On Saturday, we woke up in Moab (D on the Map) and went for breakfast at the Moab Diner. It was fast and tasty. I had a classic breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I would highly recommend it. Then we headed out for some geocaching.
One of the spots we found on our geocaching expedition was a pretty park along the Colorado River called Lions Park. The rocks in the picture below are the beginning of the boundary line for Arches National Park.
Bill taking a walk over the river.
The view from the bridge.
After taking in the view at Lions Park, we drove around the corner to Arches National Park. Arches is an interesting spot. It is full of tourists and seems to be a popular family destination. It's not that big compared to many other National Parks. It is 120 square miles in size, whereas the Grand Canyon is 1904 square miles and Yosemite is 1200 square miles. It's very pretty, but definitely hot, windy and sandy. I spent a lot of time with my hat over my face to keep from breathing in sand. Too bad I didn't have a bandana or I could have done it cowboy style!
One of the "windows."
There were some awesome dead trees at this park.
Here's me taking that picture. :)
Another one of the windows.
The windows again.
Bill in the wind. It was very gusty that day! In the video below, you can see how strong it was.
We took a hike around the back of the windows to get away from all of the people.
This is a good illustration of how much sand there was and how much it blew around. Many of the plants were half buried, including the prickly pear.
This is delicate arch, from the Utah state license plate. In order to hike up to it, you have to take a strenuous hike on slick rock with no shade, so we opted to take a look from the viewpoint.
The people in the picture give a good idea of the actual size.
We drove over to the campground to take some pictures. Can you believe people camp right next to this? Definitely a cool spot if you aren't using a soft sided tent.
A new arch in the making!
The building below this arch is part of the camp area.
Bill taking pictures.
The shoes! They look surprisingly clean considering the sand everywhere.
Bill looking like a rock star.
The particular spot we were walking through was a wind tunnel and blew sand into a pile between these rock faces.
The rocks after we had walked through them.
Me, hiking along!
Landscape arch. This is the longest natural arch in the world. It spans approximately 290 feet. This arch is slowly thinning out and will eventually collapse. Since 1991, three giant chunks have fallen off of the arch. The largest was 70 feet long. In 1991, people were allowed to hike under the arch. A photographer was able to photograph one of the pieces falling while others scrambled to get out of the way.
A better view of the arch. All of the pieces that have fallen have been out of the thinnest section. I think the next part is going to fall out of the left side.
Some cool rock formations that can be seen from the road.
After hiking to landscape arch, we headed on our way to our hotel in Ogden. It continued to be very windy. We went by some really interesting mountains:
Sunset on our way to Ogden. It finally started to get cold outside!
No comments:
Post a Comment