Arches

Tuesday September 13, 2011

We are in Moab, UT at the Spanish Trails RV Park located about 3 miles south of town.  Nice park, but being on Hwy 191 makes for lots of road noise.

The drive here was pretty nifty, the section of I-70 between Salina and Green River was beautiful, very surprising for an interstate.  There also were no towns or gas for that 150 miles.  It would suck going west through, lots of 5 - 6% grades, our side was all down hill fortunately.  I did hit a few 5% grades on Hwy 89, but as long as I got a run, I was able to hold 50 -55 in 3rd or 4th gear.  Seems that engine needs 3500 rpm to keep up.

Today we went to Arches NP.  Initially we were a bit disappointed compared to Bryce.  It is all sandstone; red and tan.  This area is part of the Colorado Plateau which was formed by an upheaval from a subterranean salt bed.  This upheaval was 5000 ft high and caused the stone above to crack forming fins (I call them wedgies, fins are for fish).  Water erosion caused the wedgies to crack creating windows, then arches.  Over time the arches cave in and only spires are left.  Some of these arches look really unstable.

Although not as jaw dropping as Bryce, Arches has a special beauty.  Hiking around some of the arches and wedgies was pretty awesome.  Some pictures follow.

One thing that made it pretty cool was hiking around these wedgies.  As you can see, they get pretty tight.  Thursday we are taking a hike with the Ranger to Fiery Furnace.  Do a search and you should get a video.  So, if you see a newspaper article on Friday about a fat guy stuck in the Fiery Furnace, it could be me.

We are going to check out Canyonlands National Park tomorrow.