Amazing Arches!

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Sand. Golden sand and long wall-like fins of rock stretching everywhere your eyes can reach. Sparsely, small bushes and Juniper trees grow in the fine sand, calmly waiting for the rain which is rarely felt on their resistant leaves. A dry, harsh environment where only strong creatures were able to adapt their systems and habits in order to survive: lizards, ravens, kangaroo rats, small reptiles and to my surprise jack-rabbits and cottontails. The latter animals look so fragile with their light-coloured fur and long ears, large dark eyes and their pink nostrils sniffing in the air, but they can certainly dodge foxes, owls and eagles by doing quick turns as they rush through the bushes and into their dens. Rabbits welcomed me to this awesome desert.

As you drive through Park Avenue you are greeted by Three Gossips, Sheep Rock, The Organ, the Courthouse Towers and Rock Pinnacles. Then your eyes start to make out natural arches on the cliffs, near the ground on the rock faces, up on the cliff edges. You are soon embarking on a quest to see more arches, to find them along the trails, to exhaust your legs and suppress your thirst after your water has finished to get to yet another majestic arch in this desert. All tremendously worthwhile!

This is an enchanted desert. Water and ice, extreme temperatures and underground salt movement are responsible for the sculptured rock scenery of Arches National Park. 100 million years of erosion created this land boasting one of the world's greatest densities of natural arches. Truly, a precious gem!

It's a wonderful experience to walk in the desert searching for arches; the longer and more tiresome the trail, the sweetest seems to be the reward of looking at an arch, walking underneath it, climbing the rocks surrounding it to view it from a different angle.

I am going to forever store in my memory the images of the fragile, long Landscape Arch; the delightful Partition Arch; the impressive Double Arch; the mighty Skyline Arch; the surprising Broken Arch; the blank eyes of North and South Windows; the majestic, lonely Delicate Arch... Their strong presence, the historical statement they make, their witnessing of dramatic natural events certainly surround them with a magical aura. I feel deeply touched, immensely privileged and so very grateful I was there, I can hardly contain my tears. This trip is making me so emotional!

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Photos

Double O Arch
Can you make out Stefan standing by the smaller, lower arch?

Devil's Garden Fins and Black Arch
Black Arch is seen on the far left side of the picture; the other dark spots are shades from the fins.

North and South Windows
Like a Venetian mask

Comments

[Teresa]

Working hard
You are working hard on this blog, friend! Lots of entries! They all look great, love all the information you add about each place. You got in Canada just in time for Canada day, right?

[John]

Cove of caves
These arches are all really bizarre again aren't they? Very strange. I like the cove of caves picture. They look very cosy and cool!