The motel stay was alright, surprisingly my sleeping bag in my car was just as comfortable as the bed. The SHOWER was nice. I took one as soon as I got in, and before I left. It is no wonder Colorado owns the mountain image so much. Eastern Colorado looks just like Kansas, and the west looks just like Utah. i was excited to see Arches National park and had gotten up real early to check out of the El Palimino Motel.
Train might be the way to see the West.
The land dramatically changed. What wonderful colors.
Houses and lonely businesses dotted the landscape. So far between.
Once I got off of 70 the scenery jumped up real quick. The scenic route to Moab was great. It followed the Colorado River most of the way, sometimes scarily so. There were so many places to camp, put your boat in, and hike along the river. The canyon was beautiful and every turn was scenic.
the canyon let up in some places and started to show wind eroded mesas and towers.
Northern slopes were dusted with snow, and southern exposures bear.
The towers came out of nowhere sometimes. It would be great to be up there.
A bend in the Colorado River is called Big Bend and had this carving in the stone off the road in no special place it seemed. I'm not for sure whether this was actually carved in 1894, but I don't know many people that write like that in their graffiti and sandstone carvings. I would have made a diamond made of diamonds....
The towers and wind eroded peaks just kept coming.
Once in Arches National Park I realized that this was a heavily visited park. RMNP was so large that even if there were a lot of people you wouldn't notice.The layout of the park is one main road going all the way north through the park with offshoots to the arches and landmarks. There weren't many trails at all, it was kind of a roadside attraction sort of thing. These are the petrifies dunes with I forget the mountain name in the background. The fact that I call the mountain that if funny because there are places in the desert with no names and on the signs they say "Not Named" or something similar.
The specific things that people come to see have parking lots with only a few hundred feet of trail. The delicate arch parking lot was filled to the brim so I went on to the arch viewing area down the road. It was a mile or so to the hill where the arch was.
The landscape was what you'd think of Utah. One reason there were so few trails is that the crust on the desert floor is living I learned. Though every trail has several feet of trampled earth along side it.
You can see one hell of a lot better pictures of what everyone goes to the park for, so I mainly took pics of what most people wouldn't, or just ones for me to reference for myself later. This is Balanced Rock, and the parking lot around it.
The trailhead to Delicate Arch had the original occupants home saved with fences intact.
The only reason anyone ever wanted to live out here was the fact that this creek was there. Perhaps they liked the scenery more than an easier life somewhere else, maybe. The pizza place I'm sitting in posting Magical Wonderfulness is hating that I am hare right now by the way. this town has no wireless, and I am still drinking my Pepsi so tough luck.
Right behind the original homes and the creek were Ute Indian petroglyphs. I thought of how Tre links his artwork with them. I'm surprised the kids never write things beside them while they were on the land. I would have.
The way up to the arch was pretty in most places, but no one noticed besides me it seemed. They were gung-ho on getting to the arch.
The vegetation was really great, cactus were so small and had such large needles. The trees had such gnarly bark and branches.
These are views that not many were going for. The Devils Garden.
A puny arch near Delicate arch.
And OH so many people were camped out on top of the mountain where the arch was located. Eating lunch, drinking water, resting, all of which I forgot to do, I guess I'm hardass. With not as much oxygen, and as fast as I was going up the steep rock cliff up to the destination it's a wonder that I did not pass out. I ate a freakin Huershey bar before I went up.
Behind the arch was a magnificent canyon and amphitheater.
There it is! I was kind of jaded at the scenery and how many people and cars were there, but the arch was beautiful. And from photos I have seen I had no knowledge of how large it was.
There's someones family. There was a line for getting your picture taken underneath.
Through the arch was a snow dusted slope.
This beautiful sucker was camped out on ledges all around the arch where people were eating. He was probably full of cheetos, doritos, granola, and gatorade.
The roads had brilliant scenery on every side.
SNOW in the DESERT? most northern slopes were dusted with snow.
I went all the way to the end of the park to see Landscape arch, which I thought was more beautiful. Apparently you could go underneath it back before 1991, before humongous slab fell from it while people were resting below.
Further up the trail was another arch, or what was left of it. Nature finally took this one. The whole floor below was covered in sandstone shards. But i bet a lot of the peaks that are close together were at one time arches themselves. It'll just be a really, really, long time before other new ones are formed.
The sun started to go down and of course I got caught way up the trail. I was the last out of the parking lot, and the drive back to the entrance was 30 miles. It was dark, with Bighorn Sheep and Deer warning signs. Down hills posted at 45mph it no problem getting from 30-55 in seconds. I didn't want to go that fast knowing what was out there. It's a good thing that I go from cites and towns to the National Parks. The beauty of the landscapes, and the mostly ugly arrangement that people come up with is a wonderful juxtaposition. granted some cites are pretty and have great looking buildings, but like Indianapolis' slap in the face with the stadium and new buildings, the world that inspires us to create we can never approach in beauty.
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