The Arches

Monday, I drove from Green River to The Arches National Park at 6:00 am. I wanted to see the sun rise and hoped to get some sunrise and arches. Didn't quite, but the sky was quite beautiful.

 I drove to the end of the paved road (at Devil's Garden Campground) and hiked to see two arches. The first was "Tapestry Arch" and the other was "Broken Arch". I found Tapestry Arch (there was a sign) and then tried to go back to the original trail.

 Instead of going back the way I came (the "logical" thing to do), I ended up going cross-country, doing all the bad things the NPS didn't want you to do (first thing is to stay on the trail and not step on the natural occurring bacteria for the desert to regrow). I followed some other footsteps and tried to avoid growing spots, but it took about 20 minutes to actually get to the trail to go to the other arch.

However, I never found the other arch.

I went to the "Devil's Garden" trailhead and took the improved trail to Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch and Landscape Arch. It was a fairly easy hike, only a few ups and downs and was another place I took too many pictures (85 I think). Thank goodness I'm not using film. I couldn't afford the film and the developing!

I'm not sure why this is called Pine Tree Arch, but it is still gorgeous. It is one of the few arches you can get underneath without a lot of huffing and puffing.

The next arch (after Tunnel Arch) was Landscape Arch. This one used to have a trail to stand underneath, until a 300 pound section of the arch fell, almost on top of some hikers. It's been closed since then.

 After that little hike, I drove down to "Balancing Rock". It really looks like it is balancing on the rock beneath. The lower rock has worn away and will probably wear away some more until the balancing rock on top falls over. Not too soon, I hope.

There was a path all the way around, so I did that little hike. That was the end of my adventure in Arches, except for a quick stop at the Courthouse area. The rock structures looked like many old courthouses and there was even a group of four rock "people" standing across the road.

BTW, the road into the main part of the park starts at the main highway into Moab and then makes some very sharp turns to climb up the rock face into the main section. Very dramatic and "let's not look at the view right now" kind of terrifying.

On Wednesday, I drove to Provo, UT. It was an easy drive. I made a quick drive to Heber City (about 25 miles away). More later.