More Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Arches is a wonderful place to see a variety of rock formations. On this day we explored the Windows and Balanced Rock areas of the park.

 North Window

View through North Window

Claudia in North Window

Turret Arch from North Window

Most of this place looks like art made by the children of giants playing with clay.

Turret Arch

North and South Windows from Turret Arch

South Window

Along Windows primitive trail

South and North Windows from around the back.

 What a wonderful sky from the windows primitive trail.

Double Arch

Parade of Elephants

near Double Arch

 Balanced Rock

Taking the loop trail around Balanced Rock gave us different perspectives of this fragile formation.

Looking to the La Sal Mountains from Balanced Rock

Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah

This is our campsite at Goose Island BLM campground. We have the muddy Colorado River in our front yard and the red sandstone cliffs of Arches National Park on the opposite shore. A great home base for our exploration of the area.

On the weekends we stayed out of the national parks and found other places to explore. Our hiking today is to Fisher Towers, an interesting landscape very popular for rock climbers and also a recent TV commercial.

We didn't realize this until we were looking over the pictures at home. Look at the tower on the left side, near the top, there is a climber! We were taking pictures of the holes in the rocks near the middle.

part of our trail

 along the trail

 along the trail

Can you see our trail?

Now that we are on the other side of the tower, we can appreciate how high it is.

We zoomed in so you can see the climber on top of the tower. 

 The climbers on their way back down.

 It's a long, long climb.

 It was fascinating watching them, but not the sport for us.

On our way back to the parking lot in the distance and our lunch! 

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

As you can see, this was a glorious day for hiking. We started at the far end of the park road at the Devils Garden trailhead. We saw a total of 9 arches today, but only found the names of 7.

Our first trail took us to Landscape Arch. It spans a distance longer than a football field. The trail which goes under the arch has been closed since 1991 when a slab of rock 60 feet long fell. This makes it difficult to get any perspective in order to show the size.

 Along the trail.

Along the trail.

 Interesting tree.

 Landscape Arch was Larry's favorite.

Partition Arch

 These are some of the views from the primitive trail in Devils Garden.

 The primitive trail involved hiking in deep sand. Glad we had our hiking boots.

 A variety of vegetation along the primitive trail

The primitive trail was nice and quiet, as there were few hikers on it.

 Pine tree arch.

Tunnel Arch

 Skyline Arch

 In 1940 a large chunk fell out of Skyline Arch, doubling it's size.

Some fellow hikers to show the size.

 From Skyline arch we took a small trail that was not on our map. This large nest was perched up high on a cliff.

 We found this arch along the small trail.

 Sand Dune arch is a popular place for small children, as it's a natural sandbox. It's location between the fins of rock, keep the weather cool.

 Sand Dune Arch

 Claudia at Broken Arch. The loop trail continues through the arch.

 Looking up at broken arch.

Fiery Furnace is like a maze in narrow sandstone canyons. If you want to hike here you have to go with a ranger-guide or get a permit. Maybe next time.