Arches National Park

I woke up early to get to Arches National Park before it got too hot. In fact, I passed by many of the view points so I could get to Devils Garden Trailhead for some hiking. This looked like a good place to hike out to some arches, and it was. The trail led to five arches, including Landscape Arch, which you see in the photo above with me. This arch had a major chunk fall off in 1991 and you can no longer hike underneath it. For the return trip, it was suggested to take the primitive trail, so I did. The trail was both fun and strenuous. If it weren't for the trail makers along the way (stacked rocks), it would have been impossible to follow. There were a few points where I wasn't sure how to get across the sandstone surfaces, and at one point I had to climb down like an upside down crab. I actually ran out of water on this hike and was glad to see the main trail back to the parking lot.

While on my walk to view Delicate Arch, I snapped a photo of this landscape that had a blue color to it. I thought the red, yellow, green and blue made for a nice photo.

On the way back out, I stopped at the places I passed by earlier, including the trail to Delicate Arch. I wish I hadn't been so tired from hiking, because this is the most famous arch in the park. The trail to the arch was 1.6 miles and I didn't think I could make it. So I opted for an easier hike that had a view of the arch. I had too zoom in to get this photo, but you get an idea of how big the arch is with the man standing underneath it.

I tried to take photos of each arch so that you can see what is on the other side. This is one of the better pictures I took. I used Photoshop to equalize the light and dark parts to enhance the image, but that's about how it looked to me.

I arrived at 8AM and left the park close to 3 PM. I think I got my monies worth and saw all I wanted to see. There are over 2000 arches in the park, and I saw almost 20 of them. Back at the visitors center, I watched the 15 minute orientation movie, which was filmed by the Discovery Channel. It explained the history of the park and how the arches form, plus the theatre was cool and the seats soft. After a short rest at the hotel, and this blog post, I'm ready for another big dinner.