Arches National Park

We arrived in Moab, UT in the early afternoon. After setting up camp just outside the town, we went into Arches National Park to drive around.

Arches - like the rest of Utah - is formed out of red sandstone, which in this particular location has eroded into all sorts of fantastic and impossible-looking shapes, obviously including arches. The landscape is generally flat, bordered by the towering Rockies to the east, with strange sandstone fins and shapes protruding from the ground. We saw many of the park's named and famous formations that day driving around, most of which are very matter-of-factly named.

The landscape of Arches NP

 

Balanced Rock

Double Arch

The Windows

We took another full day to do two long hikes in the park: the first through the Devil's Garden, and the second to Delicate Arch. The Devil's Garden was a fun and challenging trail, half of which looped through the sandstone fins and required some climbing and a lot of trust in your feet. This trail winds past several arches and other formations, including the world's longest arch, Landscape Arch.

The Devil's Garden trail

Double O Arch

Landscape Arch - 100 yards across

It was clouding up by the time we finished and headed to Delicate Arch. This arch is the iconic image of Utah and seemingly the entire West, so I was excited to visit it. It is big - probably 50 feet tall. I think it's most intriguing because it seems to just stand on its own, unconnected from any surrounding fins or rock, unlike many of the park's other arches.

The world's most famous arch!

Me under the arch for scale

Our stay in Moab - which included one more day to explore part of Canyonlands National Park - was not as smooth as our visits to the parks. We happened to arrive as a weather system was pushing strong winds around 50 mph through the area during the days we were there. The tent was no match for the weather, so we gutted the extra seat and stuff from the van, put it in the tent, and collapsed it and weighed it down. This gave us the entire back of the van as wind-free living space; we had to cook, eat and sleep in the van for the three days and nights in Moab.

Our site and the tent in collasped-storage mode...

The wind itself was not our only enemy: the desert sand that it blew around was just as bad. Only after our pillows, mats, and sleeping bags got covered in sand during a particularly strong gust did we learn to always keep the car shut. And it made all the hiking more difficult: the sand stung my skin and ended up in my ears, eyes, and mouth. It was a particularly tough place to camp, but our spirits were propped up by the quickly-approaching end to the camping portion of our adventure and the return to sleeping under a roof!