Arches National Park

Right after Diwali this year, we hit the road at the crack of the dawn. Diwali already packed me enough and I planned to travel light this time.

There goes an adage, hodophiles take only memories, leave only footprints! And thats the goal to summarize with this blog post.

Arches, one of the might fives in Utah was a complete change in the scenery for us texans!

Aches National Park is a national park of the United States in eastern Utah. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 mi (6 km) north of Moab, Utah. The park contains more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches. It also contains a variety of other unique geological resources and formations. The national park lies above an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area.

Planning

We knew kids were off school for 5 consecutive days in the month of November, and an opportunist would never leave a chance to head out. Nishant booked the tickets to ride in October. We flew from DFW to SLC and then 3.5 hrs from SLC to Moab, UT. The drive is beautiful this time of the year with snow dusted mountains and fall colors everywhere. Arches is 10 min of a drive from the heart of Moab city. Total 4 days of our excursion in full. We were back to Dallas before the start of the school. We had also downloaded the Guide Along app on our phone to make it a trip with a story!

A tip for all family wheels is to keep your trip as flexible as you can, it will ease the excursions and make you enjoy every moment on the trip regardless of the heavy planning and schedule. For Arches, I would just let it come....

Midvale

A wanderlust will not leave a spec on earth that is full of nature and love. The drive from SLC airpott to the Moab was full of mountain friction and the crisp air added fuel to the fire. You probably know the rest. We grabbed hot coffee and del tacos, stopped at the Wheelers - The Historic Museum and Park with full of fall colors and snowy peaks. Take your time to absorb some of the views from below. Tell me about your favorite one.

Park Reservations

The park is most active from March thru October in the year, reservations are released three months in advance. The fact that we went in November relieved us from making a timed entry to the park so we actually were those Ravens of the park. Anytime anywhere!

Many times a ton of planning ends up with nothing, while, a short trip with minimalist people loads ton of experiences into a treasure

Park Entrance

Entering the park showcased penguin shaped rock formations welcoming you on your left leaving you wonderstuck. Known for its extreme temperatures and underground salt movement responsible for the sculptured rocks this view left us spellbound! Currently, the temperature in the first week of November was 40 degrees Fahrenheit and we baked buns from Texas were layered top to toe to get started with the first major attractions within Arches....Park Avenue

Park Avenue

It's a one mile trail that follows the bottom of a canyon at the feet of some of the park’s gigantic and well-known monoliths. The massive sandstone towers that make up the western background of Park Avenue are called the Courthouse Towers. The Organ is a smaller monolith just to the south of the Tower of Babel, off to the right side of the Arches Entrance Road. The Tower of Babel is located to the north of the Courthouse Towers, standing just above Courthouse Wash, north of the Organ and beside the Entrance Road.

You know the fact that we were all cold did not surface at all during our hike. Guide along app is certainly full on entertainment during such times. A must for a National Park history and stories to tell.

Balanced Rock

Arches is undoubtedly a great family park where you can walk to many geological features. We made sure that the special aura, the silence of these formations, and the majestic scale of heights does not escape us in any way, hence, we walked to every formation that was different.

Balanced rock is also known as the Teeterig Giant of the Arches. Balanced Rock, one of the most iconic features in the park, stands a staggering 128 feet (39m) tall. While this formation may appear to be an epic balancing act, it’s actually not balanced at all. The slick rock boulder of Entrada Sandstone sits attached to its eroding pedestal of Dewey Bridge mudstone. The exposure of these two rock strata layers are ideal for the formation of arches and balanced rocks.

Balanced Rock defies gravity but this won’t always be the case. Eventually, the 3,600 ton (over 4 million kg) boulder will come tumbling down as the erosional process continues to shape the landscape

Skyline Arch

The Skyline Arch Trail is short and easy, less than a half-mile roundtrip hike from the parking lot and back. The arch itself is one of the more popular landmarks in Arches. It makes for spectacular photographs, owing to its position, literally, on the skyline. Having seen the first arch of its kind we spent hours onthis shortest trail of round 0.4 mile. Typical human huh! Isnt that always the case? The over excitement leads to slipping of excess of time from ur hands....however, I loved how our reflexes changed during the day....curious aren't you?

Delicate Arch

With a family of two teenagers, it literally takes a village to conjure up the teens to be ready for a long hike. This time we were quite unsuccessful in doing that. Hiked the lower and upper trail heads only for viewing the Delicate Arch, the most popular one in the park. It is also the Utah symbol and you might have seen this on many license plates of Utah. I made sure I do not get the Delicate Arch souvenir, instead gather a formation that is unknown. If you recall, Olympic torch relay for the 2002 Winter Olympics passed through this arch!

Turret Arch

Turret is a natural free standing arch in the windows area of the Arches, Utah.

The desire to see more kept us along and we headed towards the windows region of the park. This was one of the popular viewpoints onroute to Windows Trail. It easy teenage friendly trail showcasing the north, south window and the Turret Arch. Tons of picture taking points and ton of social media uploads for these teens, isn't it!

North and South Window

When we stepped out of the festive home this time, it echoed everywhere, ...let's get away from it all in the mighty desert and mountains!

The way north and south windows joins is simply heavenly and reiterates the fact in our ears that we are only a minuscule of specs in the vast round globe. Nature being the strongest and at the top in the eternity! The only powerful force to bow to! I imagined this pair to be a pair of nature handcuffs and asked myself if I was ready to be handcuffed and fly in the islands of the sky? I sure was! Soon Nishant and myself will be known as wanderlusts. Would Suhana and Nishchay too? I doubt!

Double Arch

If I had to rate the favorite from the innumerous arches in the park, I would rate this one as my favorite. The fact that its double and not twin makes even more enhanctingthat the others. A masterpice by the natural forces in the park! The most spectacular and easy accessible Arch on a hard-packed trail.

There is always more to the park than its geological forces. Nonetheless, these geological forces from the adaptive flora and fauna around it.

Fiery Furnace

The fun fact of a family travel is it gets childish, it gets worldly, it gets knowing all at the same time. you will always find an element conjoint that builds synergy during the trip. Our youngest one is one of them! Rigourous and fun loving teen. This scary hike was cut short by Nishant and Suhana and I am proudly glad that they were up to even get started with it. Fiery Furnace is made up of tightly packed, long rows of alternating fins and canyons. This creates a maze-like area, with narrow passageways, sheer walls, interesting rock formations, a few arches, and a ton of opportunities to scramble over the rocks.

Flora & Fauna

Pinyon and the gnarled juniper trees add a splash of green contrast to the red sandstone terrain. When conditions are right wild floweres bloom profusely around April - July and that is something that we missed. I enjoyed the weather and the time of the travel in this park. Crisp morings and sparkling red-orange colors added a taste of the fall and sweater weather. Glad did not have to go thru the heat wave as I had heard mostly about that while researching for Arches.

Jackrabbits & Cottontails, Kangaroo rats, rodents, reptiles are residents here. They say the Blue pinyon jays also chatter in the trees here tops

Sunset Point

One of the distinguished sunsets that I have ever seen. Mainly beacuse most of the time, people tend to connect a pretty sunset by the ocen view. Here, the orange cliffs and the vast valley of the plateau was being kissed goodnight by the sun and that my friend was an expereince in itself.

Twilight Sky

The night sky and star gazing is equally popular here in Arches. Such clear skies sparkled the crescent moon and the stars on teh drive bakc to the Aarchay way Inn for us.

Our Duty

Last but not the least, as citizens of the US we must protect the eroding arches of the park. The purpose of Arches National Park is to protect extraordinary examples of geologic features arches, natural bridges, windows, spires, and balanced rocks, as well as other features of geologic, historic, and scientific interest, and to provide opportunities to experience these resources and their associated values in their majestic natural settings.

Wait dont go away, I have a fable to narrate on Canyonlands too.....coming up next!