Arches National Park

I sprained my left ankle falling off Snoopy's step in the evening and could hardly walk in the morning.  The wind, which had been blowing at about 30 mph had abated and Bob was going to try out the disc golf course in Moab.  I put on my hiking boots, which provided enough support for my ankle to be able to hike up Negro Bill Canyon.  I have no idea where the name came from.  The canyon has a perpetual stream in it and is in shadow quite a bit of the way.  I left about 9 a.m. and walked in the cool canyon bottom along the stream.  It was gorgeous; the sound of the water, the greenery, the rustling of lizards, the color of the rocks.

 The trail crossed and recrossed the stream and made its way along the stream.
















                   Eventually the trail dead-ended in this canyon wall with Morning Glory Arch (the sixth longest arch in the area).  The arch has a small pool below it with poison ivy (there were lots of warnings at the trail head about that) and a small stream coming down a slit in the rock on the left.








 I walked back to Snoopy and waited for Bob.  We headed for Arches, which neither of us had ever seen.  We decided to drive to the end of the road to the area with the longest trails, most arches and a picnic area.  Along the way we passed numerous structures, including the Three Gossips here in this photo.








After eating lunch in a strong wind, we took off on a trail that went past eight arches (we only went as far as the first seven).  This is Pine Tree Arch; there is actually a pine tree in the arch.















 It continues on to Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the area and one of the most photographed spots in Arches.  I must have gotten a spot of dust on my lense as all my photos have this blue dot in them from here on.  Landscape Arch is about 1 mile from the parking lot and is where most people stop and the "paved/gravelled" trail ends.  From here on the trail is designated as primitive and goes along fins and climbs rocks.




 We climbed out of Landscape Arch up a steep slick rock and took two detours on top.  The first was to Partition Arch, which you could see from the Landscape Arch viewpoint.











The second detour was to Navajo Arch which was interesting because it led into this sandy area with some trees growing in it.  If you look carefully you will see Bob behind the smaller tree, which gives a sense of how large this arch is.









The trail then continued out on these fins.  Fins are created when the salt layer dissolves and the rock on top fractures, water gets into the fractures and further erodes them.  Bob described walking on them as being like walking on the top of a freight train; the wind is blowing hard, they are about 8' wide and there are precipitous drop offs on each side.  They are not for people who are afraid of heights (a warning given at the trail head).











Black Arch is seen only at a distance.













Double O Arch, aptly named was the end of our hike.  We opted not to walk down to its base, because we had both already walked about 6 1/2 miles.










Here you can get a sense of the size and distances in Arches.











Here are some more fins.













We drove to the lower viewpoint to look at Delicate Arch.  At this point we opted not to hike out to the base of the arch as it was 3 miles round trip and we had already hiked about 9 1/2 miles.










As we drove back to the entrance we went to the Garden of Eden, which also has a lot of arches.  It is so named because there are all sorts of rocks that look like various animals.










This arch, aptly named Double Arch, is located in the Garden of Eden.












The Garden of Eden also includes this Cove of Caves; arches in the making.












This is called Balanced Rock for obvious reasons.













The view from Balanced Rock towards the Three Gossips, the Organ and the Courthouse.  Arches is a marvelous place which we want to return to.  We ate dinner in Moab at Twisted Sistas', returned to Snoopy to sleep and head towards Lafayette, CO the next day.