Morning at Arches NP

Our first day trip while staying in Moab was to Arches National Park.  At the suggestion of a couple in the campground, we stopped at the visitor center to get recommendations on what to see in Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, and the surrounding area.

With maps and a suggested itinerary in hand, we drove into Arches National Park.

Actually, this picture was taken the next day we rode our bikes by Arches National Park.  In fact, most of the time, we don't remember to get the national park entrance picture until we are leaving at the end of the day or the next day.  :)

As we drove into Arches NP,

 

we noticed the moon fall from the early morning skies...

 

...and land right on top of the rocks. :)

As we ascended into the park,

 

we noticed this rock that looked like a face looking out towards the morning sun.

 

We approached our first stop in Arches NP:  Park Avenue.

 

This area is called Park Avenue because it reminded the early visitors to Arches NP of the skyscrapers along a city street.

We were just amazed how those big rocks stayed perfectly balanced on top of the "skyscrapers."

As we continued past Park Avenue,

we drove by the Three Gossips (on the left of the picture)

the Organ,

 

and the Tower of Babel.

The Great Wall paralleled us to the west...

 

...along with some other unnamed weird-looking rocks.

And then we came to the most unusual rock of all:  Balanced Rock.

 

Same rock but from a different viewpoint:

 

How in the world is that rock staying up there?

We drove further on to Wolfe Ranch and Delicate Arch where we would take our first hike of the day.  We first drove to the Lower Delicate Arch viewpoint so we could see what we would be hiking up to (Delicate Arch is to the left in the picture).

Then we drove back to the trailhead for Delicate Arch.  At the beginning of the hike,

we passed by Wolfe Ranch. 

John Wesley Wolfe and his eldest son, Fred, moved west from Ohio and settled here in the late 1800's, seeking a drier climate for John's nagging Civil War leg injury.  John and Fred built a one room cabin with a corral out back and lived alone on this remote ranch for over a decade.

In 1906, Wolfe's daughter, Flora Stanley, and her husband and children moved in with them.   Shocked by the primitive conditions, Flora convinced her father to build a new cabin with a wood floor (rather than dirt).  These surviving structures are what is still there today. 

Next we walked across Salt Wash...

...and then took a short by-pass to see some petroglyphs from the Ute tribe...

...the tribe from which Utah derived its name.

 

After looking at the petroglyphs, we got back on the trail to Delicate Arch.  The first part of the trail was compacted dirt. 

But then we walked up and up over solid rock.

 

Rock cairns (small stacked-rock statues) marked the trail.

 

Up and over more rock...

...and then around the back side of a cliff.

We could see Frame Arch as we walked along the back side of this cliff.

Just a little further around the ledge...

...and there she was, Delicate Arch, the most famous arch in the park.

Delicate Arch is the arch that is on Utah's license plates.

 

We carefully walked closer to Delicate Arch...

...and took turns taking our picture under it.

Chuck looked up at the top of the inside of the arch while he was standing underneath it, but I couldn't do it without getting dizzy.  (I took this picture looking up outside the arch and leaning against Chuck for stability.)

We came, we hiked, we conquered!

After sitting there a few minutes longer, we headed back down the trail.