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Wednesday, June 1, 2022
We drove down from Richfield, UT to Arches National Park. We had gotten an 11:00 am – noon entry time; we were about 45 minutes early. We stopped near the entrance and took the obligatory selfie in front of the park sign and got in line for the entrance. We passed a sign that said if the line was up to here the wait would be two hours. We passed another one that said the wait would be one hour. We figured it would be about 45 minutes, and it was. So, they make you purchase a ticket for timed entry and you STILL have to wait on line to get in. That system is definitely broken.
Once inside the park there is a small visitor’s center and then you have to climb a steep set of switchbacks to get to where the good stuff is. There is a pullout where you can see the huge Moab fault line. The cliffs that were once connected are now several thousand feet apart. The town of Moab actually sits in the valley created by the fault. Once on top the scenery is quite beautiful. There are many sets of sandstone formations with the characteristic weathering patterns – but no arches. Our first stop was at Balanced Rock. That’s not an arch either. It’s an interesting formation with a large boulder sitting atop a long, skinny base.
Next we drove down to a viewpoint for Delicate Arch. This is one the arches that is typically seen on the NPS website. It sits way up on top of a large cliff. We then went back up the road a bit and came to the trailhead where you could hike up to the arch. It was a rather arduous hike which we though we might do the next day. We did do a short hike down that trail and found some petroglyphs made by Ute Native Americans. In spite of them being between 200 – 400 years old they were in great condition and were easy to see. We learned that the State of Utah derives its name from this tribe.
Returning to the main road we found another spot to hike. We walked on some soft sand, slipped through a narrow canyon and found Sand Dune Arch. We then turned around and headed out across an open plane and found Broken Arch. By now it was past midday and temperatures were well into the 80s. There was no shade on the hike so by the time we got back to the car we were rather overheated in spite of all the water that we drank along the way. We sat in the car for a while and drank quite a bit more before moving on.
Further down the road we encountered Skyline Arch. It was easy to see near the trailhead and, since it wasn’t the most interesting arch, we settled for taking a few pictures from afar.
Our last hike of the day was to Double Arch. We drove down a road past an area called The Garden of Eden with many interestingly shaped sandstone pillars and found a number of unlabeled arches. At the end of the road there were several hikes to several different arches. We planned to do the others the next day.
Double Arch is an enormous cavern with two large windows separated by two arches. It’s really quite impressive. We walked down the path and into the hollowed out space. It is possible to climb on the rocks almost all the way to the arches themselves but we had no such aspirations. On the way out of the park we stopped in a few places to take pictures of some of the more famous structures.
For dinner we ate at the Moab Diner. It is known for its large menu, generous portions, reasonable prices and its ice cream. We were tired, probably slightly dehydrated and not in the mood for anything too heavy so Deborah ordered a taco salad and I ordered a chef salad. While we were waiting for our food I logged into the NPS website in order to get an entry for the next day. We decided, because the heat was supposed to be even worse, that we’d shoot for an entry time of 8:00 am. Our food came at 5:58 pm but we didn’t start eating until 6:00 pm when I got our reservation.
After dinner we went over to a local supermarket and got sandwiches for the next day’s lunch. We also bought a few bottle of Gatorade to help insure that we were properly hydrated.
Thursday, June 2, 2022
We ate breakfast at our hotel and headed over to the park. We arrived about a half hour before our entry time because we assumed there would be a considerable wait. There was almost no line. By 7:30 am we were in the park and headed to the furthest end where we intended to hike The Devil’s Garden Trail. Actually, we only intended to hike the first 1.5 miles of it. After that it becomes, in the words of the park service, “primitive”. At the end we found the largest arch on the planet: Landscape Arch (it’s larger than Zion’s Kolob Arch by three feet). Turning back we took a detour and found Tunnel Arch. It’s basically just a large hole in the middle of a sheer cliff. Off another side trail we found Pine Tree Arch. It’s a very sturdy arch that gets its name from the pine tree growing at its center. We had to step carefully so as to avoid some Northern Whiptail Lizards. We had been finding them underfoot throughout the park. Three arches on one hike. We were pretty happy with that. If we had continued on to the “primitive” portion of the trail we would have encountered several more.
We drove back to the same area where we’d found Double Arch and took a different path which lead to The North Window, The South Window and Turret Arch. The trail was a loop that visited all three of these arches. I had fun climbing up into The North Window and Turret Arch. By the time we were finished it was about 10:30 am and the temperature was approaching 90.
We drove up to Panorama Point where we found some cool breezes and some picnic tables and ate our lunch. This high point looks over a huge valley. The signs explain that the entire park rests on several hundred feet of salt deposits left over from an ancient ocean. Because of heat and water erosion the salt became unstable and caused a buckle leaving a high ridge and an enormous valley.
By noon we were out of the park and eating gelato at a food truck park. The temperate in Moab later reached close to 100 degrees.