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Moab itself is a cool little town; one of those that doesn't allow walmart or mcdonalds to move in. It's also filled with offroading jeeps, mountain bikers, and students from a University of Utah branch. Arches is about 2 miles from town, so we camped in Moab and drove up to Arches every day. We hiked in the park for 2 1/2 days, a total of 14.5 miles. The weather was beautiful, but hot! It was about 97 degrees midday. whew!
And now, your geology lesson. Feel free to scan down to other paragraphs if you're not interested in how these amazing arches came to be, and what qualifies as an arch. First, the park lies atop a giant underground salt bed that was created 300 million years ago by a sea that flowed into the Colorado Plateau and eventually evaporated. Over the next millions of years, floods, winds, and oceans brought in residue that blanketed the salt bed and compressed as rock. Faults in the earth shifted and displaced the rock as the pressure atop the salt bed pushed it outwards. Over more time, erosion, water seeping into cracks and freezing, and wind caused rock to break off,
strip off, or collaspe. This left a series of free standing fins of rock. Wind and water then cause more chunks of rock to tumbled off of the exposed pieces, leaving the hardest and most balanced pieces to form arches and potholes. This is what is there today. Basically, what you see now is two different layers of rock exposed above ground. The bottom layer of the two is softer, and pieces of "sand" will actually rub off if you rub your hand on it. The layer above is a little more stable and doesn't erode as quickly. So, as the bottom layer erodes, the top layer stays, and you get an arch.
There are over 2,000 cataloged arches in the park, ranging from the minimum requirement of a three-foot openeing to the longest, which is Landscape Arch (306 feet base to base). An arch also can't be a "bridge" (caused by flowing water underneath), a leaning piece of rock, or two different pieces of rock jointed together from falling into each other.
So, check out the pictures! On the first day we hiked Devils Garden, a 7.2 mile hike over around and through the rocks. Some of
the way to the more popular arches was tourist friendly gravel path, but most of it was "primitive trail"...which meant scrambling up and down some of the slickrock fins, as well as marching through desert. In order, we saw Wall Arch, Landscape Arch, Navajo and Partition Arch, Double O Arch, and Dark Angel rock. Paul climbed up on top of Double O Arch (see photos) and looks like he's on top of the world. He also met our second snake of the trip! This one was a bit bigger...about 6 1/2 feet...and was either a Midget Faded Rattlesnake or something that starts with a B, i think. We're taking a ranger's word for it after we showed him the pictures.
Following the trails was fun, because in a lot of places, like on the slickrock, you can't see any footprints so you have to pay attention to which way to go. The trail at these points is marked by rock cairns, or little stacks of rocks. pretty nifty idea!
The next day we hiked 4.8 miles to see Double Arch and the North and South Windows, as well as the strenuous uphill hike to Delicate Arch to watch
the sunset. This is one of the most famous; check out the pictures, you might recognize it.
On the last day we checked out of our campsite and did a morning guided ranger tour of the Fiery Furnace, which you aren't allowed to hike on your own without a backcountry pass. This is probably because it's a labyrinth inside, and thankfully it isn't named Fiery Furnace due to its heat. It was actually about 10 degrees cooler in there than in the rest of the park. Its name actually comse from the color of the rocks at sunset. On this hike we learned all about the animals that live in the park, the trees and flowers, and a lot more about the formation process. Our ranger guy drew in teh sand and used all kinds of foam and chart visual aids that made everything very clear. I apologize for my lack of sand drawings in my explanation, but it'll have to do 😊. The hike itself was a blast. We were with a group of retirees who were on a national park adventure together. Watching and helping them scramble through and over the crevices was fun...especially because we had
to scramble and climb through too. There were about 4 arches that we saw, which were impressive in that they were always a surprise around a corner, through a tunnel and past some fallen rocks. Also, Danielle made a new friend on the hike. There was a family of dad, pregnant mom, and 6 year old daughter Madeline, who silently decided in the parking lot before the 3 1/2 hour hike that she was going to hike with me instead of her parents. I had a cute little matter-of-fact smarty-pants shadow who loved everything the rangers was teaching and loved to try and inpress me with her traversing skills. It was adorable. Her parents were awesome too; we were all trying to figure out who had the best snacks in order to try and lure her back to them at the end of the hike, haha! 😊 Enjoy all the pictures. This was deifinitely the favorite park so far!
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Linda
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Been there...
Finally one place on your road trip that I've actually been to before! I'm glad u guys are having so much fun!!! It seems like u guys are enjoying every minute of it! :) Drive safe, ok? Love ya!