September 5, 2003—Monoliths, hoodoos, towers and arches

This day found us heading for Arches National Park, just two miles north of our campground fairly early in the morning. Be forewarned if you’ve never seen this park: it will leave you stupefied with its array of towering red rock formations, gargoyle hoodoos, angry landscape, and its empty vastness of chasms, uplifted tortured mountains, and just plain take-your-breath-away-around-every-corner-scenery. It truly is one of the most magnificent national parks we’ve seen.

                                              The Towers of Arches Park

                       some hoodoos                                             Fiery Furnace

                       Balanced Rock

There’s not a lot here beyond the scenery and spectacular hiking trails to take your mind off enjoying this place. No gas stations and no lunch kiosks. Once you’ve passed the Visitor Center, located right off Hwy. 191 and ascend the first steep grade along the Moab Fault there won’t be another man made structure beyond pit toilets to spoil your views until road’s end. At road’s end you will find probably THE most striking campground we’ve ever come across. Nestled in among hoodoos and massive sandstone rock formations are an array of both RV and tent sites with a plethora of hiking trails waiting right outside your doorstep. Unfortunately, this didn’t look to be a big rig kind of place; we saw perhaps one or two sites that would have handled a rig our size, #31 & #33. However, this campground is first come, first serve and often fills before 9 a.m. in the mornings, so chances of getting those sites are probably slim and none. For those of you with smaller rigs however, do yourself a favor and definitely plan to spend some time here. This area also features one of the park’s best hikes; something we plan to do a little later. This day was too hot to do much hiking!

              Devil's Garden campground                   Group site at Devil's Garden campground

             View from another campsite

The little hiking we did was in the Windows section, which contains Turret Arch, Double Arch and the two Windows Arches. The trail is easily done in steps up the mountainside and offers many photo opportunities. To sit beneath one of these behemoths and have this massive amount of precariously poised stone above your head is to understand fate. All it would take would be one good massive earthquake at that moment….

            Under Window Arch

            Claudia at Windows Arches                                        Double Arch

                                                                                        Turret Arch

          Turret Arch from Windows Arch                                   Windows Arch

The afternoon ended with us getting drenched on the bikes on our return drive as a thunderstorm passed over—time to head for home.