I loved Monument Valley so much that I was reluctant to leave. But our next adventure was to take place at Arches National Park at Moab, Utah. En route, we passed a rock formation called the Mexican Hat. The nearby town of 31 residents was also called Mexican Hat.
We went by another interesting rock formation before entering Arches National Park. The park contains roughly 2,000 natural arches and is considered to be the largest concentration of naturally formed arches in the world. The arches were formed from an underground salt bed that was deposited there about 300 million year ago. Humans have occupied the region for 10,000 years – since the last Ice Age. Ute petroglyphs can be found.
One feature that I found interesting was something called the Petrified Dunes. These had once been sand dunes that turned to rock. They were cool to see, but didn’t translate well into photos until I hiked up to the North Window. The view on the other side had a pretty decent example of Petrified Dunes about mid-range.
The Balanced Rock was one of the famous rock formations. I thought it resembled a seated alien with a large head. The head was about the size of three school buses. It seems to be staring at a solid stone wall. We parked by the Balanced Rock so we could take some photos. I have included two of the nine I took here.
We then drove over to where we could walk to the North Window, the Turret Arch and the Double Arch. I had packed hiking sticks and pulled them out of the suitcase that morning, carrying them onto the tour coach. They really came in handy. The climb to the North Window turned out to be steeper than it first appeared. It was also a hot day and we were in a desert. I felt that the hike was worth it to see the view on the other side. It was also worth it to get closer to the Turret Arch.
When I came back down from the Turret Arch, I could cross the road and take a better look at the Double Arch. This arch was formed differently from the rest of the arches in the park. It was created from water coming from above and escaping through the two arches that were formed.
From there we drove to a spot from which we could take the long hike up to see the Delicate Arch. The hike was more of a climb as it was nearly straight up (and this was considered to be the easier of the possible routes). The sun was beating down with the temperature hovering near 100°F. I drank a lot of water on the way up.
The Delicate Arch is made of sandstone and is often used as a symbol of the state of Utah. Originally it didn’t lie within the boundaries of the Arches National Monument that had been created in 1929. But the monument was enlarged in 1938 to include the Delicate Arch. Once again, it was worth the climb. It was quite beautiful.
Before leaving the park, we drove around to look at other areas and other formations. Another formation I found interesting was called the Three Gossips. It does look like three women clustered together, but they could just be three close friends and not necessarily gossips.
We drove along the Colorado River into the state of Colorado to Grand Junction, where we paid a visit to the Grande River Vineyards. We had a tour of the winery, a wine tasting and lunch. After lunch we headed towards Vail, where we took a break. By this point, we were well up into the mountains and surrounded by snow. So we had gone from summer temperatures of around 100° to snow. I had a rain jacket with a zip out lining with me that I put on before leaving the coach for our break.
Vail was a small town with mainly hotels and restaurants and ski resorts. From Vail, we continued to climb up to about 11,000 feet above sea level. Eventually, we arrived in Denver, where we spent the night at a downtown hotel.
The next morning after breakfast, we began our journey to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We had our morning break in Cheyenne, Wyoming, lunch in Torrington, Wyoming, and an afternoon break in Edgemont, South Dakota. Edgemont is at the southernmost edge of the Black Hills.
Next time — the Black Hills, Deadwood & the Devil’s Tower.
