From Arch to Arch….

October 19, 2021 by Amy Welborn

Again: Tired.

So this will be a text-light post. I can see that my reflections on this trip will definitely have to wait until our return. I have Thoughts, but fatigue and then the slight nerves about getting to the Next Stop make it all just too much for many words.

Remember: You can click on any photo in the galleries – not the single photos, sorry – to enlarge it.

So…most of today was spent in the fabulous Arches National Park, which is really nothing like I expected. I think my son said it best in the gift shop when he said, “All the images for Arches feature the Delicate Arch, but that’s really not doing the park justice. It’s so much more.”

We were out of our Moab hotel by 6:15, headed the six miles or so to the Arches entrance. We weren’t one of the sunrise-chasers, but the park has been so busy for the past few months that the line to get into the park is dozens of cars long by 8 am, and they have been temporarily closing the park by 10am some days (until early afternoon) because the parking lots have filled up.

(You can watch the park entrance on this webcam, which I have been for weeks, making my plans…)

I didn’t want to wait 30 minutes in the entrance line, nor did I want to miss my chance for a trailhead parking lot, so driving in the dark at 6:30 am it was – all the way to the end of the park road to the Devil’s Garden trailhead.

We did the…whole trail. Every step, every side path to every arch! The alternative, longer, more challenging loop back, called the “Primitive Trail.” I think it was about 7.5 miles, and it took us until after noon – we went slowly and stopped several times. A great, great hike. Just enough challenge and interest to keep it spicy.

Beginning the hike. About 7 am. Both trails and lot were..busy when we emerged about five hours later.

Landscape Arch – the first major arch on the trail, and the easy one to get to. Most people just go to this one and go back and move on. Part of it – on the left – fell in 1991.

The first part of the trail beyond the Landscape Arch. If you click on the photo to expand it, you can see folks scrambling up the sliprock.

After that, we drove to to a few viewpoints, including Balancing Rock and the viewpoint for the Delicate Arch from below.

Then back to the room for a bit, and then a drive out to Canyonlands.

There are three distinct areas to Canyonlands – the one closest to Moab is called “Islands in the Sky” because what you can see are mesas rising from the massive, wide canyons. As my traveling companion remarked, “This part of the park seems to be mostly about viewpoints or very long hikes.” And he’s right. But the viewpoints are spectacular – the canyon is astonishing to view.