day63

Day 63 (October 22, 2006) - Arches N.P.

Southern Utah is packed with National Parks, National Monuments and National Recreation Areas. In fact, it has the largest area of unexplored or little explored territory anywhere in the contiguous US. It has been hard to make up an itinerary that would let us explore a little of everything. Today we are visiting Arches N.P., just 5 miles north of Moab and later in the afternoon the north portion of Canyonlands N.P., which we saw yesterday from the east entrance. Petr seems to have had enough of the "red rock" and I am worried that he might not enjoy the day (and the next few days) as much as I do.

Moab on an early Sunday morning is up and about early. The main street that crosses the city is a procession of cars lining up at gas pumps. Most of them have bike racks with mountain bikes, all of the others either have kayaks and canoes on their roof or ATVs, enduro bikes, or 4WD jeeps in trail. Moab is a city of outdoor enthusiasts, to me it looks likes it borders fetishism - along the street there are only gas stations and trading posts offering tours, jeep/hummer, ATVs and mountain bike rentals. Everybody is out and about. There are hunderds of miles of unpaved roads within Canyonlands NP, Glen Canyon NRA and the Grand Staircase-Escalante NM. I wonder if and how all this 4-wheeling is impacting the environment around here...

From the start, Arches looks pretty crowded. We later find out that it is a very popular weekend destination for families and local hikers. It has the world's largest concentration of sandstone arches, and by early afternoon we have seen almost all of them. All major points of interest are within easy walk. There are a few accessible only by short hiking trails, and other that require some strenuous activity. We opt for something intermediate and get to see even Delicate Arch, the most famous and the one chosen to represent the state of Utah on car plates. It's a gorgeous day, sunny, warm and the colors are at their brightest.

Canyonlands is only 30 miles away from Arches and Hwy 313 is an absolutely stunning ride. We pass a cyclist on the wide shoulder and I wonder if he will ever make it to the top. It's a roller-coaster of highs and lows, with no end in sight. We park at the Visitor Center and change into our biking clothes. Yep! It's bike ride time. It's 25 miles to Grand View Point and back, just enough to take up all afternoon. It's pretty chilly but dressed in layers we are ready to fend the cold air. We have decided that we will stop only at the lookouts that are downhill going out, and at the ones uphill coming back. We don't stop almost anywhere on the first leg of our ride... Petr sees a rattlesnake by the roadside, further in, a coyote crosses the street right in front of me. Grand View Point is the farthest in you can get in Canyonlands, and it offers view of the canyons formed by the Colorado river on the left and by the Green river on the right. We don't get to see the confluence point of the 2 rivers from here, for that we'd need a 4WD vehicle and drive at the bottom of the canyon along the trails that scar the view from above. Although we don't see the rivers from up above, the view is quite impressive. Canyonlands is the largest and wildest of all national parks in Utah, it offers glimpses into how the earth was million of years ago, like nowhere else in the USA.

Back to the RV, Petr lets me bike on, as he stops to gather his stuff, take a break and set the GPS to our night destination. By the time he catches me, I have covered another 8 miles on the above-mentioned roller-coaster, and my feet are frozen. We leave Canyonlands as the sun goes down, and as hunters start coming in to the mesa in throngs aboard their pickups, with jeeps/ATVs trailers and dressed in bright orange jackets. Somehow, I don't see the "sport" part in hunting aboard a jeep with a rifle in your hand...

Welcome to Arches National Park!

On our way in...

Balanced Rock, with Petr the Brave challenging it below.

North window, one of the first arches we saw. (An arch is different from a bridge, in that a bridge is formed by water carving it, while an arch is rock falling apart around it.)

A view of the parking lot from our first hike.

South window.

Laura pondering how in the heck these arches were formed...

Double Arches, what Laura was looking at and wondering. She later read the info plaque and found out. Had she read that before, she would have avoided the stupid look on her face in the picture before.