Hiking in Arches

 

Maybe you remember that it was quite foggy when we arrived in Arches in the morning, but the fog eventually lifted and made way for sun and blue skies, although there were still a lot of clouds. We were now able to enjoy the Windows without any fog. (This photo is actually from the back when we were already on our hike and had escaped the crowds).

At Turret Arch we of course had to take our usual shadows photo.

Then we left the crowded area for our hike on the "primitive trail". Primitive in so far that there was no clear path made and often enough it was just rocks on the ground or cairns that would guide us.

The sky, even though blue, was covered with clouds over and over again which made for much more atmospheric photos than a plain blue sky.

However, taking those photos sometimes was a challenge because of the rapidly changing light.

The views over the park and beyond were fascinating and quite frankly breathtaking. This is such an interesting and amazing landscape that seems to change every few miles.

We were mostly alone on this hike. It seems that most people just walk up to the interesting features, but have little interest to explore this fantastic landscape beyond those. Good for us, of course.

In the distance the clouds danced around this butte and among the mesas.

When we were almost back to "civilization" we stopped for a while to enjoy the view of Double Arch in the distance.

Closer to the parking lot, these signs were everywhere, put up in the hope that people would not step onto the delicate soil that can be damaged so easily. Did people obey those signs? Sadly, there were way too many entitled jerks.

We did not hike over to Double Arch. We had done that many years ago for the sunrise and we didn't feel like joining the crowds.

With a little bit of imagination you can see a lot of figures and shapes in the rocks. Don't you think the rock on top looks like a bird?

We drove several miles through the park and then decided to hike to Skyline Arch. 

It's only a short hike, but the scenery was different - there are so many different rock formations in this park.

At the end of the road in this part of the park is a huge parking lot because many people want to hike out to Landscape Arch. We had done that hike on Christmas Day 2008, after we had stayed the night in the campgound (yes, in a tent, and it was very cold the moment we crept out of our warm sleeping bags). So we decided to take a different trail - again less crowded - and visit Pine Tree Arch where we hadn't been before. It was a lovely but cold hike - this part of the park is on a higher elevation than most of it.

On our way back we only stopped for a short while at Balanced Rock, a very fascinating rock formation. 

We mainly enjoyed watching these two ravens in the parking lot. They were highly entertaining. Look at their sweet and sassy faces - of course they are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

We passed by Park Avenue on our way out of the park. This is a hike that we did twice before and liked very much. However, it was a bit late for this one and we still had other plans for the day.

You might have noticed that we skipped the most popular hike in the park, the one that everybody wants to take. It's the hike up to Delicate Arch, the famous landmark of the park. We had taken it into consideration, but after we had seen through our binoculars how crowded both the hiking trail and Delicate Arch were, we decided to do other hikes. See for yourself:

It looked like a tidal wave. No thank you.

We had hiked up to Delicate Arch on Christmas Eve 2008. This is what it looked like on that day, just a couple hours before sunset.

We had the entire area to ourselves...