Today we visited Arches National Park. According to the NP information booklet, the formation of arches began 300 million years ago with the seeping of water, when saltwater from a nearby ocean flooded the area. Evaporation left behind salt deposits that over the years became thousands of feet thick. Coastal sand dunes and desert sediments buried the salt. Over time the sediment became rock. The enormous weight of the rock caused the salt to flow deep underground. In the process domes, faults and upfolds of earth with cores of salt (anticlines) were created. About 60-10 million years ago the deposition of rock slowed and erosion began. It is estimated that in the last 10 million years, erosion has stripped away more than 5000 vertical feet of rock.
Naming of the places in Arches NP has cultural and descriptive qualities. There are over 2000 windowed arches, towering spires,and precarious pinnacles to see on the 36-mile round-trip.
After the introductory video at the Visitors' Center we headed upward on the windy road. We stopped at the Courthouse Towers viewpoints, awed by the beauty of the formations.
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| The Three Gossips and Sheep Rock--do you agree with the names? |
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| What would you call this rock? Not the two people!!! |
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Continuing past the petrified dunes we came to Balanced Rock and the Double Arch and the North and South Window. Interestingly the last two can be seen from our campground, albeit VERY far away!
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| I don't want to be nearby when erosion finally fells Balanced Rock!! | |
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| A couple from Stuttgart Germany took Kathie and my photo in front of the North Window |
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| South Window looks like a giant hand to me!! |
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Wondering how much more wonder we could absobt, we continued driving to Delicate Arch. This Arch is reached by an easy route which we did. The Delicate Arch is shown on Utah's license plate and is one of the most photographed of the Arches.
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| This pix of the Delicate Arch is from the back side off the easy path. A more strenuous path leads to the frontal view seen on the Utah license plate. |
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Our next stop was at the Fiery Furnace, twisting maze of fin formations and canyons. One can only hike down to the canyons here with a guide because many have gotten lost in the maze and had to be rescued.
One of the early settlers in this area was a man named Wolfe whose initial home built half under ground with dirt floor is still visible, as is the later home which has a plank wood floor. It is very near Ute Rock Art dating to about 1200 AD. It amazed us how preserved it is. Rangers told us that the Utes would use limestone rocks to carve into dark rock which has manganese and bacteria which help to preserve it. None visible today have been "touched up".
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| Petroglyphs (rock art) near the Wolfe Ranch |
Our last stop at Devils Garden included a couple of hikes. Kathie and I hiked to Sand Dune Arch across very thick red sand. I kiddingly thought, "It took truckloads of sand to fill this place!"
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| The path to the Sand Dune Arch was through thick red sand. David elected not to go on this path which was very wise! The Arch is beyond these fins. |
The most strenuous hike we did was to Landscape Arch, the longest in the world at 290 feet wide.
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| It was a strenuous 1.6 mile round-trip which Kathie and I did on this "easy" trail to see the Landscape Arch. To the right of the arch can be see Double O Arch, too. David was VERY wise not to attempt this hike!!!! |
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