Arches National National Park

(Clicking on the pictures should open them larger in a new window.)

Monday, October 21. 2019

Arches National Park

This park preserves over two thousand natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations. In some areas, faulting has exposed millions of years of geological history. The extraordinary features of the park including balance rocks, fins, and pinnacles, create a landscape of contrasting colors, landforms and textures that is unlike any other in the world.

We drove through this park as the sun was slowing setting. I do like how the shadows, at times, added to what we were seeing.

When we got to the booth there was no one there. There was a sign that stated to pay at the visitor center.  We did make a quick stop at the visitor center to stamp our National Park Passport but since we have a Golden Pass the only other thing we needed was a map.

As we started the uphill climb into the park we could see the
visitor center down below.

As we rode up the road leaving the visitor center we
the first thing we noticed is the delicate balance of some
very large rocks. 

From this angle I imagined this  to be
a Pharaoh looking over his kingdom. 

I took this, and the one below, standing at the
 beginning of the Park Avenue Trail.

Did not notice this until I looked at the
picture afterwards. Does anyone else
see the face ?

The Three Gossips.

Courthouse Towers

Tower of Babel

Sheep Rock is on the right.
The panel pictured below outlines a possible fallen arch.

It almost looks like a "small" slice of the rock is going
to walk out and away form the larger rock.

So much beauty it is hard not to continuously snap pictures.

Balanced Rock from a distance.

Balanced Rock 

At the Window area there was no place to park.
The following five were the pictures I took as we drove by.

Could that be Bigfoot wandering around the rocks?

That is not a living bird sitting on that rock.

The four pictures following this information panel where taken at the Fiery Furnace Viewpoint.

I think more then any other place we have been as we drove
through Arches I thought that looks like this or that.
It is left to each of our imaginations what we see.

Skyline Arch

As we drove back to the entrance

the sun was slowly sinking behind the mountains

leaving touches of light on our views to the east.

We pulled into Panorama Point and I took this looking
east. The last of the sunlight touching the mountains in
the distance and the top tip of a small tree in front of me.

Then as we circled to the exit we stopped and I was able
to capture the sun as it slipped  behind the mountains.

Continuing towards the exit to the park 

and they are still gossiping.

Back on US-191 I took one last picture of where we
had been as we headed north and home.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Canyonlands National Park,  we never intended this visit to be our only one to the Arches. It was later in the day and we were thinking we will just take a quick ride in and come back tomorrow. Having a Golden Pass, which means we do get in free, makes it an easy decision. Once we were in the park we just kept going wanting to see the next thing and the next.

Looking back now at the pictures  I can see we were rushed and did not take the time we might have the next day at each stop. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20; that having been said we really did enjoy our ride and the time we did spend in the park. We especially liked being there as the sun was setting. The upside is we will just have to go back another time and spend more time looking at all the beauty the Arches National Park has to offer.

We are glad you stopped in to visit.

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.