There is a reason that Delicate Arch is the unofficial state symbol of Utah….
Here is our campsite at Arches NP.
And the view from the campsite….
We broke camp after spam, oatmeal and a bagel; slathered ourselves with sunblock got 5 gallons of water in the jug and then walked 1.5 miles through the Devils Garden and saw Pine Tree Arch, followed by Tunnel Arch (reflected in Beth’s glasses.)
and then Landscape Arch which dramatically lost a big chunk of rock captured on both film and video in 1991. (Gary says this is proof that UFOs don’t exist as there are so many cameras in peoples hands now that any unusual event can be captured instantly.)
Beth’s body was rebelling with (knees refusing to bend and little toes still hurting so we didn’t go see Kodak Arch which would 2 miles more. We also saw the remains of Wall arch which completely collapsed. There were also a number of smaller unnamed arches along the way. (An arch has to be at least 3 feet across to be counted among one of the thousands of arches in the park.)
Drove to Skyline Arch and Evan and Gary did the 0.2 mile round trip while Beth changed into tennis shoes and took some more motrin.
We then walked an easy 0.3 miles on gravel and soft sand to Sand Dune Arch and took photos from a distance of Broken Arch. We went to see the Fiery Furnace, which contrary to its name is a series of fins and spires, dead-end canyons etc. which are cool in the daytime. There are no marked trails and nobody goes in to the Fiery Furnace without a ranger or permit upon pain of 150 dollar fine.
Since the ranger tours were booked thru Saturday on Wednesday, we just looked at it from the outside overlooks. I can see why the park service doesn’t want a bunch of yahoos with only a liter of Gatorade getting lost in there so they have to do an expensive search and rescue every day or so.
We then hiked the 1.5 miles (3 miles total) to Delicate Arch. The trail started as gravel and travelled beside some petroglyphs done by the Ute indians. which seemed to feature people on horses hunting bighorn sheep.
It then passed over slickrock, sand, sandstone and finally--
We finally got a good photo of the elusive Gary.
We then stopped at some other Delicate Arch overlooks, but they were a poor substitute for taking the effort to hike in. The arch is a little tiny thing in the distance from there.
Evan and Gary played with the camera and perspective while at Balanced Rock.
We hiked a 0.8 miles (in and out) to Double Arch which was really cool both literally and figuratively as there was a lot of shade. (And Japanese tourists.)
Here is one of the two Window Arches which along with Turret Arch was on a mile loop trail.
After that we drove to Moab, got some fried chicken and set up camp, showered (AHHHH!) and kicked back and blogged a while.
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