Arches NP, Sept. 11, 2020

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
Arches is a famous national park (see Utah license plate) with a relatively small footprint, so far from a wilderness experience. Richard and I drove there from Aspen for an afternoon in April 2011, and this time Liz and I drove from Eagle and arrived 1:30PM, only to find the road chained as the park was at capacity.

Rather than sit around and wait we drove up to Dead Horse Point. When we got down at 3:30 the Arches road was open.

Our first stop was Balancing Rock.
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Its appearance varies depending upon which side you're viewing.

From here we have a distance view of coming attractions.
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For this early in September the weather was a pleasant 75F or so, still cooler than normal in the wake of that unseasonable storm Sept. 7-8, which snowed in the La Sal mountains framing the background.

The Three Gossips:
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There are several convenient arches at the next stop. Double Arch:
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Liz climbed up to one of them.
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On the other side of the parking we walked to Turret Arch.
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More people were hiking around North and South Window Arches.
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Here we both are at North Window.
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By this time we were running late on both time and car charge, so we decided to make just one more stop for the 1.5 mile hike to Delicate Arch. Hike across the slick rock:
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Liz is on the trail on a wide ledge cut into the rock.
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We did not climb up to that arch.

Delicate Arch just before sunset is a popular place.
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There was a line of 15-20 people to get a picture directly under the arch. We managed these alternatives.
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It was past sunset when we got back to the car and a very slow drive into Moab with traffic and construction. We had 5 miles left at Moab's supercharger. It was after 9PM by the time we started dinner at the excellent Thai Bella a couple of blocks away and almost 11PM when we got to our motel in Green River.
 
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