Arches and Canyons

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Day 7 April 7, 2006

After a hearty breakfast at the Moab Diner amongst the locals and several early arriving 4-wheelers for a weekend desert rally, we set off for Arches National Park. Since we are now senior citizens we can have a pass for all the parks for $10.00 forever. God Bless the U.S. National Park Service!

The weather was wonderfully sunny in the 50s and 60s throughout the day. I can understand why this climate is so appealing, except in July an August. Arches can be reasonable well seen form driving the 18 mile route, which we did. At Devil's Garden I took a 2 mile hike while Carol napped and studied some Italian. The hike led to Landscape Arch, the longest at 360' (some controversy exists about how to measure these arches) and fragile after a big chunk fell off in 1991.

(Lots of photos but not yet time enough to edit and upload. Patience, please.)

We stopped at the brand new visitors center, a very nice building with several full-size sculptures of the animals of the desert, including a very nice bronze of a big horn sheep, and several displays of the histroy and geology of the park. A 15 minute movie describes the arches, their history and geology, also very well done by the Discovery Channel.

Then back on I-70 through more dry, Utah desert with some spectacular views, but also plenty of mundane, uninteresting landscape that seemed like driving through a huge endless gravel pit.

Up over the mountains we went at 8-9,000 feet, I'd estimate, and then downhill for 15-20 miles to our destination tonight, a small RV park in Richfield, a growing town in the Sevier Valley with what seems to be rich farmland for beef cattle. Along the way we saw a herd of 15-20 deer in the mountains.

Tomorrow we lose I-70 because it ends here. We will head for the Grand Canyon on US-89 and probably stay a day or two at Tuba City, AZ. while visiting the 'big daddy' canyon. We left the Colorado River in Moab, but will soon find it again in Arizona.