Arches National Park

September 13-  If you ever have the opportunity to drive to Arches National Park from the north or east, you will see lots of signs directing you to Rt. 191.  Don't take it.  Instead, opt for the scenic route 128, a little closer to the Colorado border than is 191.  This route takes you through the Colorado River Recreation Area, so it follows the river the entire way, driving through cliffs of red rock.  Just spectacular, and this is just the drive to the spectacular Arches! 

With so many photo ops, we arrived in Moab somewhat later than planned.  We were starving, so stopped for lunch before going into the park.  Back several years ago, we had visited this park and really liked it.  We had not intended to stop here again, but we would be passing right by here on our way to Bryce. 

Our first stop was the Visitor Center to ask about possible hikes. Not sure why we never saw the film about this park the last visit, but we hadn't, so took a few minutes to do that.  I am not sure who does these films, but they are always really well done and very informative.  This one was no exception.  This dramatic scenery was created by over 100 million years of erosion, water, ice, extreme temperatures and underground salt movement.  New features are being formed as old ones are destroyed.  Most of this change occurs slowly, but sometimes it occurs more dramatically- as in 1961 when a slab of rock 60 feet long, 11 feet wide and 4 feet thick fell from the underside of Landscape Arch, one of the longest arch features in the park.  It is now fenced in to protect tourists from being crushed.  We walked into this arch several years ago, a relatively easy hike, and certainly worth it.  There are lots of varied hikes here, from very easy to difficult. 

There were several hikes to different arches on our list when we left the center.  North and South Windows, an easy hike that attracted LOTS of folks, Turret Arch, then across the parking lot to walk into Double Arch- a dramatic arch that we had not seen on our last visit.  We drove out to Sand Arch, which is interesting in that you walk through fins- vertical slabs of rock- through red sand to reach the small arch.  We had thought to walk out to Broken Arch as our last of the day, but called it quits after Sand Arch.  It had been a long day but a great one!  Tomorrow we plan to drive to Cedar City, our base for going into Bryce.