Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Day 17 Arches


After Bryce Canyon, Arches was 2nd on my must see list.

We continually commented throughout our week in Utah how the rocks were so varied at each new park we visited.

Many had the same red Entrada sandstone, but at Arches,

there was a different type of erosion.

There were some of the same type of hoodos we've seen,


but also fins and walls,

and a popsicle stick.
Defying Gravity

The Three Gossips

Sheep Rock
Balanced Rock

This looks like Pluto the cartoon dog
The Sphinx
The arches are what we came to see.
Other folks came to play on the rocks.

This shows how the fissures in the rock break off to form a window and

in a few million years an arch will be formed.

We figured we hiked about 4 miles to see about 10 of the 2,ooo arches in the park.

The North Window
Turret Arch

The beginning of the 3rd Indiana Jones movie was filmed at Double Arch.

Wanda said that standing under Double Arch and looking up, let her know that God exists and has a sense of humor.


I was just in awe of the size and the forces at work to create it.

Delicate Arch. The iconic image on the Utah state license plate.
Skyline Arch
Pine Tree Arch

Tunnel Arch

This was way off in the distance- I think it was called something like Devil's Toilet


Devils Garden

What a contrast with the red rocks of Utah we've seen in the last week!



One section of the park had rows & rows of fins.

A sneering face


Lizards

Canyonlands is just 30 miles northwest of Arches.
The road climbed a 1,000' mesa to the Island in the Sky section of the park

and we looked out at the vast canyons formed by the Green & Colorado Rivers.

The view across the canyons seemed endless.

we hiked about a 1/2 mile to see one of the geologic oddities of the park - Upheaval Dome. I took the following 3 pictures as a panorama to show the mile wide crater.



There a few theories of how it was formed, meteor or volcanic crater. The green rock intrusion was a strange contrast to the red rock rim .

100's of these plants on the mesa rim

The gnats were swarming us as soon as we got out of the car. We had to constantly clean the windshield during the week in Utah.


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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