Afternoon at Arches NP

After completing our 3 mile hike to Delicate Arch, we drove to Fiery Furnace.

Fiery Furnace is named for its appearance rather than its temperature.  While it has a warm appearance in the sun,

 

it is a maze of cool, shady canyons between towering sandstone walls. 

 

And the only way it can be hiked is by ranger guided hike.-- something we would like to do maybe the next time we come to Arches. 

We drove past some other interesting rock formations,

Skyline Arch,

and then stopped at picnic area at Devils Garden.

We drove through the campground after leaving the picnic area.  Some of the sites had some incredible views.

We parked at Devils Garden trailhead so we could hike out to Landscape Arch.

 

 

See the guy in the Crimson Tide red shirt in front of Chuck.  We met these Alabama fans while we were walking on the trail and, of course, talked about football for the next several minutes.

 

Then, we finally reached Landscape Arch.  Can you see it?  From this viewpoint, it blends in with the landscape.   We almost didn't see it here either.

How about now with a little blue sky behind it?

Spanning 306 feet, Landscape Arch is the longest natural arch in the world.  As we walked a little closer to Landscape Arch, we could see Partition Arch to the north of it...

...and some people hiking and climbing on the nearby rocks.

The park would not allow people any closer than this to Landscape Arch...

...because on September 1, 1991, a 60 foot long rock slab peeled away from the arch's right side.  Below is a picture that a hiker took who happened to be near Landscape Arch when the section broke away.

We got as close as we could to get some better pictures.

According to the National Park Service, Landscape Arch is 11 feet thick at its thinnest point; but it looks a lot thinner than that from the ground.

As we hiked the 1.5 miles back to the trailhead, 

 

we saw this cute little bunny on the side of the trail.

 

and enjoyed the spectacular views!

I liked the contrast of these little yellow flowers against the deep red rock.

After Landscape Arch, we drove to Sand Dune Arch trailhead...

...and hiked the short .3 mile round trip between the rocks...

...and through the sand...

 

...to Sand Dune Arch.

As we left Sand Dune Arch, we passed by Fiery Furnace again,

and drove to the Windows/Turret Arches trailhead.  We could see one of the Windows arches from the trailhead.  The weather was just about perfect for all the hiking we had been doing today.

After a short walk, we reached the first arch on the trail loop:  Turret Arch which got its name because of looking like a tower (or turret) on a castle.

As we walked on around, we could see a second arch to the left of the big "keyhole" of Turret Arch.

As we continued around the loop trail, we could see both the North Window Arch (left) and the South Window Arch (right) in front of us.  Don't they look like a pair of eyes watching us as we walk up the trail?

We walked to the South Window Arch first...

                                                       

...and could see the La Sal Mountain range to the south.

And then we hiked a little further to the North Window Arch.

We climbed up under the North Window Arch.  That's me on the far left.

This is a view from the inside looking up...

and a view to the east....

and a view to the west looking back at Turret Arch.

Next, we drove just a little further to the trailhead for our last hike of the day to Double Arch.  From the trailhead we could see Cove of Caves...

and Double Arch out in front of us.

 

As we got closer, we saw that there was a wedding ceremony taking place under Double Arch.

 

What a beautiful place for a wedding!

After they were pronounced husband and wife, their friends and family and all the hikers watching from the trail gave them a round of applause!

We did it!  We hiked to and/or saw all the things on our itinerary.   I took just a few more pictures as we drove back to the entrance of the park.

Garden of Eden:

Balanced Rock:

Great Wall:

Petrified Dunes:

Courthouse Towers:

Three Gossips:

and Park Avenue.

We decided to try out the Blue Pig, a blues and barbecue restaurant in town.  It was delicious!  As we left, we saw this trike that had been modified to look like a '57 Chevy. 

After 6 miles of hiking and seeing nearly a dozen of the parks 2,000 arches, our eyes and our feet were tired, but it was a very, very good day!