Arches here, arches there, arches everywhere

We were passing by the entrance to the Arches every day for last three days. It was just a few miles north from Moab, near the junction of two roads we mentioned earlier: "128" and "279". They are both described in a park brochure, too bad we didn’t have enough time to explore them.

The entrance to the Arches looks inconspicuous. Next to a busy road, visitors center is just passed the gate. And that is the famous Arches? Well, indeed. Just near, or actually over Moab there is a wonderful land full of great views and amazing rock formations.

Arches are really amazing. First time it surprised us before we got there, when driving on "191" after dark we saw car lights high above us. They looked like floating spaceships over the road, because after dark you can easily forget that there is a steer, high wall just next to you.

We took this road few days later, but first we had to go through visitors center. We feel like we spend more and more time in those centers. Half an hour movie, postcards, exhibition, chat about trails, Junior Ranger program for Maciek. Sometimes we don't want to leave but it would be shame to spend there more time than in park itself..

But in the Arches it's worth to leave. After filling up our bottles with water by the poster we already know by heart from most of national parks (it tells that average American throws away 167 plastic bottles per year) we move on to explore. Arches is not a place you can get lonely. As it's close to Moab, cheap campgrounds by Colorado river and as there are not too many long trails where you can get lost for hours, parkings by view points and arches are full of people even in the middle of the week, before the season. There is a less popular, hence not too crowded maze of fins and pinnacles - Fiery Furnace, but the first walk there has to be in an organized, guided group. You can go alone second time.

But even the crowds don't make those rock formations any less charming. Arches is an area with largest concentration of arches found anywhere in the world. There is over 2500 of them there. New are being found every once in a while, and the old ones collapse every now and then. Of course there are many of not so spectacular ones, especially that the definition of an arch is not very exclusive. To get on the list an opening in the rock must be at least a meter wide in any direction. So it can be a tall slot - meter high and a few centimeters wide and it'll get to be a part of Arches family.

Arches is another fascinating place, geology-wise. 300 million years ago there was a sea flowing in this area. Over millenia it evaporated leaving a salt bed thousands of feet thick. Salt was later covered by many thousands of feet of other rock layers, among them Navajo and Entrada Sandstones from ancient deserts. And then, what we already know from different places, Colorado plateau was lifted up by tectonic movements and erosion started. It removed younger layers of rocks.

Salt bed below was changing its state, uncovered sandstone rocks were cracking and faults occured. Over time, water seeped into the surface cracks, joints, and folds of these layers. Water, ice and sun deepened cracks and created parrarel mountain ridges or series of free-standing finns, divided by narrow canyons. Erosion went on. Some of these ridges dissapeared completely, other turned into hoodoos sometimes shaped like people (like three gossips), other stayed on sometimes for miles and now look like city streets (Park Avenue).

Three gossips

And when erosion hits stronger at the bottom of sandstone rock it can eventually cut through and create a hole or a slot. Over time wind and water (frost, ice) would make it wider eventually would creating an arch. Natural bridges differs slighlty from arches. Those are created by flowing water and spread over running or dry creak or river. There doesn't have to be water under arch in present or past.

What can you do in Arches? First of all you can drive and hike. We had to skip the longest trails, this time due to fever and not well being of two of the older feet. We hiked Devil’s Garden trail, the most popular one in the park as there are eight beautiful arches you can see along, but we got only to Landscape Arch. 

It's the widest arch in the park, over 290 feet wide. Unfortunately you can't go near it. Until the beginning of the 90s it was open for visitors but in 1991 a huge chunk of it, over 73 feet long fell off of it. There were people sitting underneath, luckily they run away as soon as they heard the crack. So when you sit under any arch, listen carefully if it doesn't make any warning sounds. Some smaller slabs fell off after 1991.

Landscape Arch

To get to the most famous arch in the park, or, as they say it here, the most photographed rock formation in the world - Delicate Arch, you have to do 3 mile loop. Unfortunately, it was too far for us that day. Delicate Arch is a symbol of Utah. Over 20 feet high it's standing lonely on the rock. Well, maybe not really lonely as it's surrounded by tourists all day long (quite a crowd actually considering it's a 3 mile long trail with 480 feet elevation change).

Delicate Arch

We walked among the Windows too. It's described as an easy trail. We weren't too eager to go there as the parking lot was full of cars, but even though the windows are close one another and trail is short, it was pretty empty and nice. Windows are amazing and impressed us even more than two most famous arches, maybe because we couldn't get close to the arches. Meanwile, windows are open, you can go through them, sit in them and enjoy the view to the other side. Maybe all the crowds went to the other side of the parking to see a double arch, we just took a look from afar.

We walked around Balanced Rock, another one in Utah that stands against laws of jenga. The whole formation is 128 feet high, the base itself is 55 feet high. Above it there is a balancing ball. Balanced Rock used to have a smaller companion but it fell down few winters ago.

Balanced Rock

We really wanted to leave the park by a different road than the one we got in. In a park brochure we saw on the map that our free campground is just by the road that leaves the arches west, half way through the park. We would not only save a few miles (not so much time probably though), but also we would drive through less popular parts of the park.

After all we decided not to take it. It was already late, our phone had no coverage, we don't trust our car at all and the road through Willow Flats is not the easiest one. But if any of our readers ever took it, please let us know, we're really courious what it looks like and whether it doesn't end with a closed gate on the park's border.

Arches was the end of our southern Utah adventure. Next day we planned to leave early and go through Price to Vernal, Utah capital of dinasours. It was supposed to be another test for our jeep. "191" north from Moab becomes really steep. It's difficult not only going up but also down, where trucks end up with smoking brakes. "Respect this route. Always. No matter what your skills are" - we read somewhere on internet. That's what we planned. But our jeep didn't even had a chance to take this test. We'll write soon why.