Part 2…Arches

Driving to Utah was a rollarcoaster of crazy mountain roads.  The land never really did flatten out completely like I had first thought it might.  The mountains just became more spread out rather than all clumped together.  And it was dry, Chris and I both felt like raisins we were so dried out.  That’s pretty much how all of Utah and Nevada was.

We got to Arches National Park to find that the campground was full.  We were tired and wanted a shower so we got a hotel that night.  We strategically picked a hotel next to the Moab Brewery, the only microbrewery in Moab.  Moab was a neat little town.  Touristry enough with unique small craft shops and rock shops along the main road, but not completely over kill.  The brewery quickly became our little hang out, it was a neat little place and a lot of the locals came here for drinks and dinner.  Dead Horse and Derailleur were our favorite picks. 

The next day we woke early and claimed a campsite early.  Of all the parks we visited this was the most private spot we had…funny since there aren’t many trees out there.  The drive through the park is spectacular.  You really don’t need to leave the car to see amazing rock formations.  Fins of rock jutting out of the flat land are everywhere.  Millions of years ago between 3 ice ages that land was under the sea.  It’s a weird feeling to think about while standing under some of that rock. Formations such as Balanced Rock and the Three Gossips were made b/c the different layers of rock erode at different paces.  So the large top part of Balanced rock erodes a lot slower than the pillar that is holding it up.  There are more than 2000 arches in the entire park and they can be formed in different ways.  Sometimes a tiny crack is formed by water seeping through the rock, this crack is widened and widened by continuous water and once big enough wind flowing through the hole.  Another way is for an edge of a fin (wall of rock) eroding in to form an unsupported platuea.  Eventually this might fall in a way that it lands to form an arch. You’d think the odds are against it until they show you several examples throughout the park.  As each arch is born each arch will eventually die and collaspe due to gravity.  It’s rare to see and apparently no one saw the recent Wall arch collapse in early August.
We hiked close to 6 miles this day in the heat of the sun.  It was my first dry heat experience, and I’d take it over the humidity around here, but the sun is horribly intense there.  First we hiked around Balanced rock and the around the North and South Windows and by Turret Arch.  Then we walked across to Double Arch which was one of my favorites.  It was massive, beautiful, and scarey and we could walk up right under them.
We took a small break and came back to Delicate Arch.  Probably the hardest hike of the day not b/c it was long or steep, but b/c we climbed for an hour in the direct sun up solid bare rock.  I highly recomend the hike although strongly suggest doing it in the morning before the temps get hot.  It’s very well plotted out trail so that you can’t actually see Delicate Arch until the last few feet of the hike, you turn a corner and all of a sudden there it is.  This massive rock arch standing alone high up on another slab of rock.  It’s pictured above although it doesn’t do it justice.  After this hike it was noon and the temps in the 90ies.  We climbed down and went back to the brewery to cool off.
After the brewery we checked out two other smaller hikes that led us to some more cool arches.  Then back to camp for dinner.  That night in the desert with no lights but the soft glow of low campfires the stars came out to play in the clearest sky I’d ever seen.  I’d never seen the sky with so many stars in it.  You could clearly see the milky way and probably hundreds of constellations.  That night we slept w/ the rain fly off so we could watch them thru the tent.

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