Arches National Park - Playing in the Devil's Garden

We are staying near Moab, Utah for eight days and, after just getting to the visitor center in 2016, we finally got deep into Arches National Park.  We left before dawn to get to the trailhead before the crowds.  As we drove past The Great Wall, rosy sunrise lit it up for our pleasure:

Even at 7:30 am, over 20 vehicles beat us to the trailhead, but we found a parking place and started our 8.3 mile hike through Devil's Garden, a route which takes the hiker to the greatest number of arches in the Park.

Arches National Park has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world. There are over 2,000 documented arches in the park, ranging from sliver-thin cracks to spans greater than 300 feet, and, after seeing so many of them, it can be easy to get jaded.  But each arch is unique in its shape, color, orientation and setting.

The first arch we encountered was Tunnel Arch, so called because its walls are thick.  Notice that it has a smaller companion arch to the left:

As we hiked, we were treated not only to arches, but to large sandstone columns and cliffs, some with capstones, all formed by the same historic geologic forces:

Why are there so many arches at Arches?  First, you need the right kinds of rock.  The grains of sand in the sandstone in Arches National Park are nearly spherical so, when packed together, they formed a rock that is very porous (full of tiny spaces).  Deep beneath the surface lies a thick layer of salts. Squeezed by the tons of rock above it, the salt flowed and bulged upward, creating long domes. The rock layers covering these domes were forced to crack, like the surface of freshly-baked bread, into a series of more-or-less parallel lines.  These vertical slices of sandstone are called "fins."  Drops of rainwater soak into the porous Entrada sandstone easily and then slowly dissolve the calcite bonding the sand together – in other words, rotting the rock from the inside out. Water puddles just above the denser layers below the porous sand, where it erodes a cavity. In winter, water trapped between the two layers expands when it freezes and pries the rock apart.  The result is arch-like hollows in the sandstone fins.  Over time, the hollows deepen until they work through the entire fin, leaving an arch.  Over many more years, the sandstone forming the arch further erodes, and, eventually, the arch breaks, collapses and produces hoodoo-like spires that were the legs of the arch.

Here is the second large arch we hiked to - Pine Tree Arch:

One of the more dramatic arches in the Park is Landscape Arch.  It is a senior citizen, and it won't be long before it breaks of its own weight from erosion and disappears competely:

On our way to Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, we encountered two deer munching succulent plants.  One was a young fawn --

-- and the other her mother, who obviously was teaching the young one that munching luscious plants is more important than worrying about harmless tourists:

The early morning mists and clouds settled into the Colorado River valley in the distance to the east, giving depth to the sandstone spires between us and the river:

Partition Arch comes by its name naturally, since it is a double arch with a thick vertical partition between the two arches:

On our way to Navajo Arch, we walked along and under a sandstone wall which had become like swiss cheese from water erosion.  Kathy spotted one hollow that just fit her and remarked that she always wanted a halo:

Navajo Arch is a relatively low arch that we could walk under and through.  The big rainstorms yesterday left a large pool of water under the arch that offered a beautiful reflection:

As the day went on, the mists over the Colorado River remained, transforming into low clouds, which graced the landscape beyond the sandstone cliffs:

This hike was one of the most unusual and adventurous hikes we've taken.  At one point, our route took us along the top of a narrow sandstone fin toward the far canyon wall.  Here, David is standing nonchalantly, contemplating what would happen if he slipped on the slick rock:

Our route took us to the far point of the loop trail, to Double-O Arch, which, in contrast to Partition Arch, features two arches, one stacked on top of the other:

From Double-O Arch, we had the option of either retracing our steps, or continuing on the loop formed by the Primitive Trail - which was aptly named because of how faint the trail markings were and how, sometimes, the rock cairns failed to mark the proper route.  The Primitive Trail took us back around to some very unusual formations, including the unnamed arch to the left and the arches-in-the-making in the photo below:

One special attraction on the Primitive Trail is Private Arch, probably so named for at least two reasons:  first, it can't be seen except by hiking some distance down a wash between two larger rock formations; and, second, because relatively few hikers attempt the Primitive Trail, Private Arch is their own private "discovery":

We paid an adventurous price for taking Primitive Trail, however, because it featured climbs up, and then climbs down, two fins that each formed slick sandstone ridges.  There were several times that we weren't sure our feet would hold their grip and we might go sliding down a steep, high sandstone rock face to some sort of peril such as broken bones, etc.

But we made it -- only to learn that we had one final obstacle to overcome, which was a knee-deep pool of water.  Our choices were to wade through it, or to hazard another slick rock climb over and around the pool.  We chose to wade.  Here, Kathy victoriously shows that she made it through the deepest part of the pool:

What you can't see is that, as she slid into the pool at the far end, she lost her footing and plunged into the pool up to her hips.  Oh, well, the cool water felt good on a hot day.

Having conquered our last obstacle on the Primitive Trail, we had more opportunity to look around at the unique sandstone features surrounding us, including this beautiful little pancake rock posing in front of some huddling hoodoos:

Sandstone spires such as these beauties were everywhere:

These fellows reminded us of the Easter Island statues:

Having started at dawn, we finished our hike by lunchtime and returned to The Great Wall for a quiet picnic lunch, then repaired to the visitor center to plan further adventures in the coming days.