Guess what we saw today? More rocks AND more arches! Yes, it was another great day on our Epic Airstream Adventure. These arches are constantly changing, new ones are being formed while old ones are being destroyed. Erosion and weathering work slowly but constantly on the landscape.
Tim and I decided to start at the farthest point in the park first then work our way back out. The first stop on our itinerary was at The Devils Garden Trailhead. This is the longest maintained trail in the park at 7.2 miles round trip. It leads to eight awe-inspiring arches.
With a time crunch today we only had the time to view four here . . . Landscape Arch, Partition Arch, Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch. This kept us at about a 2.5 mile roundtrip hike at this location. Landscape Arch might be the world's longest at 306 feet base to base.
Since we were near the campground at Arches we had to take a spin in there to check it out. Tim and I decided to have our lunch while there and we were able to see Skyline Arch and Sand Dune Arch.
Now that it was time to turn it around and head back out we made one more stop to check out Wolf Ranch, Rock Art Panel and the Delicate Arch.
Wolf Ranch was settled by the first non-Indian explorers here. One of their cabins still stands today.
The Rock Panel is evidence of the Ute peoples existence here. This rock art depicts a hunting scene and is very close to Wolf Ranch.
Next we visited one of the viewpoints for Delicate Arch. The main hiking trail to get there is three miles and takes three hours. By the time we got there we only had time to go to the viewpoint. This arch is a must see because it is the world's most famous arch.
Our final 'named' arch count was seven today. However we could see many others in the distance as we traveled through the park. Since we were not sure of the names we won't count them. Guess that means we will have about 1,989 arches to view on our next visit here!
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