DELICATE ARCH

As most of you probably know, if you have ever seen an Utah license plate, you have seen Delicate Arch.  Almost every photographed arch you see on a postcard, calendar, souvenir cup, etc., from the state of Utah is Delicate Arch. It is also the most popular hike in Arches National Park.   Mr. W read about the hike when we first got here and determined that this was definitely a hike that we needed to do.  We weren't sure what day we were going to do it but we knew from talking with several people, we needed to do it early.

So, Wednesday night, we set the alarm for 5:00 am.........wait.......did I just say 5:00 A M?  Oh yes I did.  I had forgotten there was a 5:00 am!  Anyway, when that crazy alarm went off, we got up, got dressed for hiking, had 1 cup of coffee, something light and quick for breakfast, brushed our teeth, packed some water and snacks, grabbed the camera and off we went.  By the time we drove to the park, went through the park to the Delicate Arch parking area, took 1 final potty break, we were on the trail by 7:00.

This is the last part of the trail.  You stay close to the rock and hope no one is coming the other way.

According to the park's literature, this is a difficult trail. Mr. W failed to mention that little detail when I agreed to do this hike.  It is 1 1/2 miles one-way.  The first mile is on a designated trail with good markings and well maintained.  The last half a mile is mainly on slick rock and you are suppose to follow the cairns.  However, the cairns are not placed at regular intervals and sometimes they were in odd places that you still had to figure out where the trail was.  The elevation change wasn't too bad but it was definitely there.  Frankly, I had been on "moderate" hikes worse than this "difficult" hike.

Right before we reached Delicate Arch, Mr. W saw an arch a little higher than the trail and climbed up to see if he could see Delicate Arch through it.  Sure enough, there it was.

His middle name should be monkey.  He just takes off climbing any and every where.

There it is.

We had stopped in the one shady spot on the way up to get a drink of water and catch our breath.  Another couple from California stopped too.  We talked with them for a few minutes and then we all started on our way.  When we got to the arch, they asked us to take their picture and offered to take ours.  That's always nice when it works out that way. There actually were quite a few people up there but fortunately we got some pictures without anyone else in the picture.

You have no idea from this picture how massive this thing is.

Just as an FYI - Airplanes are not allowed to fly over Arches National Park below a certain altitude because of fear that the noise and vibration will damage some of the arches.

This next picture is going to say a thousand words on why you go early.  This is what we saw heading up as we were heading down.

Most of the people headed up were from China.  They were very friendly and really wanted to talk to us.  It was great.

We were down and back at our truck by 9:00.  We then decided to drive Potash Road.  This is a road that actually goes down into the canyon in Canyonlands.  Mr. W had been dying to drive some road in the canyon but wasn't sure which one we could do.  We do not have 4-wheel drive in our truck.  Potash starts out as a very nice paved road.  When we turned onto Potash Road, there was a sign that said it would be closed on June 5th from 6:00-1:00 for the Thelma and Louis Half Marathon. I hope they don't expect people to run and jump off a cliff!  Anyway, Potash Road goes down into the canyon and along the way we saw several groups of rock wall climbers.  It seemed that they were all just getting started so we didn't see any on the wall yet.  Also on this road were trailheads to arches that our friends told us about.  These are arches not in the national park but still very popular.  They are Corona Arch and Jeep Arch. 

Potash Road eventually turns into a dirt road. 

It's a pretty bumpy dirt road too.  We followed it for about a mile or 2 and saw a sign for Jug Handle Arch.

See the jug handle?

We also happened upon a place that had dinosaur prints.  It seems that some ancient species of dinosaur walked on its hind legs and used its front legs to grab and hold onto things.  It had 3 toes on its back feet and left footprints in the side of the mountain.  Mr. W took the picture, but I don't really see it. 

The footprint is on the big flat rock. At least I'm taking Mr. W's word for it.

We went back into town and had lunch at one of the little restaurants and then went back to the trailer and took a nap.  We plan to do another hike tomorrow and guess what time we are getting up.  Yep. I think I feel a yawn coming on.