Woke up fairly early at the Moab Holiday Inn Express and ate our “free” buffet breakfast. While certainly not as good (taste-wise, that is) as the previous two mornings’ lodge breakfasts the cost savings was very welcome. I had egg folded with some cheese inside, a sausage patty, and a banana. As we were staying two nights at the hotel there was a welcome respite from having to pack everything and check out. That allowed us to get an early start on Arches National Park just a few short miles from the hotel.
After a quick visit to the Visitor’s Center we drove up a series of switchbacks to make it up to the top of the steep cliffs that form the Colorado river canyon. After that it was a bit tamer elevation change-wise. The landscape was amazing up top — we passed many different rock formations and such that we would later visit. We wanted to see the Delicate and Landscape arches first, however, before the summer crowds caught up to us. So we turned down a side road and headed to the Delicate Arch parking lot. Delicate Arch really isn’t that delicate at all — in fact, it was originally called Landscape Arch and Landscape (which is delicate) was called Delicate but a map-maker switched them mistakenly. It can be seen by way of three trails. One is very easy, no more than a hundred feet or so from the parking lot that offers a far-off view of the 45′ tall arch perched on its ridge. The second is a bit harder, a climb up some stone steps and then an optional hike across some slick rock to get a better view. This puts you about half the distance to the arch as the first trail. Lastly, there is a long trail that goes to the arch itself but it has an extended stretch across slick rock — automatically a no-go for this family.
We ended up going to the easiest then, dissatisfied, going on the second one. All of us went and it turned out to be a little strenuous but very manageable. The others opted not to travel along the slick rock but I ranged along it quite a bit to get as much daylight under the arch as possible. The arch even at a considerable distance is very impressive and definitely looks like a cowboy’s chaps. A beautiful formation, small wonder that it graces Utah’s license plate.
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
Once done with Delicate we opted to take the 20 mile paved park road to its end at The Devil’s Garden and hike the one mile each way to Landscape Arch. By this time it was raining quite vigorously (yes, that’s every day with some rain since our trip to the desert Southwest began!) which, while hampering photography, kept the temperatures — and crowds — down. We took the opportunity to hike the trail to Landscape during the shower and, as luck would have it, the rain let up just as we saw the arch. Landscape Arch is over 300′ wide and is very narrow at the top. In 1991 hikers heard some cracking and popping and managed to scramble out from under the arch as a piece of the right leg came crashing down. The National Park Service shut down access to beneath the arch after that; fortunate as a rockfall in 2008 destroyed another arch.
Landscape Arch in Devil's Garden
I enjoyed Landscape more than Delicate, but it is possible that distance played a role in that. I also greatly enjoyed the walk into Landscape as it traversed some desert vegetation and went between large slabs, or fins, of red rock hundreds of feet high. We saw a rabbit and some lizards scurrying about. On the walk back we took a quick side trail to Tunnel and Pine Arch, both neat in their own right but much smaller than Landscape. People could walk underneath Pine but Tunnel was high up on the cliff face. We also saw people walking on the top of some of the fins to see other arches, part of a much more strenuous hike. Cuh-razy!
Devil's Garden
Pine Arch, Devil's Garden
Tunnel Arch, Devil's Garden
Lizard in Devil's Garden
Devil's Garden, Arches National Park
After Landscape we drove down the side road to the Windows area of arches, the greatest concentration of arches in the park. While the others waited in the car I took photographs of the North Window Arch and the Double Arch. I wanted to hike down to Double Arch as it was a short hike of 0.5 miles round trip but Michelle felt we really needed to go get lunch as it was 2p already. She was right, everyone was hungry. We drove towards the exit but stopped at a couple of places along the way.
Double Arch, Windows section of Arches National Park
First up was the Courthouse Rocks. Some remarkable spires including the Three Gossips as well as a place where a humongous arch had fallen long ago. Then we headed to Park Avenue, a very impressive valley with thin slabs of vertical rock on the sides (hence the name “Park Avenue”, as they looked like skyscrapers) and a piece of rock that I swore looked like the bust of Nefertiti found in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The valley had some greenery below and at the head was a thin, tall spire. Very beautiful and yet also very familiar looking…
Three Gossips, Courthouse Rocks, Arches National Park
Fallen Arch, Courthouse Rocks
Park Avenue slabs
Park Avenue rock that looks like the Nefertiti bust (well, in my opinion, at least!)
Park Avenue canyon view
Last up was the visitor’s center where we bought some magnets, postcards, and a shirt for Michelle. A quick trip through the exhibits revealed that the opening sequence of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed in the park. That’s why it looked so familiar! When we got back to the room I looked up the locations that had been used — turns out that Park Avenue was used as the backdrop for the title sequence.
Grim reminder found at the visitor's center
After leaving the park we went to see if the place we wanted to eat at for dinner, the Broken Oar, was open. Unfortunately it was not, leading us to McDonald’s for some tea, frappe, and some fries to tide the kids over. Headed back to the hotel to rest a bit, returning to the Broken Oar at about 4:30p. The food and service were excellent. Addison and I had a very large helping of BBQ beef brisket and a side salad. Genetta had ribs and Michelle some chicken and shrimp. All very good! After the Broken Oar we headed to a place called Gearheads to buy a hat for Addison and a walking stick for Michelle.
We decided we wanted to go back to Arches and walk some of the Windows trails and visit a couple more of the viewpoints, particularly now that we knew what the filming locations for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were. Addison and Genetta wanted to relax so we let them stay at the hotel provided there was no bottle-y contact (i.e., fighting). Michelle and I headed back to the park during what was now the evening — which meant cooler temperatures and much less in the way of crowds. It was heaven.
First stop was the Courthouse Rocks again where I recognized the Three Gossips as one of the formations used in filming Last Crusade. Next it was the Petrified Sand Dunes, a vast area of small brown dunes frozen in time. The area had a lot of sand blown in from the northwest where was then covered by other layers, causing the sand to harden (or something, I’m not geologist) beneath. Years later the layers on top eroded away revealing the petrified dunes. Really neat stuff!
Petrified Sand Dunes, Arches NP
After that we went to Balanced Rock, a hard capstone of slick rock perched above faster eroding Dewey Bridge rock layer. It’ll fall eventually but for now it remains. Balanced Rock was also featured in Last Crusade.
Balanced Rock, Arches NP
We went to the Windows section parking lot and first walked the half mile round trip walk to see Double Arch. There’s some debate as to whether Double Arch is really two arches (that happen to share one leg in common) or a wide arch with a skylight. Regardless, with the sun setting and the clouds actually cooperating to make for nice photography it was a very pleasant walk. Double Arch is also seen in Last Crusade. We walked on the trail that allowed us to visit the North and South Window arches as well as Tower Arch. All were simply amazing. I stood under North Window Arch but then started to get spooked out as I was gazing up at the underside of the arch. Any moment I was expecting SPLAT!
North Window Arch
Under North Window Arch -- please don't fall, please don't fall, please...
South Window Arch
Cool rocks in Windows area of Arches NP
Tower Arch
North (left) and South (right) Window Arches
Sunset over Windows area of Arches NP
More neat rocks in the Windows area of Arches NP
Park Avenue sunset
On the way out we revisited Park Avenue to take some pictures in the fast fading light and headed back to the hotel. We all went for a swim in the very cold pool (complete with a fake Delicate Arch with fire coming out of the top and discharging a steady sheet of water) as well as enjoyed the lukewarm hot tub. They also had a large gas-powered brazier by which to dry our suits before heading back to the room and showering. The others went to bed and I worked on trying to catch up on the blog.
Pool at Holiday Inn Express in Moab, Utah
Route for Wednesday, July 24th, 2013