We drove through the Utah desert which I enjoyed a lot more than the Nevada desert. It wasn't as devoid of life as the Nevada desert was. Luckily, we made it to Moab with about two hours to spare.
Entering Arches is a really neat experience because you drive up a windy road surrounded by lots of rock features. Immediately I was struck by the feeling of being in another world. The only way I can describe it is that it's a giant rock sculpture park...except that the sculptor is Mother Nature.
We drove through the park, stopping at the Delicate Arch viewpoint. This is the most amazing of all the arches, in my opinion, because it is free standing. I would love to come back to the park again to hike to the arch itself. That hike was a bit longer then I could do in the desert heat. If you look closely you can see a hiker standing under the arch.
After seeing the Delicate Arch we drove back around the park looking for the best place to see the sunset. We finally settled on the Cove of Caves viewpoint. If you look in the other direction, you have a great view that overlooks Balanced Rock and other features. We climbed onto a boulder and watched the change in colors that the setting sun created. The view was amazing and the sun was gorgeous. Towards the end, the sun was so bright that the only way to look at it was to use the camera. While we were sitting there I had the moment I can only describe as my John Muir moment. I just felt so calm and peaceful...except for the desert bugs :-) The National Parks are an amazing part of our country. The Parks are for us. I've never felt that way in nature before.
After the sunset we drove out of the park at dusk which was a neat experience. There was still a little light so it made the rock features feel a little eerie without being scary.
The next morning we headed over to the park as early as we could to try to get some hiking in before the heat came in. We stopped at the Park sign, which was becoming a tradition for us, and the Visitor Center to fill up on the free water provided at the entrance of the park.
We spent the morning and afternoon hiking to the Windows....
After I took this picture...
I started to wonder why I was sitting where I was sitting. Those rocks were wedged in the crack or the arch.
and the Double Arch.
I had a blast scrambling on the rocks!
We also hiked around the Balanced Rock. The pictures do not do this justice.
We finished the day by hiking to the Sky Arch.
I would love to go back to Arches to do more hiking and scrambling. Arches is really a park to go to in April when the temps are in the 70s. It was just amazing to look at the features in the rocks. I know how these arches and rock features were created, erosion, but it's overwhelming to see. Some of the neatest features were the small rocks balancing on other huge rocks and walls. How did this happen?
After visiting the park we had lunch at a restaurant in Moab. Moab was a really neat town with a great energy. You could definitely spend a few days in the town and have a great time!
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