Today we arrived at Arches National Park. We will be visiting here for the next three days. Because of the entry permit system, we must arrive in a specified hour time slot. Today that was 6 am to 7 am. We only had to wait for one other vehicle because of the early hour.
We chose Delicate Arch as our first hike. It is a fairly long hike for us. It is also uphill most of the way.
Some of the climb is across large rocky areas where there is not a specified path.
Other times, the path is very clear and even steeper.
At the top of the trail, your first see a bonus arch.
After a short additional climb, you get to see the Delicate Arch. It is easy to understand why this is the favorite hike in the park. Many people stand in a long line for the chance to stand under the Delicate Arch.
We chose a selfie from a distance instead.
The walk back down was easier than the walk up. Fortunately, the cool of the morning helped as well.
Again today we saw even more amazing plant life.
Here you can see the part of the climb involved in reaching Delicate Arch. We were glad to be going down this time.
There is a short side trail at the beginning/end of the hike that takes you to the site of some very old art work. This was only a five minute detour from the main trail.
After Delicate Arch, we headed toward the Windows Trail. One nice thing about Arches is that there are great views along the road. An interest thing about the views, we tend to see pictures in the scenery. Does this look like an elephant to you?
You get to see arches just about everywhere in the park.
Here is another we saw beside the road. There are over 2000 documented arches in the park. Not all of them have names.
At the widows area, many of the arches do have names. This is the North Window.
This is the South Window.
This is not eyeglasses, it is North Window and South Window in the same picture.
Just a short distance from the North and South Windows is Turret Arch. We spent a few minutes at each of these locations taking pictures of the Arches from numerous angles and also of the scenery surrounding them.
Our next hike was to Double Arch. This is a complex picture. In the foreground is one part of the Double Arch. In the background is the other arch. They are separated enough that you also see sky in between them.
Because we joined ‘All trails’ to plan our trips, we knew about a short unmarked hike from Double Arch to a place called Cove of Caves and Cove Arch. On the far left you can see Cove Arch. In the center you can see three caves and the beginnings of a fourth cave.
It was interesting to hike to a place that only a few people knew about. Although it was only a five minute hike, we were separated from the crowds in a location we almost had to ourselves. Unfortunately, we interrupted one other person’s time of solitude in this location. We tried to stay at a distance, but his solitude was interrupted so he left.
The Cove of Caves hike was our last hike of the day. When we returned to the circular parking lot, only one of us hiked the small hill to the other side to get the car.
Our next to last stop was at Balanced Rock. You cannot see the immensity of this rock in a picture. The entire tower is 128 feet tall. The “Rock” alone is estimated to weigh 3600 tons.
It was a short walk around this giant boulder. Each side showed that it is carefully balanced. But some day it will probably crash down.
Marlene was brave today. When a lizard crossed her path she did not get scared. Instead, she calmly got her camera in focus and took this great picture of the frightened and frozen lizard.
Our last stop today was at the La Sal Mountain Overlook. There are many sites to see in addition to the mountains that hover over Arches National Park. We focused on one site which was a miniature canyon formed by the Colorado River. Several of the parks we will see in the next two weeks border on, or are very close to, the Colorado River.
This was a great first day at Arches National Park. Getting up early to get into the park was easier than we thought, in spite of a silent alarm on someone’s phone. We woke up 45 minutes late, but still made it for our entry time. We finished our hikes and still had time to relax in the afternoon.