Trips of Utah: Come beneath the rocks and pass through!

Day one (continued):  Arches National Park, UT

Soon after our lunch at the Canyon-lands, we headed towards 191, to our next destination for the day - Arches National Park. We reached at around 3:00 PM, which left us around 6 hours till the sunset. The Sunset hike till the Delicate Arch was pre-planned, so we first confirmed at the visitor center what the best time was to be at delicate arch that evening. The ranger suggested to be there at around 8:15 PM, that is half an hour before sunset. An hour of hike (1.5 mile one way, uphill) would give us time till 7:15 PM for covering rest of the park. We planned rest of our hours to fit into this.

The heat was now almost nearing 3 digits which made us clear a quart of water every half an hour.The first stretch from the visitor center into the park is uphill. With the crowded vehicles, it takes half an hour get into the first viewpoint! So don't be surprised if the park map shows you an hour to 2 hour drive towards every point in the park from the Visitor Center. It is this steep uphill drive adding up hours to most of it. The drive time within the parks points are within half an hour drive.

The Windows Loop Trail

On our way towards the Windows section, we stopped by for a snap at Courthouse tower point and the balanced rock.  Turning right in the first intersection of the park, we headed towards the Windows. The first one along a mile long Windows trail loop is the North Window, but the turret arch was also at a visible distance at right. I quickly crossed over the North Window hoping to take a ‘Window inside a Window’ shot, but as I headed further, I realized it was a tough task for me. Heading from the North window, along the trail, we reached South Window, pretty similar in structure to the North one. Nice place to have a break, as there are shadows of rocks that might help you  relax a bit. 

The loop further led us near the Turret Arch, from where we could see both North and South Windows at one glance.

Through North Window

Just across the parking lot was a short quarter mile hike towards Double Arch.  The place under the Arch was surprisingly cooler and the breeze tempted us to rest there longer.The park boards provided an insight into its formation. It was a pool of water on the rock, that gradually deepened over time, and carved the left and right arches, forming a 3 hole rock formation!

Later, we headed further in the Park road, towards the fiery furnace, stopping by at a couple of points.We gazed the white stripes along the red rocks of fiery furnace, as we read the nearby signboard that provided more details on the formations. We learnt that the red color of the rock is because of the rich iron content in it, and the white stripes are the spots where water had bleached the rock and removed the iron content.  ''To be or not to be' - I thought.  It is a combination of 'presence' and 'absence' that was 'present' right in front of us, and of course, needless to say, it was a pleasant present! Unlike its name Fiery furnace (that brings up a picture of some red-hot burning thing into our mind) , this place is comparatively cooler, probably because of the breeze.

 

Double Arch

As we were nearing our 7:15 PM deadline, we skipped rest of the park road ahead and headed towards the delicate arch road. At the dead end of the Wolf Ranch road, a short hike leads to a viewpoint where we could have a distant glance of the delicate arch. As I saw it, I realized that the size was perfectly fitting the replica imprinted on our car’s Utah Number plate! Our next hour was dedicated to reaching towards it before the sun could finish casting his magic onto it.

The hike towards Delicate Arch starts at the Wolfe Ranch parking lot, which was jam packed when we reached there.  We rushed our car into a vacant RV parking lot as most other cars did, and started the 1.5 mile hike. The hike was moderately strenuous, but the heat made us take more than couple of stops before we made it into the top.  The hike was almost uphill for most of the part.  There were people returning back, which made us skeptical if we were late. When we reached atop, we were well ahead of time, but the show of the sun had already begun!  Standing right in front of the Delicate Arch, the mascot of Utah, I was just realizing the actual size of it!  

Delicate Arch at Sunset!

People posing in front of it appeared so tiny that their presence was almost negated.  There were hundreds of photographers all along the slope surface leading to the Arch, capturing the evening colors.  I roamed around with the camera like one crazy nut, trying out all possible options in it. But as the sun tilted his angle more, the lens of my naked eye soon overtook my 55-250mm lens and what followed after were moments of bliss. 

Sunset colors on the rocks

Sunset at the delicate arch was one of our most awaited moments of the trip, and here we were, enjoying every bit if it. Right from the day we planned, we had a dilemma on whether to choose Mesa Arch at Canyonlands for the sunset or the delicate arch. I still don’t know which one is better, but I know for sure both are rewarding!

Heading down back in the trail ended our tiresome first day of the trip at the twin parks. It took not more than half an hour to hike back, as it was a steady continuous slope. But getting out of the park (reaching Visitor Center), on the park road was tiresome due to huge traffic. Moving at 15 mph, it took half an hour to reach route 191.

It was 9:30 PM, when we stopped by a gas station at Moab. The 4th of July fireworks were decorating the skies all around us.  

We drove towards Monticello for the next one hour, where we lodged for the night.