Arches National Park - 2009 and 2014
I visited Arches National Park in September 2009. There is absolutely no shade in the park. It was very hot and I carried plenty of water with me, but I would be thirsty 5 minutes after drinking water. I didn't realize that this was a desert, until I saw the sand at the base of many of the arches. It felt like I was walking on the beach. Arches is not a very visitor-friendly park. There is no park-shuttle like the ones at Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce and there is no food available inside the park. There is a 20-mile (one-way) scenic drive around the park, with designated parking spots and pull-outs where you can stop and see the different attractions. There are a lot of really magnificent arches, and most of them can be seen by parking and then walking a short distance. Many of the trails here are on slickrock, so the trails are primitive and are marked with rock cairns. If you don't pay attention, you could easily get lost.
I first took the Park Avenue trail, which is 2 miles round-trip and has an elevation gain of only 320 feet. This part of the park was a bit of a surprise, since it has no arches, but it does have some great rock formations.
I then went to the Windows area, where I took the short walk to the Double Arch and the Cove of Caves. From there it was another short walk to the North Window arch, the South Window arch and the Turret arch. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera here, so I could not take any more pictures. The camera would not focus properly and there was a shadow in the upper right-hand corner of the lens, on all except the telephoto shots.
I went out of the park to Moab, which is 3 miles away, to have lunch and see if I could get my camera fixed. I was not able to get the camera fixed, so for the rest of my stay at arches, I could not take many pictures. After lunch, I saw the Balanced Rock, and then went to the Delicate Arch viewpoint. This is a 1 mile trail that climbs towards Delicate Arch and ends at the rim of a steep canyon that separates the viewpoint from the arch.
From there I drove towards the Devil's Garden area. I stopped on the way to see the Sand Dune arch. From the Devil's Garden area, I took the short walk to see the Landscape arch, which is probably going to be the next arch to fall down - it is only 6 feet at it's thinnest point.
The next day I took the more popular trail to the base of Delicate Arch. This is a 3 mile round-trip hike with an elevation gain of 480 feet. The trail goes over open slickrock, and is marked with rock cairns. The last 200 yards of the trail traverses a rock ledge.
Since I broke my camera, I was not able to take any pictures of Delicate Arch. In 2014, on my way back from Colorado, I was made a slight detour, to go to Arches. I only did the hike to Delicate Arch, just so I could take some pictures!
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| Arches National Park - 2009 & 2014 |
