More Arches NP

Hi Everyone,

On Monday, Oct.28th  Courtney and Chris left to drive back to Salt Lake City where they were planning to visit with Chris' parents before flying back to Rochester. We met Chris' step-sister  Cas for lunch in Moab to thank her for her efforts in finding us a house to stay in. We really appreciate her kindness and very much enjoyed meeting her.

The weather had turned very cold (28 degrees) in the afternoon so we went back to our house and did some long-range planning for Susie's visit, instead of hiking in the cold.

On Monday, Oct. 29th we woke up to find snow on the mountaintops around Spanish Valley where we are staying. It was freezing outside in the morning so Mom and Dad waited until the afternoon to go exploring in Arches NP. They drove to the end of the park road, at the "Devil's Garden" trailhead. 

The trail leads out into the desert, a vast wasteland of sandstone monoliths and Hoodoos of varying sizes. The vastness is hard to imagine, even from these photographs, unless one actually experiences it from the trial.

The trail passes through salmon-colored Estrada Sandstone and buff-colored Navajo Sandstone fins as it gains elevation and takes hikers up into the area where the arches have formed over time due to freezing, thawing, and erosion of the rock. 

Here is Mom, then Dad as they hiked up the well-worn path through the fins caused by water seeping into cracks, joints, and folds in the rock surface, and then freezing which expanded the surface causing bits and pieces to fall off. Wind later cleaned off the loose particles leaving a series of free-standing fins, sometimes hundreds of feet high.

Their reward was to find the second most photographed arch in the park, "Landscape Arch", which is much bigger and some say grander than Delicate Arch. It is wider than three football fields and much higher as well.

A little further along, the trail was much more primitive and a great deal more challenging to the hikers as it rose steeply up a partially collapsed sandstone fin, leading to the next arch.

Partition Arch is much smaller than Landscape Arch but requires more exertion and energy to get to it. Yes, those are people standing inside the arch again! They are not supposed to be there, but they do it anyway.

There were many interesting formations along the trail to see for the first time, as my human parents hiked up to the aches and back down.

Tomorrow the outside temperature is not going above 35 degrees, so I'm not sure if we will be doing any exploring in the cold 😒.

Arches NP - Day 2

Hello Everyone,

On Sunday, Oct. 27th Chris stayed home with me since I can't go on hikes in the national park with everyone. 

Dad and Mom and Courtney all went to Arches NP and stopped at the"Park Avenue" trail to take a hike. The stone monoliths along the valley resemble the skyscrapers of New York City, that is how it was named. The hiking trail runs along the valley floor for about a mile, ending in a dry wash that runs through a culvert under the main park road at its end.

Along the trail, there is a unique balanced rock several hundred feet above those who dare to walk beneath it. The sky darkened as it grew cloudy and the temperature began to drop quickly while they were there hiking.

This feature is called "The Three Gossips" since it resembles three medieval dressed women conversing by the side of the road.

 Mom and Dad took turns taking pictures with Courtney as they neared the end of the dry wash.

Courtney took a rare picture of our parents together in the same setting. It looks like they at least like each other.

In the afternoon in spite of the threatening weather and the drop in temperature, all four of them left me home and went back to the park with the intent of scaling the steep hiking trail up to the premiere attraction of the park, "Delicate Arch".  The arduous trail ascends a bare rock face mountain, up to a cliff and around a ledge barely wide enough to navigate on a good day. It was very windy and cold on that Sunday and the drop-off of over one hundred feet with no guard railings of any kind. 

This forced Dad to turn back because of his aversion to heights, in spite of him leading the pack to the top.

This is the path along the cliff edge, barely three feet wide, and hundreds of feet down.

The view from the top was spectacular, especially the arch.

 Delicate Arch, perched on the edge of a sheer cliff, is among the most photographed and easily identifiable attractions in the National Park system.

Courtney was freezing because the sun was nearly down but posed for a picture, and later Mom took another with her husband Chris. They were planning to stay up there to get some photographs of the sun-set and the Milkyway after dark. 

As the sun began to set it grew dark very quickly.  But it was too cloudy to get good pictures and too cold to stay up on the top of the mountain for very long.

Dad and Mom left as soon as it started to get dark, ahead of Chris and Courtney, because they felt uncomfortable descending the trail on the slick rock in the dark.

Fortunately, everyone had headlamps so they were able to navigate the steep trail in the dark without any mishaps, along with some other small groups. Below is a picture my Mom took of the last groups to reach the bottom, with Chris and Courtney among them. As you can see it was pitch black.

Tomorrow Courtney and Chris are going back to Salt Lake City to visit with Chris' parents who live in Park City, before returning home, but in the afternoon we will explore some more of Arches National Park😀.

Arches National Park

Hi Everyone,

On Saturday, Oct. 26th we drove up to Arches National Park, just a few short miles outside of Moab UT, where we are staying for a month.

 Our first stop was at "Double Arch" a magnificent arch with two windows in the same arch.

Yes, those are people standing inside of the arch, giving you some perspective of how huge this sandstone arch really is.

This is the back "window" of the double arch, more than 100-feet high and more than 150-feet wide. Several people climbed up into the opening which drops off more than 200-feet on the other side. They seemed pretty nervous up there and only stayed long enough for their friends to get a picture, then came down quickly.

Dad took a picture of Mom and Courtney near the opening to the back window. They were wise enough not to go up into the window and chance falling, unlike some other people.

Just outside of the double arch is another attraction called 'the Elephant". Do you see the resemblance?

Later that day I stayed home to take a nap while everyone else drove further into the park to do some hiking up near the "Windows" arches. Dogs, even cute puppies like me, are not allowed on the trails in Arches NP. These twin arches are equally as huge as the double arch.  They are situated side by side in a sandstone wall and appropriately named the "North Window" and the "South Window." If you look closely, you will see people in these arches as well.

The last arch we explored was "Turret Arch". This one faced directly West so we stayed long enough to watch the sun go down behind it. Then Mom and Chris took some Milkyway pictures through it once it became full dark. There will be some pictures of that later on.

Chris drove everybody home in the dark, and I was very pleased to see them all safely at home, even though they were out past their curfew.

Tomorrow we are going back to Arches NP to explore some more😊.

On to Moab

Hello Everyone,

On Wednesday, Oct. 23rd we left Blanding, UT behind, and drove 60 miles North to Moab, UT. On the way, we had to dodge four road construction sites, all of which forced us to wait because the road (Route 191) was down to one lane. In one place the road construction crew were blasting through a mountain to widen the road. I had fun watching all of the great big machine working by the side of the road.

When we got to our new house in Spanish Valley, just south of Moab, Utah, and finished unpacking, we decided to take a walk, then do some grocery shopping. My "kid" (Courtney) and her husband Chris are coming to visit and stay a few days with us tomorrow so we have to get ready for them.

So we went into Moab to visit the local visitor's center and seek some advice about hiking trails in the area. Then we left to search for the paved municipal walking trail along the creek in the center of town and found it right where the visitor's center told us to look. After a short walk, we went to the grocery store and brought home a whole bunch of groceries.

On Thursday, Oct. 24th we decided to take a hike not far from our house on the Hidden Valley Trail. We hiked about half-way to the top of the mountain (an 860-foot verticle rise), scambling up rocky rubble, but decided to turn around and try it another day when we had proper gear (hiking boots and hiking poles). We were only wearing sneakers and were trying to avoid hurting ourselves on such steep and treacherous terrain.

The view of Spanish Valley from up there was worth the trek up through the loose rocks. Our house is right about in the middle of the valley. You can barely make out the houses in the community we are staying in from the half-way point where we were.

Courtney and Chris flew into Salt Lake City, rented a car, and drove down to Moab, arriving shortly before sundown. They went out with my parents to dinner at a local Tai restaurant, while I stayed home to rest.

On Friday, Oct. 25th we all got up very early ( 5:00 AM) to see the sunrise through "Mesa Arch" in Canyonlands National Park. It is one of the most popular things to do in Canyonlands, so there were many people there to get a glimpse of the sun as it rose over the cliffs and shown through the arch.

 The view through the arch is spectacular to behold, and many people wait hours in the dark to get a chance to see the sunrise through it.

After the sun came up we drove out of the national park and went to a state park nearby. Dead Horse Point State Park has a unique history and some of the most spectacular views of the "Island in the Sky" section of Canyonlands National Park.

There are three sections to Canyonlands National Park, a vast complex canyon formed by the convergence of the Colorado River and the Green River. Parts of it are so remote that only very high clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles can access the area, and then only during the summer months if there is not too much rain. There are parts of the park that access is denied without a special permit and an experienced guide to take you through.

My kid (Courtney) got a rare photograph of Mom and Dad resting on a stone bench along the "Rim Trail" overlooking the canyon from Dead Horse Point State Park. It was cold there (only 28 degrees) so they were snuggling close. 

I was there with them, but I was being camera shy and hiding down there by their legs when this picture was taken.

That is Canyonlands National Park in the far distance. We all had a fun time in the state park, but it was cold and windy, so we quickly explored the main trails and overlooks, but didn't stay very long..

Tomorrow we are planning to explore Arches National Park and maybe do some more exploring in Canyonlands too😃.

Goodbye To Blanding

Hi Everyone,

On Tuesday, Oct. 22nd we drove 50 miles North to Wilson's Arch, half-way between Moab and Monticello, Utah. It was a beautiful sunny day but cold, in the mid-'30s. 

The arch is right along the side of Route 191 and an easy, but strenuous climb to the top.  The arch is named after a prospector named Joe Wilson who lived there in the 1800s. The arch is 46 feet high and 91 feet wide.

Then we drove another 30 miles to another unique place called "Newspaper Rock", very near the southern entrance to Canyonlands National Park. 

This petroglyph panel is one of the best-preserved panels around because of a large overhang that protects it from most of the damaging sunlight and the other elements that erode such artifacts. There are literally hundreds of Petroglyphs on the panel. Some are estimated to 3000 years old, some are much newer.

A bighorn sheep and some deer, maybe trophies from a successful hunt?

I'm not sure why there are feet with six toes?  Maybe aliens visited them 3000 years ago? 

This is obviously an elk with a rather large rack. Maybe a hunting trophy?

A bighorn sheep and maybe a wild bull? 

We drove back to Blanding and repacked everything for our trip to Moab, Utah tomorrow.

We will be staying there for a whole month because there are numerous places to explore and many things to do there, including five big national parks within driving distance of  Moab😀.