Arches National Park 6/8/2013 -- 6/10/2013 [Back to Photo Page] [Arches Gallery] [Slide Show]

The Colorado Plateau in the southwest of United States (Utah, Arizona), home of more than 20 national parks and monuments, is a beautiful sculptured wilderness with brilliant colors. It is a live story of how landscapes, seashores, rivers, lakes, plains, canyons, wetlands, deserts, and mountains were created and chronicled in the rocks.  Arches National Park, with over 2000 arches ranging from small windows to the longest, Landscape Arch, is an amazing rock scenery sculptured by water and ice, extreme temperatures, and underground salt movement for more than 100 million years.    

Getting there ...

I have always wanted to bring my family back to Arches since my previous trip in 2005.  This time our Colorado Plateau trip included Arches, Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon in Navajo Nation on Utah/Arizona border.  We had an early morning flight to Salt Lake City, and drove directly to Moab for our first stop: Arches National Park.

[Arches (6/8--6/10)] [Monument Valley (6/10--6/12)] [Antelope Canyon (6/12--6/14)]

Day 1 (6/8) ...

• Delicate Arch
  After a short break in Moab, we headed to Arches National Park and hiked the 3-mile (roundtrip) trail that led up to the iconic Delicate Arch.  Perhaps the best-known arch in the park (or in the world), this freestanding arch is perched at the edge of a slickrock bowl.  Although not as large as many other arches in the park, Delicate Arch stands as a graceful ring framing a classic view of the Colorado Plateau.
   

Day 2 (6/9) ...

• Sunrise at Windows
  The view from the other side of the North Window was spectacular in the morning glow of the sunrise.

• Landscape Arch
  Landscape Arch, a narrow span 306 feet long and 92 feet above the ground, is one of the longest natural arches in the world.  Only 11 feet wide and 12 feet thick at its center, it is hard to imagine how long the arch can continue to fight against erosion and gravity.  The hike itself was short (1.6 miles roundtrip) and easy (and a little bit boring).  But if you paid some attention, you would see that the desert is very much alive, including many running lizards and ants.

We planned to hike to Broken Arch from the Devil's Garden campground.  Unfortunately, we started off from the wrong parking lot, which made me extremely disoriented.  Instead of going south to Broken Arch, we headed north and accidentally met Skyline Arch :-(

 

• Windows & Turret Arch
  The Windows section is one of the most popular and accessible area in the park. Because of the concentration of arches, windows, and spires in this region, it is easy to visit all of these massive formations in a short loop.  Since it was almost noon time, both Linus and Iris complained about the hot weather and only wanted to hike to the North Window and turn back to Turret Arch without even taking a glimpse of the South Window.

• Fiery Furnace
  We took a break back to Moab for lunch to avoid the heat at noon.  We then headed back to the park to take the 4PM guided hike to Fiery Furnace.  The Fiery Furnace is a mazelike labyrinth of narrow sandstone canyons.  There is no real "trail" in the Fiery Furnace, so we had to follow our guide closely.  During the hike, we had to walk and climb on irregular and broken sandstone, along narrow ledges above drop-offs, and in loose sand. There are gaps which must be jumped and narrow places that you must squeeze into and pull yourself up and crawl through. In some of these places, you must hold yourself off the ground by pushing against the sandstone walls with your hands and feet.
  

Day 3 (6/10) ...

• Sunrise

• Park Avenue
  We stopped by at the parking lot and went down the steps and into the shade. The trail actually extends all the way to Courthouse Rock, but we only walked a few hundred feet (20 minutes to walk down and back).

• Double Arch
  We went back to the Window sections for the Double Arch as our last stop in Arches.  It was the place where Indiana Jones started in the Last Crusade.  It was a short walk to the base of the arch, and it was a cool and exciting scramble under the huge arch. Linus and Iris climbed to the top ridge under the second arch. Iris tried to get me to climb up as well to enjoy the view, but I declined :-)

After a quick fast-food lunch in Moab, it was time to move on to our next destination: Monument Valley.

[Arches (6/8--6/10)] [Monument Valley (6/10--6/12)] [Antelope Canyon (6/12--6/14)]

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