After a nice warm indroduction to the day, we headed into town to get a yummy filling breakfast at ‘The Peace Tree’ complete with a fresh juice smoothie 👍 Arches NP is a very short drive from the centre of Moab so we drove over there and joined the queue of cars and bikes waiting to get in. This is a popular park!
Tall and skinny rocks along the drive in
They are doing roadworks/renovations inside the park, which included having the whole campsite shut down… We drove down the scenic road only to discover the hike we planned on doing in Devils Garden had been entirely shut off to the public. Disappointing, so we parked in the overflowing car park as far down the road as we could and set off on a shorter hike. We hiked a couple of miles in the desert to see Sand Dune Arch, Broken Arch and Tapestry arch at the end. All were pretty cool. We spoke to a couple of other hikers who said we could get to Skyline Arch right near the campground, so we continued another mile to see that too. Headed on back to our bikes and drove on to Delicate Arch, the most famous and photographed Arch in the park. That was 1.5 miles hike up a slick rock hill to. Lots of tourists hanging out there to get a pic inside the Arch! We meandered around the giant natural ‘bowl’ in the sandstone carved out by the wind, saw the Arch from the other side where the other tourists didn’t venture, and hung out in a ‘window’ hole in a rock wall.
Underneath Tapestry Arch
Famous Delicate Arch. Note the size of the people!
By the time we got back from that hike the day was getting late, and we had to be out of the car parks at the latest 6:30pm so the roadworks could continue overnight. We stopped to see Double Arch, and we’re really glad we did as it was pretty breathtaking! Two gigantic arches with an additional hole above them. Sat underneath and gazed up, soaking it in for awhile. Tried but couldn’t fit the 360 view into our cameras. Another short walk to see the The Double Window Arches, and by that point we were fully ‘Arched out’ for the day. Briefly stopped at Balancing Rock then headed into town to collect water from the spring, then had dinner at a decent Thai restaurant.
Double Arch
Balancing Rock, still defying gravity
Two Tanguys
Excited for another day exploring Moab tomorrow – an adrenaline fueled adventure junkie town is my kinda place to see.
–Zoe
Strange, such a concentration of arches, to do with the variety of stone and erosive winds I suppose.
But still
Are you still following the time-planning up North?
How dare they shut down your planned campsite!
Sue the guys (popular over there)!
Baci of the day
Beautiful what erosion can do to these monumental blocs is amazing. !
Must be awesome to stand up there between these immense rocks !
I missed you for a couple of days 😉
Happy to see you here again T & Z.
xxx Mum