Venturing Northward to MOAB Utah and our opportunity to knock off a couple of Bucket-list items by visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point National Monument. We dropped anchor at the 'new' Red Desert RV Park... Large pull thru spaces with water, electric and sewer ("they got sewer") and absolutely nothing else... Just a huge flat expanse of crushed stone. It worked for what we needed...
MOAB is a tourist town in the truest sense of the words, and EXPENSIVE... expect to pay two to three times more for anything you need and if you want to rent a Jeep, rock crawler or some other exotic form of conveyance, there is a rental place on every street corner. But I digress as we are here to tour Arches National Park.
Arches NP: The powers that be have added this National Park to the "Timed Entry Program" which means you need an 'appointment' to get in. Entry Permits are released 3 months in advance with a certain number available on Recreation.Gov for the following day. Since we would be accessing the park for free with our America the Beautiful Senior Pass the $2.00 service charge was a trifle.
The visitor's center is just after you pass the entrance and has displays with a fair amount of useful information. There is a video presentation that takes place every half hour.
We had an entry permit valid from 8-9:00 AM. I would suggest getting there as early as possible as the place gets crowded very quickly... Several of the more popular arch viewing parking areas were already full.
Our trusty Grand Cherokee made the climb up the steep, twisty access road to Park Ave viewpoint,
 |
| Park Ave (top) Courthouse Towers (bottom) |
 |
| Tower of Bable |
Onward to the Three Gossips and The Tower of Bable.
 |
| Three Gossips |
 |
| Sand Dune Arch |
Water and ice, extreme temperatures and underground salt movement are responsible for the sculptured rock scenery in Arches National Park. Over 100 million years of erosion, violent seasonal forces have created these wonders. There are more than 2,000 catalogued arches from 3' (min) to the 306' Landscape Arch.
 |
Balanced Rock
|
There is an overwhelming number of things to see and photograph... pictures don't seem to do the scenery justice. Trying to capture a scene without having people in the shot requires some patience. Many of the featured arches can only be observed from vantage points accessible via hiking trails, some as long as 4.1 miles. Some of the sites are only accessible by four wheel drive vehicles.
This was an amazing sightseeing location and we will forever recall this adventure.
 |
| The Amazing La Sal Mountain Range in the Distance |
I will wrap-up this entry here... Up Next - The often-overlooked Dead Horse Point State Park !
Your last line on recalling this adventure forever is absolutely true, we still talk about this area and we were last there 20 years ago. The atmosphere seems to carve into one's soul. Happy Trails! Post Script: I like the new look of your blog, particularly the font, as well as your liberal use of photos. 👍
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! In one of your photos here there is a National Park stamp on a piece of paper. Nearly three decades ago I picked up a National Park Passport book and initially my bride thought it hokey and bordering on the Junior Ranger stuff. But after adding two more stamps to the book on our way to Summer camp she was looking through it and discovered that it was a great idea as the memories started flooding back.
ReplyDelete👍 👋 😀 Next stop Escapade 2024 @ Rock Springs WY?
ReplyDelete