Arches

 

Arches National Park can be a very busy place during most of the year.  Because of this, we got up for an early breakfast so that we could get to the park before the crowds.  The day was spent visiting many of the most popular arches.

North window.

South window.

Both windows.

Turret Arch.

Double arch.

Instead of doing the very strenuous hike up to the Delicate Arch, we viewed the arch from below.  (Delicate arch is on the license plates for Utah)  The first photo for this post is of the arch as seen from the top of the strenuous hike that I took on a previous trip.

Another very famous arch is the Landscape Arch.  It is anticipated that because of the very thin area on the arch, it will totally collapse sometime in the future. 

On the way to the next arch. Note the green! 

Pine Tree Arch.

Our guide Darrell playing dead on the ground.

What a full morning!  After having our box lunch, we hiked Park Avenue before leaving the park.

 

We finished up with a quick stop to view several rock art panels along the Colorado River north of Moab.  This area was clearly a gathering place for travelers.  The petroglyphs were located high up on the side of the rock walls.  How did they get there?  Darrell explained that there was undoubtedly a lot of scree piled up that was created over many years by falling rocks from above.  The rock artists stood on the scree.  Those piles are no longer there, either swept away by the river’s floods, or removed to create the road that goes along the river.  Here is a small sampling of the petroglyphs.

Also, a very rare depiction of a bear.

Colorado River across from the petroglyphs.