Friday, June 25, 2010

Arches National Park

Arches National Park is in Utah, about 200 miles SW of Salt Lake City near the Colorado/Utah border.  There are at least 2,000 natural sandstone arches in the park with Delicate Arch being the most famous.  Since 1970, 43 arches have fallen due to natural erosion.
The park is 119 square miles.  There are about 13 miles of paved road throughout the park and not many waking trails, so there is a limit on how much you can see of the 119 square miles.   It still offered plenty to see.
(I got a little behind in my posts, but I decided to do an Oregon post in the middle of my Utah posts.  I thought it would be a little odd to 'finally' do an Oregon post 4 or 5 weeks after we arrived here.  There are still 2 more posts to do from Utah - stay tuned...).  
Our first arch, but again, before 
we got to the park.


Looking back at the visitor 
center from the road on the 
way into the park.

Panoramic view from one 
of the overlooks.

If you use your imagination, 
you are suppose to see
it as an elephant.

To the left, the structure with the 
3 prominences is called the 
Three Gossips. Someone decided 
that looking at it close up reminded
them of 3 people gossiping.  OK. 
The tallest one is 350'.

Panoramic from another overlook.

They like to name rock 
structures in the park, 
but this one had no name.  
But Caroline decided it 
resembled a hog's head.

The middle one is Balanced Rock. 
The whole structure is 130' tall.

That is yours truly waving his arms.

North and South Window arches.

Closer look at the South Window.

Close up of the North Window.

The famous Delicate Arch.

Sky Line Arch.

Landscape Arch.

Common Paintbrush. 
Flowers are about an inch across.

Utah Daisy. 
Bush was about a foot across.

Dwarf Emory Primrose. 
Flowers are about 2" across.

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