Southwest 2021-12: Moab, Utah: Arches National Park

March 17-18, 2021

    As soon as we’d claimed a site at Grandstaff Campground, we headed for Arches National Park. Moab was crazy crowded. It’s the pandemic? It’s spring break? It’s Moab?

Driving into Arches National Park. Several switchbacks along towering cliffs leading up the hill to the arches.

    We're running out of words to describe all we’ve seen in the past month. They all apply to Moab: Stunning. Gorgeous. Amazing. Beautiful. Awesome. Stupendous. Astounding. Unbelievable.

Looking down at the double line of vehicles at the entry station. Across from the park is a large mining operation.

    Granted, Moab is crowded and commercialized, with party boats on the Colorado River, ATVs, crowded parks and trails, plus the mining. Yet as our friend’s daughter said, "The world comes here because it’s Moab. We really can’t try to keep it to ourselves, or want it to not be crowded." Our wish is merely, "May we just not love this amazing area to death."

    We'll let the pictures do most of the talking, though they don’t do the area justice. 

Gigantic hole in gigantic wall. Or is it a cow's skull?

Queen Nefertiti.

    Our first stop was the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint.

Interestingly, the large formation in the foreground does not have a name. The others are, L-R: Three Gossips, Sheep Rock (sloped in middle), Tower of Babel (knob on left side of top), the Organ (2 buttes).

The Three Gossips. What a perfect name.

Sheep Rock perhaps should be called Dosing Sheep Rock.

The Organ is the two buttes in front. 

Beyond the Organ is Tower of Babel, which, as can be seen from its size in the picture below, is a fair distance from the Organ.

Tower of Babel.

    Then the Arches. The first we saw were in the Windows Section.

North Window (L) and South Window (R) are actually quite a distance apart from each other.

Marilyn on her way up to North Window. 

Note the size of the people under the arch on the right.

Fissure on underside of North Window. 

View to South Window from North Window.

    What Marilyn calls Georgia O'Keeffe clouds paint the Utah sky as they do in New Mexico.

Doug at South Window. 

La Sal Mountains

    Marilyn fell in love with the La Sal Mountains. Their snow-capped peaks seem to emerge as if by magic from the red rock formations of the desert. 

The colors of Salt Valley as we looked down on it 

were just spectacular.

    Next we headed for Delicate Arch in the Salt Valley Wash. The movement and dissolution of salt played a major role in the formation of the arches. 

Amazing colors, including this turquoise,

 which derives from plants and minerals.

Delicate Arch from lower viewpoint.

Delicate Arch is often seen in advertisements for Utah. It's a short drive from the main road to theupper and lower viewpoints. We didn't take the 0.5-mile rather steep walkto upper viewpoint, nor did we do the 3-mile roundtrip hike to the arch from Wolfe Ranch. 

Balanced Rock

    Heading toward the entrance to Arches, done for the day, we passed by Balanced Rock again, which is along the road near the Windows Section.

Wouldn't want to be underneath when one of these 

behemoths calves from the wall.  

After an amazing introduction we head out of Arches 

and back to our campsite. 

    We figured our 10:30 arrival the next morning was responsible for our 20-minute wait in the the double line of traffic leading up to the entry station; however, when we left hours later, the line was just as long. Still, once in the park, the cars seemed to disappear.

Note the size of the car. Even when there, it's impossible to comprehend the immensity of the formations.

Doug loved the seam at the bottom of the massive rock.

Another Sphinx?

Monkey: "Here's looking at you!"

    We decided to drive past the crowds stopping at the first few arch viewing points and head to the end of the road.

It was easy to see faces in many of the rocks, 

like Grumpy—one of the Seven Dwarfs? 

Skyline Arch

    At Devils Garden at the end of the road, the parking lot was jammed and the crowds thick. Most would be making the short walk to Tunnel Arch, or perhaps a little further to Pine Tree Arch, or even further to Landscape Arch. We opted to go back to Skyline Arch. The trail to it is just 0.4 mile roundtrip, but it, too, was crowded, so we enjoyed the arch from a distance.

Walking to Sand Dune Arch.

    Then we went further back up the road to Sand Dune Arch and Broken Arch. Doug dropped Marilyn at the restroom and was just beginning another tour through the parking lot when he saw two toddlers sitting on the cement stop of the first space. Their parents at their car in the next space waved Doug down to say the space was empty. Doug thanked them for saving a space for us. They were still there when we got back from our walks, and we had a wonderful time visiting with them.

As the name implies, the trail to Sand Dune Arch is sand.

For an idea of the size of the arch, 

note the size of the people not far beyond it.

    Back at the main trail intersection, we turned right to take the trail to Broken Arch, a bit longer yet only 1.3 miles roundtrip and much less crowded.

Marilyn on trail to Broken Arch.

Marilyn pointing out that Broken Arch in fact is not broken.

What do you see? 

Double Arch

    We left the Sand Dune Arch/Broken Arch parking area and drove back through the park to the Windows Section again, this time to visit the Double Arch and Parade of Elephants.

Doug at Double Arch

Parade of Elephants

Marilyn looked at the two sets of "little" rocks on top and pondered what they might be on the lookout for. 

Doug as usual was oblivious.

When we say "little," it is entirely relative. The rocks on top are no doubt huge, while the cliff they are atop is immense.

Going back down the hill to the entry station.

    After another amazing day, it was time we left Arches and headed back to our campsite on the Colorado River.

Leaving Arches National Park

    There is so much beauty in our amazing country.