Arches National Park

Saturday, July 16th was our last day in Utah and we spent it in the Arches National Park. To us this park is right up there with Bryce Canyon NP. We will have to get back to the Moab area as there is a lot more to see and enjoy than we could fit in on this trip.


After stopping at the visitor’s center we again had to start driving up hill.

The visitor’s center is just left of center next to the smaller road.

The day started out cloudy and overcast so the pictures are not as bright as they could have been. The sun finally came out as we were starting our way out of the park.

This area was called “Wall Street” because the rock formations reminded people of  tall buildings along a street.


Here is a theory of what this arch might have looked like.


A person wonders “Will that stone still be perched there the next time I pass this way”?


It’s pretty heavy.

These are called “Window Arches” and this was the only place where we could not find a parking spot so these were taken from the road.

This is called the “Double Arch”. There is the one towards the front and one to the left. You can kind of get an idea of how big these arches are by looking at the people at the bottom of the picture.



To bad the sun was not out to show the various colors in more detail.

Here is the path way to get back in to see the Sand Dune Arch.



Getting back there was a chore as the sand was so soft you would sink in a couple inches on each step. Next time I won’t wear open sandals either.

Sandy finally got a picture of the Arch without a dozen people crawling all over it.

It took a few tries but Sandy finely caught this Beautiful black and blue butterfly on film or is that digital. By the way did I mention that Sandy took over 2,300 pictures on the trip? I think I will have to nick name her the “Happy Clicker”.

After coming back out from the Sand Arch we hiked across a valley to the Broken Arch. The sun came out on the long walk back to the road.Make sure you carry water on the walks or hikes because the sun gets very HOT!!


After leaving Arches NP we took a drive on SR 279 south to the town of Potash. It’s a dead end road that goes along the Colorado River that has some Petroglyph’s and ends up at a potash plant.




After finishing that jaunt we headed up SR 128 north to I-70 so we could head to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Again, we were following the Colorado River.


I think I mentioned this before, but why does it seem that the road narrows sign pops up as you come to a corner?



As we came towards the end of the road we came upon the Dewey Historic Bridge. This was a one-way suspension bridge that used wooden planks for the road bed. It was built in 1916 and was still in us until the new bridge was built in 1988. It was designed to carry 6 horses, 3 wagons and 9000 pounds of freight. Needless to say, there's no crossing this bridge anymore.


Until next time,
Dave and Sandy

Canyonlands National Park

We spent today, Friday July 15th, in Canyonlands National Park.

This is the Mesa Arch.  The vista behind the arch got more beautiful as we got closer.



The area of the Canyonlands NP that we saw was the “Island in the Sky”. There are two more areas, one called “The Maze which is accessible by foot or off road vehicles only and the other called “The Needles” which we decided to save for another time when we’re in the area. The Island in the Sky is at 6100 foot elevation, which is about 2100 feet above the Colorado River. It is a fairly flat mesa that overlooks the eroded areas and canyons. In this canyon is the confluence of the Green River and Colorado River.






The trail to the Upheaval Dome Overlook was not very long, but it was strenuous (at least for us out-of-shape tourists) because of all the steps, heat and sun.


Scientists have different theories on what caused the crater and dome….volcano, meteor, or a salt dome.





Our campsite in Dead Horse State Park.

Until next time,
Dave and Sandy