Arches and Canyons
Hey Guys!! We made it to Utah!! We loved Colorado quite a bit and we’re totally going to miss it, but we were ready to adventure into a different state…at least for a little while.
Y’all know we’re on a National Park Tour so it shouldn’t be a surprise that our first stop in Moab was Arches National Park. We stayed pretty close to Arches, so we were in and out of the park on a fairly consistent basis during our two weeks in the area. We would head there in the late afternoons to get some hiking in and it worked out pretty well because most other explorers were headed out about that same time which meant…fewer people in the park.
Arches National Park is home to over two thousand natural arches made out of sandstone. There are several arches you can see right from the paved road that winds its way through the park. But, if you want to really experience an arch…you’ll need to get out of your car and get some sand under your feet. To photograph an arch, you’ll want a little distance so you can get the whole arch in the shot, but to get a good feel for how big some of these arches are, you’ll need to get up close to one. This can be easier said than done on most days in the park. Arches NP is super crowded with tons of other people trying to get “the view” of that same arch you’re trying so hard to get “that shot” of. It can be frustrating. We try to avoid going into a busy NP during the weekend or over a holiday. We had better luck with crowds by going during odd times…usually later in the afternoon/evening throughout the week when most people were leaving.
Arches are the main attraction at this National Park, but they aren’t the only attraction. There are also towering sandstone spires, pinnacles, fins, and balanced rocks. Some formations look like elephants! To get to Sandstone Arch, you have to hike between two sandstone fins! It was a really short and neat hike.
It takes a lot to make an arch. You have to have the right kind of rock and it has to be exposed to just the right combination of environmental factors…and time…lots and lots of time. In order to be considered an “official arch”… there has to be at least three feet of space within the opening of the arch. Becoming an arch is no easy task.
If you’ve ever seen a postcard or a sticker or sign for Arches National Park, chances are…you’ve seen Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is the poster arch for all arches at Arches National Park. It’s the arch that all of the other arches want to be. It’s a stand-alone, complete arch with an awesome view. There are two ways to see Delicate Arch. You can go to one of two viewpoints or you can go to the trail-head and hike the mile and half up, up and up to get to the actual arch. We did both. We stopped by the viewpoints first, but when we saw how far away we still were…we went back on a different day to hike up to Delicate Arch. I’m so glad we hiked it…the view from the top is spectacular and while there was quite a lot of up to this hike, it wasn’t too horrible.
Our favorite hikes at Arches National Park was the Devils Garden. There are several different trails and arches you can get to within the Devils Garden. We did the four mile Double O Arch Trail and it was awesome! When you first start this trail the crowd can be a bit thick, but once you get to the good stuff…the part where you climb up the back of one of the fins…the crowd starts to thin. And then when you walk across the back of a different fin…Guys…the views. I caught the boys with their mouths hanging open and their cameras out trying to capture the amazingness of this hike. I know, I know, some of you don’t think amazingness is a real word…and if it’s not…well, it should be. It. Should. Be.
We timed our Double O Arch hike just right. We got there ogled all of the views, shimmied down the back of the fin and made it to the trail-head right as the light show started during that evening’s sunset. We stopped the car several times so we could all sit and watch the sunset. Mother Nature was not playing around that night…no…she was showing us some of her best stuff. She always wins. Always.
We only spent a day at Canyonlands National Park. We were a little farther away from it and there was so much to see and do in the area that we didn’t want to take the time to drive all the way back. We only had time to visit one of the three sections of Canyonlands NP. We spent time in the Island in the Sky section. We’ve already discussed the need to go back and see more of this park. It is, after all, the biggest national park in Utah and that is saying something.
We did the scenic drive, stopped at all the stops, and got in a couple of short hikes, but we were really wanting to drive down into the canyon and then find our way over to Potash road where we could drive back to Moab…on a dirt road…following the Colorado River for most of it. Y’all know how we are about dirt roads. Ha! Canyonlands National Park has a canyon within a canyon within a canyon. I’m not even joking. There are three layers of canyons at work in the picture above!
We seem to always find ourselves on a dirt road. What is it about dirt roads that we love so much? Well, they usually take us to some pretty dang awesome places and…not many people are equipped to drive them so the crowds tend to thin out a bit. We drove down out of Canyonlands on Shafer Trail then made our way over to Potash Road and back to Moab. Potash Road is one of our absolute favorite dirt roads in the Moab area. The views along this drive are breathtaking as it follows the Colorado River for several miles.
Well, Guys…I think I’m going to pause here for now and pick up with some more of our Moab adventures next time!! We crammed so much into these two weeks…So, stay tuned!!
See y’all down the road!
#NationalParkTour