The Iconic Delicate Arch and bonus of Double Arch

We thought there were better arches than Delicate Arch... until we saw it in person.  Delicate Arch is depicted all over on businesses associated with Moab and Utah.  The Utah automobile plates even have the Delicate Arch image on them.  Now we understand why.  When we saw pretty much every other arch, they are all surrounded or encompassed by other rocks, which is nice.... but it detracts from the arch itself.  Not so with Delicate Arch.  Delicate Arch stands alone.  Alone in its perfect essence of itself as an Arch.  Not only does it stand starkly alone, it is placed in a natural theater.  It stands on its own raised pedestal, the ground around it sinking into a bowl, then rising again parabolically with seating for the mortal observer, as if in a natural theater.    We hope it translates in pictures for you.

An unidentified arch seen on the hike to Delicate Arch.

We arrived at the trail-head.  It was a fairly long hike because almost half of it was uphill.  It is a 3 mile round trip, but the elevation changes 500 feet along that route.  The going up takes a lot of energy, and the coming down is hard on the knees.  The hike starts out innocently enough with a nice paved path.  Do you see the tan color at the top?  That is an enormous rock that slopes up hill almost forever...

At the steepest point the park service carved nice steps into the rock.  It's a good thing that Steve has his walking stick today!

Keep on going, just 2 or 3 days to go.... up, up, and up, one step at a time.

 Parking Lot or Trail... hmmmm very tempting, our chance to go back....

This rock goes on forever... OK you get the idea.

Finally into some different and less uphill terrain.

Beautiful scenery along the way...

We follow the line of hikers around that ledge.  We can see the Buttonhole Arch from here, we must be getting close...

But wait, first a surprise along the way!  A little window arch... it looks like we could get up there for a closer look.

So Mountain Goat Steve climbs up, as Gari gets the evidence from below....

What does Steve see?  Oh my gosh, Delicate Arch!  It is magnificent!

Gari comes up, but it's too late, the crowd has seen what we have done and now everyone is coming up to this magical spot!  Gari retreats from the throng!

After a few minutes the excitement waned and we were able to get a Hero Shot of Gari in the little window arch.

Time to come down from the window and walk around the corner and see Delicate Arch up close.

Gari leans into the narrow ledge that you have to walk around to get to Delicate Arch.

It was a bit windy up there and a long way down!

We had a nice view of Buttonhole Arch across the canyon from the ledge path.  

Almost to the corner and the crowd backs up a bit.

Turn the corner and BOOM there is the Delicate Arch in all its glory!

Gari stands in front of Delicate Arch.

All alone and standing tall.

Steve stands under the arch and provides size perspective.

Steve stands back to get a side shot of the arch.

Side view.  That one leg does look a bit delicate.  The ground really drops away fast at the backside of the arch. 

Gari pauses by a weathered and interesting cedar on the trek back to the truck.  

Wait, just one last shot of Delicate Arch.... nothing but arch!

Next stop Double Arch.  We found a parking spot on the opposite side of the parking loop from the trail-head.  It is most always a challenge parking Pepé, because he measures in at 96" wide (with the mirrors folded in) and 22 ft long.  Not just any standard automobile parking spot will do.  No problem though, we like to walk, and we walked over the parking loop hill to the trail-head on a nice park constructed hiking path.

Gari pauses at the top of the loop trail.  The arch behind Gari looks small from here but believe me it was a big one up close.

This is a closer shot of Turret Arch, see the tiny people underneath?

OK back to the Double Arch trail; as soon as we started a nice local Mormon couple stopped us and insisted that they take a picture of the two of us together, so we let them.  Thank you nice people!

 The "Y" Cave seen along the path to the Double Arch.

Double Arch from a distance, frame left.  There is a rock that looks like a lion frame right.  We called that rock Mufasa after the Lion King.

 Close up of "Mufasa".

 Closer up on Double Arch.  What an incredible structure!

 Even closer, the sandstone stripes are magnificent!

There's a multi-layer structure to the front arch, we can see the gap.

There is Gari all under Double Arch.

One base of Double Arch is eroded into a large dish shape.  Amazing.

 Looking up into Double Arch.

How do these two arches connect?

Going farther around it looks like a giant kingpin in the joint.  Perfection.

Looking straight up at the front arch.

A parting shot of scenery on the way back to RV home.  Lots of new arch construction going on.

Arches National Park

We finally got into Arches!  We passed through Moab in mid-September last year, as we were heading south preparing to avoid the cold northern winter temperatures.  The cars were backed up at the only entrance to Arches National Park and all of the RV Parks in Moab were solid full.  So that time we rode right through and ended up staying 100 miles south of Moab and left Arches NP for the "next time".  Well, this is next time!  We were able to get only 4 days at the OK PV Park, and we drove into Arches 2 or 3 times often arriving at noon or later.  That worked out great as there was no wait at the entrance after the 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM rush.  The way Arches is set up, you just drive the only road in and there are pull offs and a few short off ramp roads that lead to overlooks and hiking trail-heads.  Even though there are a lot of cars and people entering Arches everyday, the spread out layout of the park pretty well eliminates any over crowding.

A preview into Arches National Park and two arches in formation that Gari spied. 

This is a cool little pictograph (painted) panel just outside Arches NP.  These figures are very tall and thin compared to other petroglyphs and pictographs we have seen.

A little closer...

We climbed up a couple hundred feet to see this panel.

You can see the highway crossing the Colorado River and going into Moab below.

We stopped at the Visitors Center to just see.  And what do you know, we spot PAY PHONES!!!

The better half...

Driving into the park and driving past some majestic rocks.

I called the three towers at the left, The Three Sisters, the official name is The Gossips.

We stopped here and just took a few pictures.  No hiking on this stop.

This is the petrified sand dunes below; the snow capped mountains in the back provide a dramatic backdrop.

Gari stands before Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, as she balances on her own rock!  The little rock nub at frame right was a smaller balanced rock named Chip-Off-the-Old-Block, but sadly it fell in the winter of 1975.  

Another side of Balanced Rock.

North Window Arch from a distance.

Here is it's partner, South Window Arch.

I think this is where Gari was telling Steve to get down from there...

A collection of petroglyphs...

A closer look; hunting or herding goats on horseback?  It looks like they may be using dogs as well...

This symbol was left way up high on the rock.

You can see the layers in the rock at Arches.  The older rock is on top, and the younger wetter rock pushed up from the bottom.  You can see how the younger rock moves and heaves.  This action helps to form the arches by causing stresses to build up in the older harder sandstone above it.

The rocks are also formed in layers so when a section cracks out it is a hole through the narrow rock and another arch has begun.

More examples of layered rock rows.

We drove all the way to the end of Arches road and parked at the Devil's Garden trail-head.  From here we plan to walk the couple miles to the Landscape Arch.

Gari pauses by a weathered log.

 Interesting rock points along the trail.

Steve pauses along the path.

There she is, Landscape Arch!  My that is a fragile looking thing!

Steve stands for a hero shot at Landscape Arch.

I can't imagine that thin section will hold up much longer... just amazing that it is there now.

A crevice to nowhere. 

 Full view of Landscape Arch.

Massive rock panels.

The Penguins (our name).

Next stop the iconic Delicate Arch and the magnificent Double Arch!