Steven and I left home in Denver on May 15th for our annual trip to our favorite state park on the Florida Panhandle and here we were on our last day of the trip returning home six weeks later via the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and now Arches National Park. It's a favorite spot for Coloradans from the Denver area as it's less than a six hour drive.
One of the things that makes Arches a pleasure to visit is the opportunity to get out of the car regularly and take hikes or short walks to better see the dynamic landscape. The Park Avenue Trail near the park's entrance was described as a moderate one-mile hike along the canyon floor that offered close-up views of "massive fins, balanced rocks and lofty monoliths." That sounded ideal for our first hike of the day.
Did you wonder as I did why the rock formations were called Park Avenue? I read that it was because the canyon's sheer walls reminded early visitors of tall buildings lining a big city street. Within the last two million years, erosion of the cracks in the entrada sandstone left vertical slabs, called fins, which were the first in arch formation.
The larger of the huge sandstone fin formation, i.e. on the right, was called the Organ; on the left was the Tower of Babel.
We hopped out of the car to hike to both the North and South Windows.
Just beyond the ranch was a vertical outcropping with more rock art similar to what we'd just seen a couple of days previously at the Sand Island Petroglyphs in the southeastern part of Utah. The stylized horse and rider surrounded by bighorn sheep and dog-like animals was typical of Native American Ute art. The Utes' acquisition of horses in the 1600s radially changed the way they hunted, worked and traveled.
We continued up a long stretch of open sliprock to the 52-foot-tall Delicate Arch, the most widely recognized landmark at Arches. Depicted on the state's license plates, the Olympic torch relay for the 2002 Winter Olympics passed through the arch.
Our next hike was along the Skyline Arch Trail where we read that though arches usually form slowly, quick and dramatic changes have taken place. In 1940, a large boulder suddenly fell out of Skyline Arch which roughly doubled the size of the opening. I just hope there was no one under the arch when the rock came tumbling down.
The Tower of Babel was a magnificent structure that stood almost 300 feet high.
I loved being able to see the 'skyscrapers' from different angles and therefore in different lights.
While still on the Park Avenue Trail, we spotted Courthouse Towers to our right with the La Sal Mountains in the background.
The Three Gossips was such a perfect name for these monoliths!
This ancient area was once covered by extensive sand dunes. Some 200 million years ago, winds from the NW carried tons of fine-grained sand into this area which created an immense desert.
Over time, the sand drifts were covered by other layers of sediment, compressed and cemented by quartz and calcite into Navajo Sandstone. The ancient dunes are often mistakenly referred to as 'petrified' implying that they were once organic, like wood. In this case, though, it meant sand cemented into rock.
The Pinnacles:
Further along the road through the park was a view of Balanced Rock, one of the park's most popular features, and one of only a few prominent formations clearly visible from the road. The total height of Balanced Rock was 128 feet with the balancing rock rising 55 feet above the base. We couldn't wait to drive closer so we could walk around its base.
The forces of erosion sculpted more than just arches. Balanced Rock clearly showed the various layers responsible for this amazing defiance of gravity.
I couldn't get the image of a dinosaur head out of my mind when looking at the rock from this angle! Or perhaps an alien creature like ET!
The trail took us past this adjacent 'rock' that was certainly impressive in its own right.
En route to the Windows section of the park, we passed Parade of Elephants.
The Garden of Eden:
Still en route to the Windows area!
If you look closely at the huge formation near the middle, you can finally see a window!
Me with my arms outstretched and everyone else at North Window!
Just across the valley was South Window.
Turret Window was in the same area as the other two.
The Parade of Elephants again, just a few minutes away from all the 'windows.'
The final sight to see on the Windows section before heading back to the main road was Pothole Arch. If we hadn't known to look for it, we would never have noticed it as it was up high, well out of our line of sight.
I loved this panorama shot of Salt Valley which had a thick layer of salt that was formed by the evaporation of ancient oceans. The salt became thousands of feet deep and, over the next 200 millions years, the salt became buried by sand, silt and other sediments. The less dense salt under pressure rose into a dome, partly dissolved and then collapsed which created this valley.
Halfway through the park was the turnoff for Delicate Arch. The trail to the Arch began near the Wolfe Ranch Cabin, where we learned that John Wolfe settled here in the late 1800s as a nagging leg injury from the Civil War to move west from Ohio to look for a drier climate.
He chose this tract of more than 100 aces along Salt Wash for its water and grassland which would be enough for a few cattle. He and his oldest son, Fred, built a one-room cabin, a corral and a small dam across Salt Wash. They lived alone for nearly a decade on this remote ranch.
Salt Wash didn't appear to be much more than a muddy stream when we crossed it. I wonder how it was able to sustain cattle and the ranchers so long ago.
It was likely carved between 1650 and 1850. The rock art panel was important to Native Americans in this region as it was created by their ancestors. It wasn't until Steven and I visited this section of Arches National Park that we realized the state of Utah was named for the Ute Native Americans who moved into this area around 1300. How lucky were we to view two such remarkable examples of rock art in the space of a couple of days.
As we again accessed the main trail, we came across a mammoth slab of dark green rock, something we'd never seen before. I'm writing this post at long last from the Emerald Isle but even here we've only seen small, greenish rocks, certainly nothing as impressive as this one at Arches.
One of the most inhospitable and dangerous areas in the park for anyone but the most experienced hikers was the Fiery Furnace Hike. We opted to simply admire the furnaces from the viewpoint and not take any chances as we didn't have enough water, weren't wearing proper clothing, and likely weren't in good enough shape anyway.
We were just as happy taking the trail to Sand Dune Arch as the vistas couldn't have been any more beautiful and we weren't looking for any bragging rights!
When I think of Arches, the rich orangey-red color color comes to my mind immediately but the park is so huge, there are many more earth tones found throughout the park.
Walking through these enormous fins was one of the most exciting hikes that day for me! Even though the national park is among the country's most visited, we lucked out arriving at Sand Dune Arch when it wasn't overrun with a gazillion other tourists.
Steven was still 'recovering' from his grueling hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon a few days earlier with our two sons, so he was content to plop himself down while I went on ahead.
I was glad, after all. when a few other tourists later wandered in so I could ask one of them to take this picture of me. I, in turn, took one of her.
Yup, I made it through this tight spot, if only by the hair on my skinny chin chin!
I felt like a kid again as it was just like running on sand at the beach in this area! Sand Dune Arch was my favorite place at the park, not for its majestic beauty, its delicate arches or balanced rocks but because it was simply loads of fun.
A close up of Skyline Arch:
The trail continued to Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch so we figured, why not?
This almost perfectly rounded arch was naturally called Tunnel Arch was. It was so unlike the others at Arches!
Further on was Pine Tree Arch, one that turned out to be my favorite after Sand Dune. I think you might agree.
This is the photo I've saved to use as my screensaver on my camera as I loved the view of the buttes through Pine Tree Arch.
The arch looked so impossibly strong and yet so gentle, too.
I hope these photos have helped convince anyone who's not yet had a chance of driving, and especially hiking through as much as possible, Arches National Park to add this stunning national park to your 'bucket list.' We'd been a long, long time before and I hope we don't wait that long again so we can see it perhaps in another season when we would no doubt be treated to altogether different appreciation of one of the jewels of the US national park system.
That was the end of our summer trip to Florida, but less than two weeks later I flew up to Canada for a dear friend's son's wedding in Hamilton and then to spend several days with my four brothers in my home town of Ottawa. After what turned out to be extremely precious time with Christine, the mother of the groom, I got the tragic news shortly after my return home to Denver that my friend of over 50 years had died very suddenly at home. How I still miss Chris' laugh but I cherish the memories of so many fun times together through the years.
Final post: To Hamilton for a joyous time and then back to Ottawa a couple of weeks later with Steven to bid her adieu. Make sure you tell your loved ones how much you love them as life can be so short.
Posted on September 8th, 2019, from Dingle, Ireland, a country that Chris loved so much as her father emigrated from here to Canada.
Dan and I must plan to visit this park. Thanks for sharing your photos... stunning ! xo
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