Arches National Park, UT

We continued northeast through Utah toward Arches National Park outside Moab.  The trip from Capitol Reef to Arches is circuitous any way you slice it, as one must travel either north around Glen Canyon NRA and Lake Powell, or south around the same...there is no route through.  We had originally planned to hit Canyonlands National Park first, but found ourselves taking the northern route via a short stretch on I-70 and Green River, UT, where we had to resupply basic groceries and fuel.  Arches National Park was on our way south towards Moab and Canyonlands NP, so we elected to build it into this leg of our journey.

Arches National Park has the highest concentration of natural stone arches in the US, perhaps even the world.  There are over 2000 natural arches in the park.  The section in the photo below is known as "Park Avenue," as the tall, flat fins of rock resemble the fronts of skyscrapers when viewed from below on a city street.

Balance Rock, again formed by the faster erosion of the underlying rock, compared to the more weather-resistant cap.

South Window

Here I am sitting in the shade of the South Window.

This is the view across the desert from the South Window.

Turret Arch, which also has a baby arch of to its side.

George and I took turns standing in Turret Arch.

If you take the primitive trail around the backside of the North and South Windows you can see the appropriately-named Spectacles.  It is quite a spectacle to behold.

Difficult to see in the picture, Double Arch is very spectacular to see in person.

Perhaps the most famous and most photographed arch in the world, Delicate Arch has become synonymous with Arches National Park and the southwest US.

Wolfe Ranch: In 1898 John Wesley Wolfe left Ohio in search of drier climate to alleviate discomfort from an old Civil War leg injury.  He and his son, Fred,  settled in what is present day Arches National Park.  These photos show the still standing farmhouse and other structures he and Fred built and lived in for nearly a decade.

A permit is required to enter the area in the photograph below, the Fiery Furnace.  It is a maze-like labyrinth of narrow sandstone canyons, and very easy to become disoriented and lost.

The Devil's Garden had a high concentration of the rock fins that are common throughout Arches National Park.