Day 3 of 2020 Utah Trip, Arches National Park

Third day of my Utah trip. I would finally be in one of Utah’s “mighty five” National Parks. I would be driving from Green River to Moab, and spend the majority of the day in Arches National Park.

Double Rainbow over Delicate Arch

I chose to spend the previous night in the town of Green River, about an hour away from Moab, the gateway town to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
The hotel I stayed in Green River was 44 dollar per night, taxes included and before hotels.com reward/cashback. The minimum nightly rate for Moab was 100+ for the season. That is, I caught some hotels napping when Moab announced reopening dates for the national parks, and booked three nights for less than 200 dollars before they adjusted prices to proper levels.

Floy

After leaving Green River, I followed Interstate 70 to a place called “Floy”, which was the intersection of Interstate 70 with Old Highway 6&50. There were some mesas not too far away to the North, so I thought it’s a good spot to play around with my drone, since for the rest of the day national parks were no-drone zones.

 
 
Mesa

Apart from a few off-roaders in ATVs, the area’s pretty desolate.

Distant Mountains

Mesas along Interstate 70 near Floy, Utah

Old Highway 6
Abandoned and no longer maintained.

 

Interstate 70

Railroad

Valley

 
Creek
Only along which patches of trees could survive.

Interstate 70 near Floy, Utah

And here’s my drone footage:

 
Country Road

Once off the interstate, US Route 191 fitted all the stereotypes of country roads in the heart of American deserts: long, straight, flat, and seemingly endless. It’s probably a good opportunity for some meditation, if one didn’t have to navigate among the traffic (which was quite considerable given the city of Moab had only recently opened up). I only started to run into these beautiful cliffs on the outskirt of Moab.

Arches National Park

Finally, the star of the day. Arches National Park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world, with more than 2000 of them scattered across the park.

Because of COVID, during the first few days of reopening Arches and Canyonlands National Parks waived entrance fees.

Roadside Turnouts

I made a few stops along the way before reaching the Windows area.

Moab Fault

This one’s not too far from the entrance as the park road wound its way up the mountain. The valley Route 191 passed through was made of two crust layers cracking into each other.

Moab Fault

The fault line runs parallel to the highway. Layers of the rock on the west/left side were 800 meters higher than the east/right side.

 
Entrada Sandstone Layer

Park Avenue Roadside

This is a nameless roadside turnout as the park road made its way around Park Avenue, a series of soaring rock slabs.

The Organ

Three Gossips

“Three Gossips” were certainly the most distinctively shaped rocks catching people’s attention not far from the park’s entrance. I just wasn’t too sure about using “gossip”, a derogatory word, to name rocks. From where I was born, “Three Sisters” would definitely be a more appropriate name for these rocks.

Bird

 
Rocks of Park Avenue

Cemented Sand Dunes

 
Rocks along Road

Cemented Sand Dones

The area was once covered by sand dunes. Over time, sand was covered by other layers of sediments, compressed and cemented into Navajo Sandstone. Erosion has since washed away the overlying layers, exposing the cemented dunes.

La Sal Mountains

Distant Rocks of Elephant Butte
Where I was heading next.

Windows Area

One of three clusters of attractions in the park (the other two being Delicate Arch and Devils Garden).

Double Arch

Located just 400 meters from the parking lot was “Double Arch”, the first set of arches that I visited for the day. It’s so named because the two arches share the same stone as the foundation for their legs. It’s formed by downward water erosion from atop the sandstone.

 
Rocks

Double Arch

 
 
Arch

The final stretch to Double Arch was steep and involved (non-technical) climbing. After which one was rewarded with this view:

View from Double Arch

On the spot I realized that I left my 20mm lens in the car. So I stitched together multiple shots at 24mm to make this photo.

Rocks across Parking Lot

Arch

Double Arch

Cairns

 
Dead Tree

 
Rocks

Parade of Elephants
On the side of the trail opposite to Double Arch.

I was having a hard time making sense of the name “Parade of Elephants”. To me these rocks didn’t look like elephants at all.

North/South Window

It’s so named because both windows were openings in the same sandstone fin, like this viewed from Turret Arch:

North and South Windows

The area had a series of developed and well-maintained trails. One could also take a primitive trail (actually not primitive at all, compared with other trails I hiked in the park) to make a loop back to the parking lot. This way one could also view the other (eastern) side of the two windows.

(Two Sides of) North Window

 
Fields

I visited Turret Arch first. Some say it’s so named because the rocks were more like a castle compared with the Windows. I was more skeptical as the arches weren’t located at the “turret” part.

(Two Sides of) Turret Arch

 
Rocks

(Two Sides of) South Window

North and South Windows

Along the not-so-primitive trail back, I was greeted with more sceneries, like this forest of rocks or distant canyons.

 
Rocks

 
Distant Buttes

Canyon Landscape

By alltrails, there was an unmarked trail leading to Ribbon Arch, which was another long and thin arch, like the more famous Landscape Arch (probably not as magnificent). So I decided to pay it a visit.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t network coverage in the park, and I didn’t prepare offline maps in advance. The trail’s not traveled by a lot of people, so it’s easy to get lost of it, that included me this time.

Rocks
I should have circled around this rock along the right side to Ribbon Arch, but I didn’t.

 
Rocks

The trail to Ribbon Arch passed through some steep sections, for which hands were occasionally used.
As a result, I ended up at this Christmas Tree Arch, the name of which wasn’t on most maps.

Christmas Tree Arch
When looked at the right angle, the opening would resemble a Christmas tree.

While it’s a hot summer day in the deserts, wind was blowing strongly if one stayed near gaps in rocks, like the arch above. I enjoyed the breeze for some time before heading back to the parking lot.

 
Wall of Rocks
The trail to Ribbon Arch follows the foot of these rocks.

 
Rocks

Garden of Eden

On my way out of the Windows area, I stopped at Garden of Eden, which was another cluster of rocks at the other end of Elephant Butte. Again, I have no clue why the region’s given this name.

 

Garden of Eden

Ham Rock

The area didn’t have any famous arches. But it offered unobstructed views of distant landscapes in the park, the openness of which was truly awesome.

Landscape
Distant Fiery Furnace area.

 
Garden of Eden

Distant Buttes

Salt Valley

Formed by the evaporation of ancient oceans, the salt became thousands of feet deep and buried by sand, silt and other sediments. Under pressure, the less dense salt rose into a dome, partly dissolved, and then collapsed, creating this Salt Valley.

The area offered more of open hiking than established trails. I was eager to get to the city of Moab for lunch, so I didn’t venture far from the parking lot.

 
Rocks

 
Valley and Canyons
Photo on the right taken at Panorama Point later in the afternoon.

Serpentine Arch

After that, I drove back to the city of Moab, taking what’s effectively a mid-day break.
Visiting at the beginning of June when daylight hours were long, I thought the ideal way of touring the Moab area was to head out early and late in the day when temperature was cooler, and get back to hotel to spend the hottest hours of the day with air-conditioning and napping, and maybe lunch. The only disadvantage was that, despite seemingly close on the maps, the drive from the heart of Arches/Canyonlands National Park to the city of Moab often took around an hour. Since this was my first day in the Moab area, I also used this opportunity to finish checking into my hotel room.

So a lunch and nap later, I left the hotel at 5pm, headed for a second time of the day into Arches National Park.

Park Avenue

Located near the entrance of the park, the region with its clusters of walls and fins were reminiscent of skyscrapers lining a big city’s streets, and thus was named “Park Avenue”.

There’s a 1.4km one-way trail leading from Park Avenue Trailhead to Courthouse Towers Overlook, with parking lots on both sides. If there are two or more drivers in the group I would highly recommend splitting the group and hiking this trail. But since I was on my own and I didn’t want to take the out-and-back trip doubling the distance, I just snapped a few photos at the viewpoint.

Park Avenue

 
Rocks

Rocks

Looks like someone giving a speech behind a lectern. In line with how the park named various rocks (three gossips), I will call this set of rocks “a dictator”.

Layered Rocks

The bottom muddy-looking “Dewey Bridge Member” layer was the oldest and weaker than the layers above, aiding arch formation.

Courthouse Towers

Then I arrived at Courthouse Towers Overlook, which was the end of Park Avenue Trail.

Baby Arch and Sheep Rock
It’s assumed that two possible arches were connecting Baby Arch on the left, and Sheep rock on the right.

Tower of Babel

 
Park Avenue from Below

The Organ

Panorama Point

On my way to Delicate Arch, I stopped at Panorama Point, which was a big roadside turnout with a picnic area. As its name suggested, it did offer all-round views. But somehow, I felt the views at Garden of Eden earlier today, despite not being 360-degree, were better and more diverse.

 

Elephant Butte and Ham Rock

Delicate Arch

A most-recognized free-standing arch, a unique geologic feature, crown jewel of the park, background of Utah’s license plate.

It’s a 5km roundtrip trail to see the arch up close, which was popular at sunset. The trail condition was probably the best in the park. Probably due to COVID, during my visit the trailhead parking lot was less than a-third full.
Here’s GPS tracking:

Right next to the trailhead was Wolfe Ranch, remnants of someone that settled here more than a century ago.

Wolfe Ranch

Civil War veteran John Wesley Wolf settled here in the late 1800s from Ohio, looking for a drier climate for his leg injury. He built a farm of more than 100 acres along Salt Wash. The current cabin was built in 1906.

After that, the first part of the trail was through shallow bushes onto a slickrock. The segment’s well maintained.

 
 
Landscape

Once on the slickrock it’s pretty much find-your-own-way, as long as it’s going in the right direction. Toward the end of the slickrock, there were some markers and cairns guiding the way. (Despite which I still lost the trail once.)

 
Rocks with Holes from Erosion

Small Arch
Closer to the end of the trail, a sneak peek of what’s ahead.

And finally, the arch that everyone anticipated for.

Delicate Arch

Basin across Delicate Arch

Butte in Valley

Delicate Arch

Bird

 
Delicate Arch

I found myself visiting in a most fortunate time, as some impending distant storm was leaving lots of water droplets in the air, creating a rainbow behind the arch.

 
Rainbow over Delicate Arch

A few minutes later the entire crowd lit up, as a second rainbow was forming outside the first one.

Double Rainbow over Delicate Arch

For a very brief moment, a third rainbow faintly formed outside the second one. The storm that gave birth to the rainbows also moved our way, bringing gale and raindrops. The circumstances just didn’t allow me to use my camera, so there weren’t any photos of that.
But anyway, double rainbows over Delicate Arch was nonetheless a sight to behold.

I waited until the storm and rainbows had passed, before heading back to the parking lot.

 
Landscape

NPS Box

A few people, me included, were intrigued by this box as its functionality wasn’t very clear. Despite it said “Trail Counter” on its exterior, there didn’t seem to be any camera or sensor on the surface of this box.

On the way back I made a small detour, paying Ute Indian petroglyphs a visit.

Ute Rock Art
Carved between AD 1650 and 1850.

South Window from Delicate Arch Trail
North Window was blocked by some rocks.

It was getting dark by the time I got back to Delicate Arch parking lot, so I headed my way out of the park. On the way back, I stopped at another roadside turnout overlooking Salt Valley, and for a moment admired the fiery clouds beyond the horizon, and the wonderful landscape underneath it.

Roadside Turnout by Salt Valley

Distant Fiery Furnace
The name’s sort of appropriate with sunset glow lighting up the skies above.

 
Landscape in Sunset Glow

Sunset Glow over Salt Valley

After that I drove back to the hotel, and called it a day.

END

Day 3 of 2020 Utah Trip, Arches National Park by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.