Day 6 - Arches National Park

Wow! This place is unbelievable. The orange arches are far better than McD's golden ones. It is difficult to get a grasp of the geology involved. We learned that 29 inland sea incursions left a huge bed of salt, which creates an unstable bed for the rock above. This causes shifting, that combined with wind and water, wears away the sandstone to create these magnificent formations.

 Arches National Park

We started our tour of the park early in the morning, beginning with a nice walk in the cool shade of the Park Avenue section, so named because it reminded someone of a city skyline. There are not actually any arches in this section, but the massive red and orange walls surrounding a small canyon are awesome in the morning light. For fellow birders, we enjoyed watching several Rock Wrens hopping about on the rocks and a pair of Prairie Falcons soaring along the face of one of the buttes.

Park Avenue

A stop at the Courthouse section revealed the first, albeit small, arch and an intriguing formation called the Three Gossips. They could just as easily be three wise men for religious folks or three witches for lovers of The Scottish Play.

The Three Gossips

Down the road, we reached Balanced Rock and close by the Windows section of the park. The latter has two large arches, plus a third called Turret Arch. Then it was on to Delicate Arch, which is the picture on Utah license plates. It is a long walk up to the arch and the trailhead parking lot was full, so we settled for a more distant but still wonderful view. At this point, it was getting hot, so after a picnic lunch, we headed back to our motel and the swimming pool.

Delicate Arch

After some Father's Day brews at a Moab microbrewery, we headed out to the park again in the relative cool of the evening. One of the least publicized arches turned out to be one of the best. Sand Dune arch is hidden in the middle of larger rock formations, and you have to walk through a narrow passage of red sand to get there. It was like walking into Jordan's Petra - remember Indiana Jones?

Sand Dune Arch

About an hour before dusk, we finally made it out to Devil's Garden and hiked out to Landscape Arch. This arch showed the constant change that goes on here, when a huge section fell from it in 1992. It is still amazing, as was the setting sun streaming through another nearby arch. As we headed back to the parking area, this Black-throated Sparrow offered a nice pose.

Black-throated Sparrow

With little light pollution, we anticipated that the stargazing opportunities would be outstanding. It took a long time for the sky to get dark - after 10 p.m.  - but the wait was worthwhile.

Arches Sunset

Tired after a long day, we headed back to Moab to rest up for our journey to the Grand Canyon. Could that be any better than Arches? Happy Father's Day to me.