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Day 05 of 07. August 20, 2009

The Arches for us was the trip best highlights of Utah, they are the world well known exhibits of the creation. We started first of the day with the Delicate Arch, since we would need most of our energy to scale this trail, an uphill of 4800 ft on a 1 mile trail in the high 80s of broad sunlight of the southwest. From there on to the rest of the day depending on the how much left of energy we would spare our time and energy for other arch locations. Yet visiting the park in an one-day trip was not enough for any scale of its magnificence. As we were entering into the Arches National Park we got the feeling of going into the lost world of giant wonders, the human scale was insignificant in this giant Jurassic Park of rock formation.


____The Arch Geology___
from National Park Service

Arches National Park contains the world's largest concentration of natural stone arches. This National Park is a red, arid desert, punctuated with oddly eroded sandstone forms such as fins, pinnacles, spires, balanced rocks, and arches. The 73,000-acre region has over 2,000 of these "miracles of nature."

Water and ice, extreme temperatures, and under ground salt movement are responsible for the sculptured rock scenery of the National Arches. On clear, blue-sky days, it is difficult to imagine such violent forces�or the 100 mil years of erosion�that created this land boasting one of the worlds greatest densities of nature arches. Over 2,000 cataloged arches range in size from 3-foot opening, the minimum considered an arch, to the longest, Landscape Arch, measuring 306 feet base to base.

Today new arches are being formed and new ones destroyed. Erosion and weathering work slowly but relentlessly, creating dynamic landforms that gradually change through time. Change sometimes occurs more dramatically. In 1991 a rock slab 60 ft long, 11 ft wide, and 4 ft wide, and 4 ft thick fell from the underside of Landscape Arch, leaving behind an even thinner ribbon of rock. Delicate Arch, an isolated remnant of bygone fin, stands on the brink of a canyon, with dramatic La Sai Mtns as backdrop. Towering spires, pinnacles, and balanced rocks�perched atop seemingly inadequate bases�vie with the arches as scenic spectacle here.

American Indian used this areas for thousand of years. The Archaic peoples, and later ancestral Peubloan, Fremont, and Ute peoples searched the acrid desert for food animals, wild plant foods, for tools and weapons. They also left evidence of their passing on the few pictograph and petroglyph panels. The first non-Indian explorers came looking for wealth in mineral forms. Ranchers found wealth as grasses for cattle and sheep. Disable Civil War veteran John Wesley and his son Fred settled here in the late 1800s. A weathered log cabin, root cellar, and coral give evidence of the primitive ranch the operated for over 20 years. A visit to Wolf Ranch is a walk in the past, as featured in the Delicate Arch gallery.

__Main Points-of-Interest__

A 40-mile round-trip paved road in Arches National Park leads visitors to the major sights and hiking trails here are the major sections of the Park:

� Windows Section: including Balanced Rock, Skyline Arch, Double Arch, North Window Arch and South Window Arch.
� Fiery Furnace: a labyrinth through sandstone cliffs and monoliths.
� Devils Garden: including Landscape Arch, Double O Arch, and Dark Angel Arch.
� Delicate Arch: the park's most famous geologic feature

In this gallery I�d like to share a small collection of a full day trip in this area, a glimpse of many wonders within the park, yet full of awe and wonders as we experienced, as I stood at awe sometimes and watched the creation in magnificent scale.

Visit US National Park of the Arches
http://www.utah.com/nationalparks/arches.htm

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