Day 38: Touring Arches National Park

June 5, 2010

I left the motel in Moab at 8:10. It was already warm-it will be a hot day. I pedaled across town, across the river to the park entrance. Then a big climb into Arches National Park. The first major attraction is "Park Avenue". The park road goes through the middle of it.

Park Avenue. Tall narrow fins resembling high-rise buildings.

I continued north, mostly uphill to the end of the park road at the Devil's Garden trailhead (5117 ft. elevation). Surprisingly there were no tour buses. Maybe buses are prohibited during the busy summer weekends?

It's mostly uphill from the park entrance to the end of the road at the Devil's Garden trailhead.

The Devil's Garden trailhead has a huge parking lot and the trail is very wide. Obviously it gets a lot of visitors.

The Devil's Garden trail is built to accommodate a large number of visitors.

The main attraction on the Devil's Garden trail is Landscape Arch, which is believed to be the world's longest natural stone arch. It's a 2 mile round trip hike. The trail goes much farther but most visitors seem to turn around here.

Landscape arch has a span of 290 feet, the world's longest natural arch.

Along the road a mile south of the trailhead is Skyline arch. It's plainly visible from the road, but I walked a short distance up a trail to get a closer view.

Skyline arch is visible from the road, but the trail gives a closer view.

Back on the bike I backtracked on the park road to the Delicate Arch spur road. 1.2 miles down the spur road is the Delicate Arch trailhead. This trail is 3 miles round trip with much more climbing than the previous trail. About half the trail is on bare slickrock where the trail route is marked by occasional rock cairns.

Near Delicate Arch the trail is cut into a near-vertical sandstone wall.

I think Delicate Arch is the most impressive arch in the park. The La Sal mountains in the background add to the view.

Delicate Arch. In the 1990's it was a background image on Utah license plates.

Wider view of Delicate Arch and La Sal mountains. It's a huge drop off to the right, especially behind the arch.

A smaller arch provides welcome shade with a spectacular view.

Half of the trail is on slickrock. Stone cairns designate the path.

Back on the road, I pedaled 1.2 miles uphill back to the main park road, and continued south towards the park entrance. After 2.5 miles I turned onto the next side road which leads to several impressive arches. This spur road is 5 miles round trip with a lot of climbing. I parked at the end of the road and hiked the 1 mile nature trail loop to the North and South Windows. They looked great in the late afternoon sun.

A short distance away is the trail to Double Arch. It's a 1/2 mile round trip hike on loose sand to get under the arches. Very impressive.

Double Arch. Awesome. The two people in the picture give an idea of the scale.

That's my last arch for today, but I still have several hilly miles to get back to the park entrance.

Passing through Park Avenue on the way back to Moab.

Park entrance and US 191 in the foreground. Partial view of Moab and La Sal mountains in the distance. Electrical towers serve the uranium mine on the right.

I ran out of water on the way out of the park. The visitor center had just closed (at 6:30 PM) when I got there. Fortunately an outside water faucet is still accessible. Then back across the Colorado river and across town to the motel, arriving at 7 PM.

Today was a long hot day-I biked 55 miles with 4796 feet of climbing, and hiked 7 miles. Moab's high temperature was 98F but it was probably slightly cooler in Arches National Park. There was no shade and very little wind. I drank at least 2 gallons of water. But it was a day of truly spectacular scenery. I managed to see several more arches than I did on a similar day trip during my 1992 Utah bike tour.

Distance: 55 miles (88 km) all unloaded

Climbing: 4796 ft (1453 m)

Hiking: 7 miles

Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km)
Total: 1,746 miles (2,810 km)

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