Wind and Water

Currently In: Phoenix, AZ
Up next: Havasu City and Yuma, AZ

I'm baaaaack!

Took a little break from the blog, but I am ready to update the adventure.  We found a perfect weather day to visit Arches National Park just a few miles from our campground in Moab.
As we learned in other parks, the formations, including the arches, were created by water and ice, wind and extreme temperatures.  But in Arches, underground salt movement also had a role in the creation of the rock scenery.

One of the first viewpoints is Courthouse Towers, named sandstone rock formations.  Starting at the left, that's Three Gossips, then the little one is Sheep Rock.   The large rock is The Organ, however the peak on the left is actually behind The Organ and is called Tower of Babel.

There were lots of potholes in the rock crust on the short trail up to the viewpoint, and they were filled with water, evidence of all the rain from the day before.

 We drove along The Great Wall on the way to the next viewpoint.   It is a continuous sandstone rock and I'm guessing it's about 2 miles long.  Impressive.

We got to the unusual landscape of the Petrified Dunes.

The Dunes are ancient sand dunes that turned to stone over time.

This lady set up her easel right on the side of the road to paint the Dunes.

Balanced Rock is one of the more famous spots at Arches.  Entrada Sandstone is set on mudstone which erodes more quickly than the rock above it.  This will eventually cause its collapse - many, many, years from now! Johnny is close to the base at the left.  That is one big rock!

We finally made it to an arch!  This one is called Double Arch.  Hmmm, wonder why?
And we went from blue sky to clouds too.

Johnny hiked to the bottom of the first arch.  The slick rock was just a little too much for me.

We also looked at North Window and South Window and Turret Arch  (this Park is very literal with its names) while in the Windows Section.

Two other interesting formations in the Windows Section.  First, Parade of Elephants, and then the Cove of Caves.

Before we left this area, we checked out the Garden of Eden.

Fiery Furnace is a maze of sandstone walls.  You can only hike this trail with a Park Service Ranger.  And the sun came out while we were there, adding to the beauty.

We actually had to hike to Sand Dune Arch.  We hiked right through the sandstone fins!

You can actually squeeze through these little fins, too.

A left on the same trail led to Broken Arch.

Have we seen enough arches yet???
Next we went to Skyline Arch.  It was just off the road, so no hike.

But we did learn that in 1940 a large boulder fell out of the arch and roughly doubled the size of the opening.   You can see the boulders at the bottom of this photo.

I liked this scene at the base of the arch.

When we got to the Devil's Garden Trailhead, we decided to hike to Landscape Arch.

The juniper trees on the path had berries!

The long and graceful arch experienced a change in 1991 when a 60 foot long rock slab peeled away from its right side.  Part of the process of erosion.

On our drive to the Delicate Arch area, we saw this beautiful green landscape.  I know there are different colors of mudstone, so I'm guessing this is an example of the green kind!

When we got to Delicate Arch, the viewpoint road was closed due to  flooding.  Bummer.  It is the iconic arch in the Park.  We were hoping the road would be open later in the week, but no dice.  Too much rain.
I was not up for the 3 mile hike on a huge slope of sandstone, so we took at look at the Wolfe cabin that dates back to 1906.

We were at the park a long time, but glad we found a day with good weather so we could see everything!