Cross-Country Vacation
Day 5: Arches
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Click on thumbnail to view enlarged photo. The images on this page are high resolution for printing or for high speed connections (up to 2300x1800, up to 1 MB each). For low resolution images more suitable for view on dial-up connections, go to http://www.lprezdente.net/photos/2006/CrossCountryVacation/Day05_Arches/LowRes/index.htm. Use back button on your browser to return to this index. If you want to save an image to your hard drive, right click on the thumbnail and pick "Save Target As..."
We got breakfast and gassed up the car in Green River and then headed towards Moab. The plan was to definitely stop at Arches National Park.
Canyonlands National Park is also close by but it is one of the most remote and least developed of all national parks. It is where the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers meet. There are several places where you can turn off and go 10 or 20 miles to an overlook, but unless you go backpacking or rafting down the rivers there is nothing else you can get to.
After the previous day's disappointment with Kodachrome basin, we were a little leery about turning off to go to an overlook. But I had read greet things about a place called Dead Horse Point State Park, which overlooks the north end of Canyonlands. So before we got to Arches we turned off on state highway 313.
There were some nice sights on the way. These first two rock formats are called the Monitor and Merrimac, since they resemble two Civil War iron-clads closing in for battle.
When we first arrived at Dead Horse Point it did not look like you could see much. But then when you got out of the car and walked just a little ways,
You are a couple of thousand feet above the Colorado River at this point. Of course, the real Grand Canyon is a few hundred miles downstream from here, and it is magnificent, but this is about as close as you can come to it without being there.
Finally it was on to Arches. We did not see many arches at first though. just several balanced rocks.
Finally we saw some arches. The long flat one in the next photo is North Window and the one after that is Turret Arch. Turning back in the other direction you can see the Parade of Elephants and Double Arch. We hiked up under the North Window I took some picture laying down looking up. There is a South Window around to the right of it, too, but somehow I missed that one (Cheryl and Dawn took some pictures of it).
While the rest of them walked around the Windows I hiked over for a closer look at the Parade and at Double Arch.
George drove the car from one the one parking lot a few hundred yards over to the other one to pick me up. It was the only part of the whole trip where someone drove besides me.
Delicate Arch. It was quite an uphill hike with a lot of steps to get this close. To actually get to the arch is a 3 mile one-way hike.
Salt Valley Overlook? I have no idea what the name of this rock is.
The Fiery Furnace. It is like a maze. You can only go in as part of an organized hike lead by a couple of experienced park rangers.
The trail back to the Sand Dune Arch.
Walking through that sand for a few hundred feet was almost as bad as the hike up to the Delicate Arch viewpoint.
Skyline Arch. What was cool about this was an old photo that showed what it looked like before 1940. There used to be a large boulder taking up the left half of the present arch. In 1940 the boulder suddenly fell, doubling the size of the arch.
The Devil's Garden Trail:
Tunnel Arch:
Pine Tree Arch:
Why they call it the Devil's Garden:
The Organ, Three Gossips, Tower of Babel, and Park Avenue on the way back out of Arches:
Snow capped mountains to the east.
Wilson Arch along US-191.
It was starting to rain when we got to Wilson Arch, and getting late. We did not have time to check out any of the other Canyonlands Overlooks. Instead we headed into Colorado, the fifth state on our tour.
Dead Horse Point State Park: Website
Canyonlands National Park: Website, Map
Arches National Park: Website, Map
Day 5 Summary:
Start: Green River, UT
End: Cortez, CO
By way of: Moab and Monticello, UT
Route: I-70, US-191, UT-313 (spur), US-191, US-491
Approximate Driving Distance:
This Day: 240 miles
Total: 1295 miles
Next: Day 6: Mesa Verde
Return to Cross Country Vacation Index