Moab–Arches National Park

I was in Moab for 1.5 weeks during the middle of April, while there I visited many places and have way too many pictures for one blog post for Moab, so I will create a blog entry for Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and probably 2 for all other things I did around Moab.   Note, I may post more than one entry a day, so if you typically just read my last posting make sure that you have read the next to the last also!

As I mentioned in a previous blog, we had some snow while I was in Arches.  We had 2 – 3 inches, but it did not stick to much.  My car was covered, but the ground was too warm for it to stick.  The day of the snow, I went to Arches to have a quick look around.  Below is Balanced rock with a little bit of snow on the ground.

This is Double Arch -

Below is a formation (with a few snow flakes in the picture) that is now called 3 Gossips.  I think it used to be called the 3 Wisemen; at least that’s what I always thought they were.  I visited this park more than 20 years ago and I am wondering if they got politically correct and changed the name.  Or maybe I just thought that 3 Wisemen was a good name.

There are many arches in this park and I will not post pictures of every one I saw, but below are some of my favorites.

Landscape Arch --  When I was here before (I think in 1999) you could walk under the arch, but that same year a huge piece of rock (many tons) fell and now the arch is considered unstable and you can no longer go under the arch. 

Double Arch -  If this Arch looks familiar and you have never been to Arches National Park, you may be remembering a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  If I remember correctly in that movie they used this in a scene with a young Indiana, but they made it look like this was the entrance to a cave.  There is no cave in real life!

I like the wider picture below of Double Arch because it shows how much rock has eroded not just from the arch, but other parts of that same rock. 

When I was at this park before, I walked the trail up to Delicate Arch.  This time, I walked up the trail across the canyon to get a different view.  3 photos of Delicate Arch are below-

I hiked the Windows Trail, where you can see 3 more arches.

Turret Arch-

Windows Arches (as seen from Turret Arch)

I took the “primative” trail around the back of the arches and the view was a bit different.

Broken Arch (below) is one of 2 arches I saw on the Broken Arch/Sand Dune arch trail. 

I liked the 3 Wisemen/3 Gossips so much, I am posting a picture taken on a better day--