Arches and Canyonland National Parks

After leaving Dead Horse Point we went for another week of comparative luxury in Moab Utah, just south of Arches and Canyonland national Parks. Pretty much wasted the entire weekend just resting up and watching MSU and the Lions lose. Cable TV has become an unaccustomed luxury and we overindulged all weekend. Same for good wi-fi. Monday we got serious and spent the day exploring the Arches. Truly wierd landscape. The explanation is this (get ready for the science) : Many millions of years ago the area under the arches had hundreds of feet of salt deposited by an ancient sea. Subsequent seas and deserts left thousands of feet of different types of sandstone deposited. Salt is not a stable foundation and got pushed around underneath into thin spots and domes, tilting the upper layers of sandstone, many places at right angles. These layers separated easily through erosion, leaving "fins" of sandstone jutting up as much as several hundred feet into the air. Some of those had very soft areas, eroding more quickly that the surrounding sandstone and leaving holes. Voila, arches and various needles and balancing rocks. Okay, enough science, enjoy the pictures.

Hello, Arches



Sand Arch

From the other side.

Climbing on the scenery is not specifically prohibited in many areas.

An interesting formation called the Three Gossips.

Delicate Arch. I prefer one of the other names, Cowboy's Chaps.

Obviously, Balancing Rock

We'd been experiencing low propane pressure since just before leaving Yellowstone, along with a faint smell of gas from one of the tank areas (yes, I shut that one right down). Finally found a repairman. Wasn't cheap because he replaced both regulators and the switching valve. Explanation: previous owners probably didn't use the gas much and diaphrams got stiff, use in cold weather sent them over the edge.Now we can run the furnace, water heater, refrigerator and stove all at the same time! For free, I also got some tips on greasing wheel bearings and air conditioner maintenance.  We even had some time for a drive in the afternoon. Got lost on the La Sal Mountain Road and got a chance to try out our 4wd. No problem. Found ourselves and even had some time for a short hike in the Arches.

View from somewhere on La Sal mountain.
I'd like to be more specific but we were massively lost!

Just a short hike off the road

Tumbled needle with 3 Gossips in background

Park Avenue is name of this hike. Rocks look like buildings along Park Avenue.  

What planet is this? Arches.

I haven't even mentioned Moab's biggest tourist draw. Moab is mecca for off-road enthusiasts of all kinds. The town is full of big-wheel jeeps, little ATV's, dirt bikes and mountain bikes. You do see the occasional Harley but more often you see BMW's with knobby tires and other big-bore dirt bikes of all brands. The tourist books laid out dozens of trails through BLM land with suggestions on suitability for various vehicles.We saw one caravan of apparently rented jeeps with names of their occupants stenciled on the windows. From the names, I'd guess they were from Poland.

Next day it was time for a look at Canyonland. Canyonland is completely divided by river and canyon into thirds that have to be reached from outside the park, totalling more than a hundred miles of driving on not very good roads. The section we were closest to included Grand View where we were lucky enough to get a ranger talk about the stages of erosion that made this valley and a nice hike on the canyon rim.

A canyon within a canyon

Typical feature in Canyonland

This is the Schafer Valley Road. A year or two ago in August the area received a huge (1 1/2 inch) rainfall within a couple of hours. This road was washed out and trapped the 7 people camped in the valley. They were rescued by helicopter but their vehicles and gear were stuck there until the following April when road crews could go in and rebuild the switchbacks.

Another day, what to do? We finally got moving early enough to find a parking place at the Devil's Garden, right at the end of the main park road in Arches. This is the premier spot in the park with several arches visible along the hiking trail. About the trail. The so-called trail is two and a half miles long, marked by rock cairns along sand washes, slick rock, narrow spaces between fins and most interesting up and along the top of those sandstone fins. Many changes in elevation. Between us we drank well over a gallon of water in 4 hours. The scenery was indeed spectacular, the high point of this phase of the trip and a fitting end. Strangely enough we heard more French and German than English from our fellow hikers. Even a few of the English speakers turned out to be Australians.

Sand Arch

Landscape Arch, considered the park's centerpiece. A few years ago some hikers actually filmed a part of the arch (right of center) fall off. These things are not forever. This is also where the trail gets..............challenging.

One of the easy parts of the trail

An easy walk - down.

About 100 yards along this fin. 8 feet or more wide but the drop is 150 feet or so. Also a great view into Fin Canyon

A view of Dark Angel through the lower arch of Double O Arch. We ate lunch on this side of the arch and watched people disappearing through it and not coming back...........

This is why. The arch we came through is below the big one.

 

Really, there is a hiking trail there somewhere.

 

 

Liz here. Mike admires the quartz.

 

Stacked stones are called "cairnes" and indicate the trail. Reminiscent of Hawaiian grave markers.  

 

We drank all our water while walking on the elevated fins in the bright sun

 

 

Good Bye, Arches. Next Stop, Mesa Verde.