to one another like a double rainbow. It's like a fork where the two arches stems out from the same foundation. I'm glad I made the effort to go see this.
Other features
The Balance Rock isn't an arch, but it is thought it might used to be one. I guess that's what might happen with Landscape Arch in the future. Once the arch collapses, only the sides are left. In this case at Balance Rock, what's left is very remarkable, like a pointy head balancing on a body.
I couldn't do a post about the Arches without mentioning the Delicate Arch even though all I have is a zoomed in blurry picture of it. The Delicate Arch is the most famous arch here, so famous that it's on all Utah licence plates. There are a short half mile walk to a viewpoint which gets you nearer to see the Delicate Arch, I think that what those people are doing. And if you want to get to the base of it, it's a 3 mile difficult trail. The half mile walk is the near desert condition was even a little too much for after after this morning's walk, I'll have to settle with this zoomed in view.
Through the window
Time to leave the Arches National Park as it's starting to rain. I managed to take a few photos from inside the vehicle as we are leaving.
And here we are zig zagging down the road to leave the Arches. End of a lovely day, and end of a memorable chapter. This is my last ever post on Pinmapple, the best ever community on Hive. Goodbye Pinmapple. I will miss you.
