Arches National Park, Moab, UT - Day 1

Monday, September 14, 2015

Even though today is partly cloudy with 30% chance of rain, we decided we would go to Arches National Park.  I will warn you now.  Tic took 190 pictures today alone in Arches Park.  I have whittled it down to 42 pictures, so this blog is long.  Do you think I ought to take the camera battery away from Tic so he can't take so many pictures? ☺ Just joking.

As we drove into the park, we were in awe of the massive rock formations, such as this.

This is called "Park Avenue". It does look like lots of tall buildings.  

This is to the left of the prior picture.  Look at that rock balanced up there.  It looks like something shook and caused the rock to shift a little.  Obviously we are guessing.

The left side of this structure is call "Tower of Babel".  The right side is named "The Organ".

The structure that looks like 3 people is called "3 Gossips". The structure to right of 3 Gossips is called "Ship Rock". 

To me, these unique formations look like they bubbled up.

This is "Balance Rock".  The light colored ground just under the "ball" on top makes it look like it was glued.

This stop was called "Petrified Dunes".  They said the word "petrified" was not accurate because it was not rock.  It was more like sand had been cemented to the rocks.

We saw small openings in several places with no names.  The one on the right side goes all the way through also, you just can't tell from this angle.

This is "Double Arch".  The angle on this picture makes it hard to see both arches, but it is the best picture we got.

This is called "Turret Arch".  There were 4 bus loads of people at this stop.  Yikes!

This is both the "North and South Windows" arches.  These are at the same stop as the Turret Arch accounting for all the people.

We walked around to the back side of the North & South Window arches.  Can you find Tic in the light blue?  He is standing under the South Window.  Gives you perspective on the size of the South Window.

Tic said STOP and clicked the camera.  I had stopped in my tracks and looked up.  I put this picture in because it shows the North (most of it) & South Window arches from the back side.

This is the only wildlife we saw all day.  He was quickly filling his cheeks with pine nuts.

Can you see the arch on the left?  You are looking through to more red sandstone.

These are 2 original building from the Wolfe Ranch.  Below is a picture taken of the inside of the closest building.

From this point (just after the Wolfe Ranch buildings), we start a 3 mile round trip hike to the Delicate Arch.  There will be a 480ft change in elevation.

This is one place we stopped for Dusty to rest.  Beautiful views. 

As we see this arch, we are told we are not far now. Remember this arch. On our way back, Tic climbs up to the arch & takes a picture of the Delicate Arch through this arch.

Yeaaaa!  Here's proof we made it to the Delicate Arch.

See the person standing under the arch?  There were so many people lined up to take their picture under the arch that we did not wait to do the same.

Here's the picture Tic took of the Delicate Arch from the arch I mentioned previously.

We stopped for a rest here on the way down.  From here you can see the trail down to the parking lot, if you know where to look.  The cars look like a bunch of little white dots.  We made it down safe.  We had our picnic lunch and moved on.

We saw this spotted lizard on our next hike.

The picture above and the 2 pictures below are of the Fiery Furnace.

The white tips on some of the rocks is interesting.  This area is called Fiery Furnace because the late evening sun lights the red rocks up.

As we drive to the next arch, we see lots of interesting formations.  I've included a few below.

Tic thought this one looked like a thumb with the pointer finger pointing to God the creator.

The pictures above & below are from the same point. Awesome!

As we pull into the parking lot for the "Sand Dune Arch" this is what we see.  No arch in sight.

This is the first section of the rocks.  To us this looks like two hands smashing something between them. 

You can see the trail leads between the rocks.

We keep going between rocks and find the "Sand Dune Arch" inside the large formation.  Tic and I are sitting under the arch; great perspective.

On the way out, Tic took this picture.  These rocks are huge.

Next is "Broken Arch".  Looks like a crack in the top middle of this arch.  In order to get the whole arch in the picture, we had to take the pictures from a short distance away.

This is "Skyline Arch".  According to the sign at the arch, a large piece fell from the top left side of the arch, making the arch opening even bigger.

This is a panoramic from the Devils Garden Campground.  If you  look carefully you can see 2 separate rain storms in the background.

More storms and unique rock formations.

This is the trailhead of Devils Garden.  It is a 7.2 mile (round trip) difficult hike that has 7 arches along the trail.  We plan to take this hike another day.  It is nearly 4pm and we are tired.  Headed home now.