With an Arch Smile

Today was all about the arches. Arch mania, one might say. We started with Delicate Arch, which has become a symbol of Utah and ornaments the Utah license plate (so we had seen it a lot before today). 

It’s the largest free-standing arch in the park and is worth all of the gently-sloping-hope-I-don’t-slip terrain you traverse to get there. Apparently, it has had more colorful names in the past, including Cowboy’s Chaps, Old Maid’s Bloomers, and Salt Wash Arch. In 1934, an article described it as “the most delicately chiseled arch in the entire area” (more on that later) and the arch was born again.

For scale, see the tiny humans

After Delicate Arch, we headed to the area by Devil’s Garden Campground to see the Sand Dune Arch and Broken Arch. Sand Dune Arch is nestled in the narrow opening between two tall sandstone fins. 

Gigantic entrance slabs

Sand Dune Arch

We learned from the handy signs at the trailhead that these narrow fins of stone are the result of inflexible stone breaking as the huge piles of salt beneath it bulge upward. 

The Salt Valley between fins of stone represent places that the underlying salt dissolved when water seeped in, causing overlying rock to crash down and then be worn smooth. 

The colorful Salt Valley

Neither Josh nor I have any real idea how this was figured out, but a big shout out to the geologists that make this knowledge possible. After Sand Dune Arch, we meandered over to Broken Arch. 

The first thing that everyone likes to point out about Broken Arch is that it isn’t really broken. There is a crack along one edge, but the arch looks mighty stable and there’s no gap. While admiring this beauty, Josh and I met an adorable elderly couple from Colorado who added additional items to our Future Vacation To See List and showed us exactly who we want to be in another 50 years.

Last but not least, Josh and I hiked out to Landscape Arch. 

According to park signage, Landscape Arch is the 3^rd largest natural arch in the world, although the Natural Arch and Bridge Society (NABS) begs to differ. But who really cares? It’s really big and really impressive. My biggest issue with the whole thing was that Landscape Arch seems much more delicate than Delicate Arch. Of course, Landscape Arch lost some serious weight in the mid-‘90s when a few large rockfalls slimmed down its silhouette and forced the National Park Service to close the train beneath it. Pictures from a better angle really drive home how thin the Landscape Arch has become.

Well, is Arches National Park on your Travel To See List yet? If you still need more convincing (seriously?), stay tuned for one last Arches adventure tomorrow.

Spotted: Ravens! Our hometown birds are all over the place, looking all regal and fierce. As Josh and I realized after a recent trip to the zoo (beyond that the Baltimore Ravens do sponsor the Maryland Zoo ravens), ravens are pretty big, magnificent birds.

And one more pic just because: