The Great South West: Arches National Park

We come to the second chapter of our exploration of the South West.
Unlike last time flying in spring, we decided to drive in winter. We chose winter for several reasons including hotel availability, clearer atmosphere, and less competition for space from warm weather tourists. A major reason to visit in December was to increase our chances of winning "The Wave" lottery. Some disadvantages in winter are chilly conditions at higher elevations, short days, and ghost towns with few restaurants open.

We flew commercial from Boston to Las Vegas, then rented a Jeep Wrangler at the airport to drive 450 miles to Moab, UT where our exploration begun. It snowed the first day on the drive to Moab.

I have written an app for Android that lets you scan and navigate on the National Park Service maps without need for Internet. I had downloaded the NPS maps for all our exploration areas on my N7 tablet and had no difficulty locating any point of interest.

Map of Arches NP as Loaded in Chart Sack app

It was sunny the next day, and the snow had melted. We drove through Arches National Park from the entrance to Balanced Rock, and then to the trail head of Delicate Arch.

At the Entrance of Arches NP at Sunrise

Balanced Rock

The road to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint was closed, so we decided to hike to the Delicate Arch. The hike is moderate intensity and there is a slight diversion to petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs

You should follow the rock markers, otherwise you end up on the wrong side of the arch in the amphitheatre.

Trail rock marker

Amphitheatre Side of the Delicate Arch

It is quite challenging to cross from the amphitheatre to the arch, so we went back to the last stone marker we saw, then hiked behind the "hole" in the amphitheatre wall to the arch.

Window in Amphitheatre on the Hike to Delicate Arch

You can stand in the arch and look down below in the deep valley. This is a must see in Arches NP. The hike is moderate three miles round trip (including the amphitheatre and petroglyphs) with elevation gain of a few hundred feet. The wife pulled her calf muscle, and was on bandage from then onwards.

Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch, (easier crossing is from cameraman side)

From the Delicate Arch trail head, we drove to the Devils Garden trail head. We drove by several arches that we skipped as we could see them from the road (Sand Dune arch area).

We chose the counter clockwise hike of the Devils Garden, and found it to be quite hard with couple of eight year old kids. The hike is easy till Landscape Arch (you can see it on the left of the trail), then turns scary at the primitive trail area (warning signs). We gave up at the Fin Canyon, particularly due to steep drops, and little margin of safety for the kids to play in. The hike back down over the boulders at the start of the primitive trail scares the parents as there are deep crevices around the boulders that an adventurous kid can easily slip into.

Primitive Trail (easier part of the hike after negotiating the boulders)

An East View Near Devils Garden

We visited the Windows section on our way back to Moab. It is an easy and worthwhile hike to see the North and the South Window.

Zain in the North Window

We had plans for off road driving in the Klondike Bluffs, but this is all you can hope to accomplish in Arches in one day. We decided to go to "Island in the Sky of Canyonlands National Park" the next day.