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SPRING BREAK!!!
After visiting Cindy in Colorado, we drove down through Utah and visited Arches National Park before heading out to BYU. We followed a back road through the middle of the desert to get there, tracking alongside the Colorado River. It winds through the canyons, slowly drifting along... oft reminding me of the quieter pace of life that open country provides. We arrived at Arches, passing a giant sand dune running up the canyon walls. There were dozens of kids running up the hill, and sliding back down the sand on their bellies. We almost stopped to join them, but were pressed on time. But seriously, isn't being a kid great? Once we were in the park, there were three main areas that we wanted to see.... the first was the delicate arches. The second was the windows, where most of the pictures came from. Last, we wanted to see the balanced rocks, pictured to the right. When we went to see the delicate arch, we had a choice between a "highly strenuous, four hour" climb, and the "30 minute, moderate" hike. 20 points if you can guess which one we chose. We took the short hike which took us up to the far side of the canyon where the arch was located. It is an extremely wide thinly cut rock, which must have taken ages to cut out. I have no idea how that thing can support itself! |
The windows were the more accessible arches. While still impressive, the three of them are much shorter across. Leon and I spent a good twenty minutes trying to climb the face of one of them when a little kid popped out from above, telling us there was a much easier way around back. Leave it to a 10 year old to find the easy way up. The picture on the left shows one of the ledges Leon made it up to. I was able to climb up around back and scope out the sites from on top of the arch, just in time to see the incoming rain/sand storm. With that, we hightailed it down the hill, cutting through an old river bed blatantly disregarding the signs telling us to watch out for micro-organisms. Funny actually... the most trampled off path sites were where those signs stood. I'd like to leave you with this cool silhouetted background as the last thing about Arches you see, and thank Leon for the pictures.
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