Arches National Park is one of our favorites. We were here a few years ago and enjoyed it so much we knew we had to spend a lot of time here.
The rock formations have names and sometimes it take a lot of imagination to figure out how or why they were named that, but this one is easy: three gossips! Can you see the three men? Bob insists they’re three women, but I’m positive it’s men!
Balanced Rock. I wouldn’t want to be under that rock when it falls!
Delicate Arch. This one is pretty famous, it’s on Utah’s license plates, but it’s not delicate at all. It’s HUGE! Look at the people walking near it on the left.
We decided to hike to Landscape Arch. This hike starts by going through some rock fins, and there were a lot of people going our way.
This is Landscape Arch. It’s getting pretty thin on top and you can’t walk under it any more because a huge chuck came crashing down a few years ago.
Bob’s standing under Navajo Arch.
I’m checking out the view through Partition Arch.
The trail goes over this rock fin. Seriously! See, nobody else is crazy enough to come this way.
That guy is one brave person. You can climb anywhere you want to out here. Me, I like my flat, solid ground unfortunally Bob doesn't.
The tall thin rock is Dark Angel. We hike closer and saw some people climbing on it and when we got there they were rappelling down.
The trail led through these rock fins. You have to watch for rock cairns that mark the trail and it’s really fun!
The trail was really fun until we got to this spot. We either had to hike up and over a high, steep rock or go through the water. I refused to go up and over, and a German woman hiking in front of us agreed with me. Our husbands had to come up with a way to get us across and Bob is testing the route. We made it and nobody got wet!
Canyonland’s Islands in the Sky District is about 20 minutes north of Moab and we took a trip there too.
This is called The Big Mesa, and it is big!
Oh, on our way to Canyonlands we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park, an outstanding Utah State Park.
From a lookout in the Park you can see the Colorado River far below and a dirt road that goes close to the edge. Who would be crazy enough to drive on that road?
Every so often you can stop and see Indian writing on the rock near the road. These Indians saw big horn sheep. Maybe we will too.
Dinosaurs? Are we going to see some dinosaurs too?
Bob climbed up there to check those dinosaur footprints out, and they were huge.
Bob said he thinks it would be fun to drive Sheaffer Road to Canyonlands and I said ok. Bad answer. Very bad answer!!
What??? Is that the road? Are we going there? I’m terrified of heights!
This picture was taken from the safety of our truck. The road was actually a Jeep trail and Bob had to get out several times to see where the road went.
Maybe, if you’re in a Jeep this road would be easier because Jeeps are a lot small than our huge truck. Even with a Jeep there’s not a lot of room to spare.
Yep, that’s the road we were on. On some of those switchbacks Bob had to back up because the truck was too big to go around the first try!
More of Shaeffer Road.
The road is actually hanging over the edge! There’s nothing under the road!
Another view of Shaeffer Road. If anyone asks if you want to drive on this road say NO!!
The La Sal Mountains are near Moab, so we went for a drive on the Manti-La Sal Road, a more civilized road that I loved.
The mountains are snow capped, and the low lands are dry.
They have open range grazing along the road.
This is looking along the valley toward the Colorado river.
The tall rock on the left is called Castle rock and was featured in a lot of TV ads. Chevy put a car up there.
A section of Canyonlands is called The Needles and we went to check it out.
When we were here before we camped near Newspaper Rock.
More Indian writing. Lots of it!
Some Indians were quite good. I like the Indian shooting the buffalo.
They actually farm this dry area. If they irrigate it’s green, if not it’s bone dry.
This picture shows some of the “needles” in the Needles District.
This trail is call The Squaw flat/Big Spring Loop and we gave it a try.
Again, it goes over slick rock, which is only slick when it’s wet. When we were there it was dry, fortunately.
Here I am relaxed and happy after making it up there. We had to hike across the side of a rock that was steep and scary with a long drop if you goofed. I look happy, but I was actually crying because I was so scared.
This is what we had to climb up! It was not easy and I’m proud that I was able to do it and survive.
This is the way down and down was actually fun.
Our last hike was to Tower Arch and it was a fun trail over slick rock and back down a Jeep Trail.
On the way back we saw The Marching Men. Remember what I told you about the rock formation’s names? These do look like marching men to me.
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