With the weather forecasting over 105 degrees today, (WHAT?!) we got up early to do the Arches National Park. I really wanted to do the hike to the Delicate Arch, which is not a flat easy trail. So we headed out about 7am to Arches – just 5 miles up the road from Moab. It was already in the upper 70’s. I had hoped to do it at sunrise, but…. hmmm… Stark people are not morning people, so that didn’t happen. 🙂
At the beginning of the Delicate Arch trail was this little house and root cellar. They looked like it had been built out of juniper logs. These are on the National Historic Register – dating back to 1888! That’s some sturdy construction!!
These petroglyphs carved in the rock were really cool! With horse & rider, depicting some sort of hunting… or maybe herding up the big horn sheep?
This shows just a part of the trail to the Delicate Arch. It goes up over that bare rock part.
Yep – this is the trail – going up, up, up over this giant hunk of rock! And I’m dressed for the heat – quick dry SPF 50 shirt and a hat with a brim. Not a fashion statement, but practical!
The trail changed characteristics as we hiked along. I thought this part was especially pretty.
And I wasn’t quite as impressed with this section! I was a wall hugger!!
But when I got around the corner, my jaw dropped and “Magnificent!” was what popped out of my mouth. It was a spectacular sight! It is huge! Notice the size of the people at the base. What an amazing piece of awe inspiring nature.
As we hiked back to the car (this was a moderately strenuous 3 mile round trip hike), we looked back. This is the arch and it’s neighbors from a side view. You can’t even tell there is an arch there! (But there are teeny-tiny people!)
Across the valley were these huge hills with swirl marks… nature’s Creator is a amazing artist that makes us ask “how did that happen?”
I liked these huge juniper trees. Their trunks get all twisty – and apparently make for very long lasting construction material!
After the Delicate Arch hike, we drove further into the park. This is just a random shot out the window. The scenery was incredible, and I have a whole pile of pictures that I could bore you with. But, the pictures just don’t do the splendor justice. It was so pretty and unusual!
The Balanced Rock is a weird ‘statue’ right by the road.
Somewhere along the way I saw this cute guy. Notice he has quick dry SPF 50 shirt and hat too! It was dang hot!
This is the other arch that I really wanted to see – the Landscape Arch. As we walked the trail, we kept wondering where it was! We couldn’t see it.
And then – there it was! What an illusion.
We were really, really hot by now. I really needed to get out of the heat! But, Scoobie-Doo wanted a photo, since he had been guarding the car all day. So, here is pirate Scoob 🙂
We did some drive-bys on some of the easy-to-see-from-the-road arches. These are in a section called “The Windows”. There was a whole bunch of really cool formations here, but I really needed to stay out of the heat, so we didn’t get out and explore them.
To qualify as an arch, the opening must be at least 3 feet in any direction. These definitely qualify!!
This valley had some huge formations, and a trail down the valley.
We got back to the hotel about 12:30, and it was 105 degrees. We stayed in the air conditioning for the afternoon. It was even too hot to enjoy the outdoor swimming pool. We finally walked down the street at about sunset to find some dinner. The street and sidewalk radiated so much heat! My goodness -Moab is quite a toaster oven!!
In spite of how hot it actually got, we managed to walk 6.5 miles, and 45 floors of elevation climb. Whew! That’s a whole lotta up when you’re in a toaster!