27-March-2024 Arches National Park

Wow!!! Sooooooo many amazing arches at Arches National Park!

I got up before the sun and went to the awesome Moab Diner across the street from my hotel to power up with a big breakfast as I knew it was going to be an active day. I got into Arches National Park in time to see the sunrise through north window and watch the beautiful landscape get painted with rays of early morning sunshine. After yesterday's wacky weather day today was wall-to-wall bluebird sky.

I began in the area called "The Windows" which is 12 miles north of the visitor center. First you see north window and then a little further along you realize there's another arch connected to it: South Window. I opted to take what's called the "primitive path" back around the arches on a trail that is not maintained or well marked, and required some climbing and scrambling. Tougher trsils are a great way to get away from the crowds, and I had this trail all to myself! I ended up getting lost (literature says you are likely to because the trail is so poorly marked) but found my way back around and walked down to the lower parking lot to Double Arch. This is a unique feature in the park where from one base 2 arches at about a 90° angle emerge. I hiked up into one of the arches and that's the cover photo for today's blog (yes, it was way harder to get up to that photo spot than you would think!) From that vantage point it was also a great shot to take a picture through the arch of the beautiful landscape in the distance.

While there I encountered a TV crew filming a travel show host (does anyone recognize him?). Fun watching them film a few clips and having him do a couple of promos – you'll have to look for my backside climbing into the arch while he speaks if you watch his show about Arches NP LOL.

I headed up the road to a new trailhead where I hiked 1.6 miles up to Delicate Arch. This trail requires quite a bit of scrambling over open slick rock and then has a few narrow perilous ledges on the backside before you get to the arch. It doesn't really look as delicate as you think when you get up close but it is a beautiful site to see. If you squint and look closely you'll see that I am at the base of the arch in one of the pictures for scale – it's a big arch! By that time I was hungry so I hiked back down and drove to Fiery Furnace, which is a collection of red sandstone tubules that gives a Martian type look to the landscape. I enjoyed a delicious turkey sandwich with one of the best views in the world.

After lunch I continued north to Devils Garden which is at the end of the park road (18 miles from the visitor center). Back in 2015 we had stayed here as a family in the Devils Garden Campground for a night when we did our trip through the southwest and a few places looked familiar. I hiked the Devils Garden Trail with spurs to Pinetree and Tunnel Arches and then went further to see the long and beautiful Landscape Arch. Back in 1981 a chunk of Landscape Arch fell down making it much thinner than it previously was. From here I took another primitive path which required me to gather all my courage to go up a thin fin of rock (rock is only about 4 feet wide at the top and slopes downwards almost vertically on either side) up to 2 hidden arches. Pictures don't do it justice how steep and narrow the hike was. I got safely back down and headed down the road to Sand Dune Arch. This arch is in a narrow Canyon area with sand at its space so it's kind of like an arch at the beach. After all that hiking my legs were getting tired and it sure was a lot of work to walk through the sand! By this point I had hiked 12+ miles and was exhausted so I only made 2 viewing stops on the way out of the park: Balanced Rock and Park Avenue.

When I first got to Moab I couldn't help but notice that there were large sooped-up Jeeps everywhere. They weren't just the kind that you rent - there were many people who trailered these off-road vehicles from far away places. Turns out there is a Jeep festival in town – the size of the tires on some of these vehicles is really amazing but you definitely need it to do some of the crazy off-road trails that are all around here. Enjoyed wandering around looking at all the off-road vehicles and all the gadgets they require.

After dinner I treated myself to a delicious salted caramel ice cream with chocolate syrup - I had hiked over 12 miles and walking around town got me over 13 miles for the day – a half marathon worth of exploration!