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southwest road trip - day 2 - devils garden hike
After a welcome picnic lunch, we headed further into Arches National Park to check out the Devils Garden area, which offers a variety of arches, fins, canyons and slickrock. At the start of the trail there are some very good examples of the sandstone fins from which the arches are eventually carved.
Our first stop is at Tunnel Arch, which can only be seen by hiking down into a sandy gully and looking back up towards the rock plateau from which we came.
Here's Heather standing beneath Pine Tree arch, so named for the gnarled Pinyon pine growing in its opening.
Looking up from beneath Pine Tree arch you can see how narrow the span of rock is.
Mike, a keen photographer, views the arch through his camera lens, while Mark surveys it through his sunglass lenses.
Here's a great shot Mike took of Mark looking at the arch (note the arch reflected in his sunglasses)!
Not all erosion in the park causes arches, sometimes interesting columns and balanced rocks are formed. Here's Lindsey doing her impersonation of the rock column.
In some places, the vegetation is just as interesting as the rocks. The crazy distortions of this juniper tree that sits in the middle of the trail were so unique they just had to build the fence around it!
The turning point in our hike was at Landscape Arch, which with a span of 306ft (93m) is the largest arch in the park. Until recently visitors were allowed to walk under and around the arch but several rockfalls in the last few years have caused the area to be closed. The cleaner looking rock on the right-hand side of the arch is where the most recent rockfall occurred. The huge span is little more that 3ft (1m) thick at its narrowest point and has several lengthy fractures, so it may not survive as an arch much longer.
With temperatures in the 90's again, after 5 miles and several hours of hiking the four happy hikers are hot and tired and ready to hit the jacuzzi back at our Bed & Breakfast in Moab!
After a welcome picnic lunch, we headed further into Arches National Park to check out the Devils Garden area, which offers a variety of arches, fins, canyons and slickrock. At the start of the trail there are some very good examples of the sandstone fins from which the arches are eventually carved.
Our first stop is at Tunnel Arch, which can only be seen by hiking down into a sandy gully and looking back up towards the rock plateau from which we came.
Here's Heather standing beneath Pine Tree arch, so named for the gnarled Pinyon pine growing in its opening.
Looking up from beneath Pine Tree arch you can see how narrow the span of rock is.
Mike, a keen photographer, views the arch through his camera lens, while Mark surveys it through his sunglass lenses.
Here's a great shot Mike took of Mark looking at the arch (note the arch reflected in his sunglasses)!
Not all erosion in the park causes arches, sometimes interesting columns and balanced rocks are formed. Here's Lindsey doing her impersonation of the rock column.
In some places, the vegetation is just as interesting as the rocks. The crazy distortions of this juniper tree that sits in the middle of the trail were so unique they just had to build the fence around it!
The turning point in our hike was at Landscape Arch, which with a span of 306ft (93m) is the largest arch in the park. Until recently visitors were allowed to walk under and around the arch but several rockfalls in the last few years have caused the area to be closed. The cleaner looking rock on the right-hand side of the arch is where the most recent rockfall occurred. The huge span is little more that 3ft (1m) thick at its narrowest point and has several lengthy fractures, so it may not survive as an arch much longer.
With temperatures in the 90's again, after 5 miles and several hours of hiking the four happy hikers are hot and tired and ready to hit the jacuzzi back at our Bed & Breakfast in Moab!
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