CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME!!: SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPT 12 & 13

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPT 12 & 13:

Wow! Just Wow! The scenery in (and around) Arches is absolutely phenomenal.

Morning at our RV park:

The National Park:

The red rock sandstone formations, against a backdrop of mountains and desert vegetation, is just breathtaking. Of all of the places we've visited in the Southwest, it most closely reminded us of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. But on a much more massive scale. The National Park gets its name from the more than 2,000 sandstone arches within the Park's boundaries – the largest concentration of natural arches in the world. They range from a 3-foot opening (the minimum to be categorized as an arch) to the longest, Landscape Arch, measuring over 300 feet from base to base.

We walked several trails and stopped at more viewpoints along the main Park road. The heat really got to us – at least 95 both days. We tried to do most of our hiking in the cool of the morning, but it warmed up pretty quickly. And shade is at a premium in this desert environment. So we'd spend some time in the afternoons either back in the RV or at the Visistors Center.

But the hikes themselves – simply wonder-filled. On Saturday, we did Park Avenue. This is so named because the trail descends quickly and steeply into a spectacular canyon with tall rock walls, monoliths, and balanced rocks on both sides, reminding some of a city block lined with impressive, stately buildings.

This may have been our most awe-filled hike because of the sensational rock formations surrounding us.

The Three Gossips:

Courthouse Towers:

Ripples from an ancient sea in the sandstone beneath our feet:

It also turned out to be the most challenging of our hikes – it's only 2 miles round trip and rated moderate. But by the end, it seemed strenuous to us! We got a late start on this first day, underestimating the demands the intense heat of the day would make on our bodies. We also underestimated the amount of water we needed to bring. And, like hiking the Grand Canyon, you descend at the beginning of the hike and then have to walk uphill at the end, when you're far from fresh. So I was suffering from a little dehydration by the end, but Bill helped me rally, and within a few minutes of being back in the truck with the windows open, I'd fully recovered.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the A/C RV and grilled chicken for dinner on the community gas grill provided by the RV park. Then we drove back north past the National Park entrance onto a state highway for 20 miles to Dead Horse Point State Park. Once a month, this state park co-hosts with Arches and nearby Canyonlands National Park a Night Sky program. We hit the date just right! We were up about 2,000 feet higher than Moab, so the town's lights were pretty much filtered out. As it became darker & darker, the sky was incredible. Just blanketed with thousands of stars visible to our naked eye. And we could see the nebulous edge of the Milky Way. We just lay down on the blanket we brought and gazed up in amazement as the Rangers gave their interesting talks on astronomy, the constellations, etc. Neither of us could remember how long it'd been since we'd seen the night sky as it was created to be seen and experienced, without city light pollution. What a treat! Who knows if we'll ever have that awe-inspiring experience again in our lifetimes?! They also had telescopes for us to look in after the talks. We were a little disappointed in that – guess we were expecting too much. They had them focused on Saturn, and we definitely could see Saturn and at least one ring. But tiny.

On Sunday, we arrived in the Park considerably earlier.

Looking down at highway into Moab:

We drove straight to the Windows area, where Double Arch is located. We took the short hike there, and scrambled around on some rocks for better views. Just fantastic! We loved the time we spent there, perfect in the cool (relatively) of the early morning.

Especially enjoyable after all of the tour bus people left the area to re-board their bus! Will that be what folks are saying about us next year when we're the ones disgorging from the tour bus in Italy???

Then drove on up to the Delicate Arch area. Delicate Arch is the best known arch, and most photographed arch, in the National Park, and maybe in the world. There's a grueling 3-mile trail you can take right up to it, but it's strenuous and steep and has one section where you're exposed to heights with a sheer drop off. We decided it wasn't worth it for us. So we took the easier (and safer, at least in my mind) viewpoint trail, which only leads to a relatively long-distance look at the icon, but with a telephoto setting on the camera, we had a pretty good view.

Then drove up to the northern end of the Park, known as the Devils Garden area. Here we found a delightful place to picnic. A really shady respite, with lots of picnic tables scattered for privacy. The one we chose backed right up to a rock wall and alcove, which was very similar to what we'd seen both in Mesa Verde and Monument Valley. We're sure that Native Americans used this – we could see impressions in the rock for finger and toe holds climbing up to the alcove.

After a rest and cooling off at the Visitors Center, we drove back up to the Windows area. Here we joined a Ranger-led hike at 4:00. She led our small group to Turret Arch, where she knew there was a lot of shade we could all enjoy while she gave her program on the wildlife which live here and how they adapt to this harsh climate.

After the talk was over, we stayed and climbed over and through this arch to the other side to have better photographic light.

We had a good viewpoint of the North and South Windows from there.

Looking thru Turret Arch to South Window:

North Window:

South Window:

We had planned to do the 1-mile hike around the Windows, but this time it was Bill who was being affected by the heat – he just didn't think he could do it. So we drove to a couple of overlooks: Garden of Eden