The drive to Arches National Park took us through Red Rock Canyon which was spectacular. At every turn we were saying 'wow' at either the rock formations or the river running along the middle of the valley floor with its rapids. We were surprised by the number of people in boats in the river taking on the rapids, not something I would put on my bucket list!
Once in Arches National Park, we couldn't believe how busy it was, so much busier than we remembered it, and this time it was over 100F! The crowds didn't put is off although it did mean we had to be a bit more inventive with the camera to minimise the number of people in each shot!
To start with, we went right to the back of the park and decided to work our way forward. This is a common strategy we use to make sure we don't end up missing out on things we want to see. We went to Devils Garden and walked the trail to the awesome Landscape Arch. It looks so delicate and it's amazing it is still standing. The hike to the arch was only 1.6 miles but at around 110F and most of the walk was in sand, it was hard work! We could have continued for another 6 miles to a couple more arches but we decided to instead head back towards the car and take a detour to Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch and Skyline Arch.
We then took the short hike to Sand Dune Arch. I had read that this arch was great for kids, we could see why! It's another walk through thick sand but there were rocks to play on, slots to squeeze through and holes to climb under; it was like a giant playground!
Next we headed to Delicate Arch. We decided it was too hot to do the 3 mile difficult hike up to the arch so instead hiked to the viewing areas. It's really cool how this arch stands in the landscape on its own with everything around it having been eroded away.
We then headed towards the Window Section of the park. Here we hiked up to Double Arch, North Window, South Window and Turret arches.
We tried to see as many of the named arches that we could given the heat but what is also great about this park is the number of unnamed arches you spot on the hikes and by just driving along the road. I think we read somewhere in the visitors center that there are over 2000 arches in this park!
So why are there so many arches in such a small area? Well, the park sits on-top of an underground salt bed. Salt is unstable, it shifts, buckles, liquidates and re-positions itself, pushing the rock layers sitting on-top of the salt up as domes. Faults then cracked the rocks and finally weather eroded into the cracks and created the arches.
It is a very unique place on Earth and one that is constantly changing with new arches forming, old ones changing and some even collapsing. It is a shame that this National Park has become so popular and is now so busy but its also great that so many people want to see this amazing place and all their money is going into maintaining it for future generations.
What an amazing place, the rocks formations and arches are really like nothing else on earth. I assume it was a dry heat with little humidity which made the temperature more bearable?!
ReplyDeleteThe road down by the river was great, although I'd have wanted to keep stopping for a paddle!
Sand Dune arch looked a lot of fun and some shady spots along the way too.
All the Arches were awesome and great that you could walk up and around them - a great day!
PS - great soundtrack to this video too
ReplyDelete