Arches National Park

June 17, 2024 - Reading time: 11 minutes

To avoid the 115° heat expected midday, my brother and I left the hotel at 4:45 a.m., about 20 minutes before sunrise, to start the first hike - Delicate Arch.    We arrived at the trailhead just before 5:30 without either of us researching the trail rating beforehand.  Guess what?  It’s rated “Difficult” by the National Park Service.  For an hour we traversed huge slabs of rock as well as stairs cut into the ground - all going up, up, up.  Near the top we hugged a wall with a one foot ledge.  Not a fan.  But just beyond the ledge the bowl rim of the arch was revealed.  It was magnificent! I was feeling brave, inspired by the other hikers who dropped into the bowl to tread over the slanted rock to pose beneath the arch.  It was scarier than I anticipated and when I returned from the photo op I promised my brother (and myself) that I would not be playing anymore “Take a Risk” cards for the remainder of the trip.  On the way back down we hiked a bit off trail to view some petroglyphs which was also very cool.  

 

Above:  The bowl rim walk to Delicate Arch. 

Above:  If you zoom in, the tiny person under the arch is me.  :) 

Above:  Standing on the ledge near the top of the trail. 

Above:  Our shadows in the morning sun.  If you zoom in, the tiny line of dots above our heads to the left is the parking lot at the trailhead. 

Above:  Petroglyphs on the rock at the base of Delicate Arch trail circa 1650 to 1850 A.D. 

Riding high on endorphins, and realizing it was only 8:15 in the morning, we drove a bit deeper onto to park to an area called Devil’s Garden (how encouraging) where we hiked an easier trail to Landscape Arch.  

Above:  Landscape Arch 

Our legs were a bit like spaghetti by 9:30, so we went back to the hotel for a cool dip in the pool to stretch out our muscles, showers, Advil and then treated ourselves to lunch in town.  That veggie burger and cold draft beer hit the spot like never before.  

 
With the park only 5 miles from our hotel and the sky looking so clear, we headed back to Arches for sunset photos and to scope out a place for stargazing.  We found a great area called Panorama Point.  Wide open.  My brother loves me.  He agreed to kick back in a beach chair until the moon set at 1:00 am so we could see the desert sky in it’s entirety with ZERO light pollution.  It was amazing.  So many layers of stars with the Milky Way ribbon above us.  I wish I could have captured it with a cell phone camera.  

The rocks are a vibrant red at sunset.