Arches: Where the earth softly breathes.
Written: May 17 '04 (Updated Apr 21 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Like no place else.
Cons: How many times can you hear the word cryptobiotic before it gets annoying?
The Bottom Line: There are certain things I want to see during my time on earth. Whenever I go to Arches many of those things suddenly seem irrelevant.
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| panguitch's Full Review: Arches National Park |
Grinding Your Foot in the Face of Nature
(Skip ahead for the review of Arches National Park.)
Dire warnings are everywhere: The next step you take could be irreversibly catastrophic. Age-old cultures could be devastated, the land reduced to wind-swept desolation. The fate of the earth itself is within your power. Tread carefully.
The soil’s cankerous knobby black texture may resemble an old man’s tumorous mole, but you’re required to respect it in Arches National Park. It’s called cryptobiotic soil, and at Arches it’s considered something holy, a conglomeration of cyanobacteria, moss, lichen, and fungus without which the world as we know it would cease to exist. In the desert, erosion is the mark of time, and it beats the earth into a flat sea of ever smaller particles. Where grass and trees perish, only crusts of cryptobiotic sand stand against the entropic tide. So stay on the trails. Straying makes you chaos’s ally, and you’ll be responsible for the eventual erasure of this park from the face of the earth.
What Arches Means
My uncle, who works for the BLM, has guided me through some of Utah’s most austere wildernesses. I don’t know if I absorbed his cynicism regarding cryptobiotic crust, or if it was simply teenage willingness to surrender to the moment, but one of my most precious memories is of the time I flouted the warnings. I’d been home from school just half-an-hour when my friends Scott and Joe called. "Let’s go to Arches."
In those days I kept a backpack under my bed with my tent, sleeping bag, and the rest of my gear ready to go. So in only an hour we’d bought food for two days and were on the road. At midmorning the next day we were scrambling down Park Avenue. Leaving the viewpoint behind, we followed the wash as it winded between red sandstone skyscrapers, passing Queen Nefertiti Rock on our left, her head held high, and hunchbacked Queen Victoria Rock on our right. Park Avenue opens up amid the Courthouse Towers, blocky monoliths hundreds of feet high, a la Arizona’s Monument Valley. The designated trail leads back to the road, but here we went our own way, as boys that age are wont to do.
We struck out northwest, toward the Three Gossips. Soon the sight of Sheep Rock and the roller coaster fin of stone that joined it to Hole-in-the-Wall caught our imaginations. The small arch, Hole-in-the-Wall’s namesake, became our target, and a short climb to the cliff base, postponed for a few leaps from lesser heights onto a sand dune, brought us within reach of our goal. It proved a small matter to traverse to the arch itself and we were well rewarded for our deviance.
There’s a boulder within the arch, a slab that fell in times past. We perched there, beneath a couple hundred feet of Entrada Sandstone, enjoying the shade. On the west the arch opens onto empty space. To us it seemed a window, revealing parts of the park few ever see, and we felt a light-headed serenity, realizing our temerity and isolation. But we chose to face east as we relaxed, proudly gauging the route of our ascent. Across the distant road the Tower of Babel loomed, not quite as tall from our new perspective. As we ate our lunch we watched tiny climbers scaling its narrow five-hundred foot face (a popular grade IV climb mere feet from the roadside). True to habit, I had a good book with me, and so did my friends, so we indulged in some quiet reading before reluctantly abandoning the arch and hiking back to our van.
Basking in that unique location was a spiritual experience, the kind that comes on remote summits, or by cold blue lakes where the quiet is as much internal as it is external. We sat high above the earth, but thousands of tons of rock loomed just feet over our heads. Desert fell away from us on either side, red rocks and orange sand weltering in the sun. But the shade within the arch was impenetrable, and its calm defined our mood.
I’d been to Arches before, but this simple moment has come to define the park for me. And whenever I’ve been back I ruminate the memory. But I’ve grown up now, so I’ll never sit in that arch again. Not only have I realized we were lucky the rangers weren’t waiting to lecture us when we reached the road, but I’m also less likely to discount the reverence they pay the cryptobiotic crust. Like rogue elephants we tramped through it that day, causing damage that may still be visible from the road with a good pair of binoculars.
So I’ve repented. And the impossibility of repeating that day’s experience doesn’t daunt me. Because Arches is full of such moments, and every time I go I find new ones. Last week I took my wife and kids to see Arches for the first time. Although we only had time to see a few sections of the park, it was one of my happiest trips. The virgin wonder on our children’s faces. The interest Sofie took in every pebble, every plant. The pride Alek felt for hiking to Delicate Arch all by himself. And I had a chance to rekindle as I sat inside Double Arch and watched the sky turn ever-deeper purple until the sun sank beneath the horizon, silhouetting the butte of Ham Rock.
THE REVIEW
What is Arches National Park?
200 million years ago desert sands accumulated and were compressed into Navajo Sandstone. Later, a sea deposited the sediments forming Entrada Sandstone. Far below lay vast salt deposits. In time, tectonic folding produced anticlines, which collapsed and formed grabens when groundwater carried the salt away. The resulting faults and exposure left the sandstone vulnerable to erosion, which wore the rock into narrow ridges called fins. Over time rock continued to slough away from the fins, sometimes all the way through to the other side, forming arches (such holes are also called windows or bridges, though true natural bridges are caused by flowing water).
There are arches in many areas of the Colorado Plateau, but within the borders of Arches National Park there are thousands.
When should I go?
Avoid Summer. It’s very crowded and very hot. But if you’ve no other choice, it’s still worthwhile. Winter can be beautiful. Snow contrasts breathtakingly with the red rocks, desert evergreens, and deep blue sky, but it’s very cold at night. Spring and fall are probably the best times, particularly spring, when the broad yellow cactus flowers bloom and the orange-red Indian Paintbrush is surprisingly profuse. My best recommendation: the end of April or beginning of May. If you’re lucky it will be a new moon and you’ll see more stars in this high desert than you ever have before.
Climate (in Fahrenheit):
• Winter temperatures average in the high thirties, dipping to the low twenties or beyond at night.
• Spring highs average in the high sixties and seventies, falling to the thirties and low forties at night.
• Summer highs are usually in the nineties, the nights hovering around sixty.
• Fall highs sink from eighties in September to fifties in November, lows falling from fifties to thirties.
Temperatures often exceed 100 and can vary by 40 degrees in a day. The park only averages ten and a half inches of precipitation per year.
Flora and Fauna:
You’ll probably see small lizards and perhaps a chipmunk or two. If you’re lucky there are some larger mammals: deer, bighorn sheep, coyote, bobcats, even mountain lions; as well as collared and leopard lizards that can grow to a foot long. Watch out for rattlesnakes and other nasties. Birds are the park’s most plentiful creatures (not counting ants) and vary from golden eagles and hawks to great horned owls to sparrows, though you’ll most often see ravens. Much of the park’s plant life is dominated by stunted "forests" of twisted juniper and piñon pine. But along washes there are Fremont cottonwoods and some isolated marsh grasses. Typical desert plants are everywhere: yucca, cactus, blackbrush.
How do I get there?
Arches is in southeastern Utah, not far from I-70. The town of Moab is right outside the entrance to the park, on Highway 191. From Salt Lake City it’s a four-hour drive, as long as you take Highway 6 as a shortcut between I-15 and I-70. From Grand Junction, Colorado, it’s only two hours. The park’s entrance fee is $10 for a week. There are commercial tours available in Moab, but because of the park’s accessibility I wouldn’t recommend them.
Where do I sleep and eat?
If you’re the camping type there’s the Devil’s Garden Campground within the park. It’s $10 a night, and can fill up very fast. Some of the sites are reservable at ReserveUSA.com. This past week I camped there with my family and it was ideal. Though there is no shade of any account, there are flush toilets and drinking water, both of which make camping with young children much easier. It may feel like the folks in the next site are too close for comfort, but you really shouldn’t be spending enough time at camp to be annoyed by it. Not only is the campground conveniently located within minutes of the park’s main attractions, but it is itself nestled among a few fins and noteworthy arches. Worth mentioning are the 9:00 pm ranger talks on subjects ranging from the park’s geology to its ecology to its history. No open fires are permitted.
Don’t worry if the Devil’s Garden Campground is full. Just outside the park, along the Colorado River, are several BLM operated campgrounds. They’ll also cost you several bucks, and vary in terms of niceties. Some are situated very scenically among the slickrock, or between cliffs and the river, and there are plenty of places to explore using your tent as a trailhead.
If camping’s not your thing Moab can accommodate you, whatever your tastes. Called by some the extreme sports capital of the U.S., this town is the locus of activity surrounding Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. It’s also a mecca for mountain biking and off-roading. Anything you want to do outdoors, unless it involves snow skis, can be done in or near Moab. You can buy or rent everything you might need, and there’s an interesting collection of shops to browse through, and several decent restaurants. One word of advice: avoid the area during spring break. Unless you’re going there for spring break.
What do I do there?
Unless you’re going to spend several days, I wouldn’t worry about doing much research or buying any guides. At the tollbooth they hand you a map and newsletter that will give you enough ideas to fill a day or two. Just inside the park is the visitors center (a new center is in the works), which carries the books and souvenirs you’d expect, along with some oddities like a decades-old slideshow accompanied by some really cheesy narration. I think the rangers must keep it around out of appreciation for its campiness.
Arches offers some nice biking, but the main road can get uncomfortably crowded. Some unpaved roads lead to more obscure areas of the park and offer better opportunities for biking, though the slickrock around Moab is where most bikers gravitate. In Arches bicycles are only permitted on roads.
Climbers will be in heaven in Arches, even though climbing on the arches themselves is prohibited. Permits are not required, and guides are available at the Visitors center. Clean-climbing is strongly encouraged, and chalk must be sandstone colored.
If you’re the backcountry type, Arches may not have much to offer. The park is relatively small (76,519 acres) and conditions are extremely harsh. Remember to check in at the Visitors center.
Perhaps the park has most to offer photographers. Cloudless days make the desert sky a rich blue, so deep you feel you’re staring into a starless outer space. Morning and evening light bring a warm glow to the sandstone. With the blues and reds in place, all you need to find is a nice patch of Mule’s Ears, whose surprisingly green leaves and bright yellow flowers complete any picture (a dusting of winter snow is a nice alternative). It’s easy to find guides of the best places to shoot at different times of day, but the obvious rule of thumb is to shoot west-facing formations at evening (like Delicate Arch and Courthouse Towers) and east-facing formations at morning (like Landscape Arch and Park Avenue). I’m certainly not the hobbyist my father is, but armed with a simple point-and-shoot and a little forethought, I’ve come away with some very satisfying shots.
A word on pets: Arches is not a pet-friendly place. Pets are forbidden on all trails. In fact, the only place pets are allowed that isn’t paved is the Devil’s Garden Campground. The reason for these restrictions are concerns for damage pets can cause to the precious cryptobiotic crust, and also for damage the park might inflict on the pets in turn: cacti, porcupines, cliffs, and deadly heat. There are kennels in Moab where your pet can comfortably wait while you enjoy Arches.
The park’s backbone is the scenic road. If you simply want to spend a few hours driving to the end of this road and back you’ll have seen enough to warrant your visit. If you have more than a few hours, trailheads for short and medium length hikes are scattered around this road and its turnoffs. The park’s most famous sights can be seen either from the road or by making these hikes, and a couple of very satisfying days could be spent doing so without exhausting every possibility. I’ll describe each section of the park in detail.
Entrance, Park Avenue, and Courthouse Towers
On your first trip to Arches you might find the park entrance befuddling. The tollbooth and visitors center are nestled in a canyon alongside the highway. Steep cliffs surround you. So where is the park? Just follow the road and fasten your seatbelts as it zigzags up the Navajo Sandstone precipice. Don’t worry, in just a couple minutes you’ll emerge atop the plateau, with the park laid out before you.
Almost immediately the road passes the Park Avenue trail. Pulling off here is a must, even if you only walk 100 yards to the observation point. The view is amazing, particularly early or late in the day. Best of all, you don’t have to stop there, but can climb down and hike the Park Avenue trail (1 mile, moderate difficulty). At its end the trail meets the road in Courthouse Towers, so if you don’t want to retrace your steps you can get picked up there. I’ve described these areas in more detail above. Suffice it to add that these first sights you see in the park are low on arches and high on monoliths—but no less impressive than even the most famous of arches.
After crossing a bridge over Courthouse Wash the road passes the Great Wall, where some interesting formations, often aptly named (e.g. The Poodle and The Phallus), are best seen from the car. To the east stretch the Petrified Sand Dunes, and on the horizon the snowy peaks of the La Sal Mountains provide a contrasting backdrop.
Balanced Rock and the Windows
The next section of the park begins with Balanced Rock, nine miles from the visitors center. This impressive hoodoo stands well over 100 feet, the namesake boulder is itself 55 feet high. There is a parking area here, and a sidewalk right up to the formation. An unpaved trail circles it, allowing for great pictures any time of day. Well worth the twenty minutes you might spend there.
Just past Balanced Rock the road branches, a spur heading east to the Windows section. Here are some of the park’s largest arches, and where the road ends several hiking trails spin off like wheel spokes. These trails lead to marvels like Double Arch (the larger span is 163 feet long and 105 feet high), North and South Window (a.k.a. The Spectacles), and Turret Arch. These walks vary between 0.5 and 1 mile, and are easy, the approach to the Windows and Turret Arch in particular having recently been "improved" by placing stone slabs as stairs. If you’re hungry for more, a less developed trail winds around the far side of the windows before looping back to the parking lot.
Also noteworthy in this section are the Cove of Caves, Parade of Elephants, and Garden of Eden.
Delicate Arch
The main road next crosses Salt Valley before (at twelve miles) another spur turns east. At the end of this spur is the viewpoint where Delicate Arch, the park’s trademark and increasingly the symbol of Utah itself, can be seen. This is arguably the single-most amazing sight in a state renowned for its scenery. So why wouldn’t you want to get a closer look? Well before this viewpoint is Wolfe Cabin, where at the turn of the twentieth century a small ranch eked out a living. The 1906 structure is still standing, but the spot is really worth noting because it’s the Delicate Arch trailhead.
This isn’t an easy hike, even though it’s only 3 miles roundtrip. After a bridge across Salt Wash, there’s a fork, the left leading to a few petroglyphs. The main trail continues, winding up and down small rises for half a mile preliminary to a long, unrelenting climb up a mass of slickrock. Here the trail is marked by rock cairns. The sun can be punishing (morning and evening are recommended hike times—bring a liter of water per person). And soon you’re wondering whether you should have just been satisfied with the viewpoint.
But it isn’t a long hike. And the payoff is dramatic, the last few hundred yards of the trail comprised of a ledge winding around a sandstone cliff until suddenly you come out and right in front of you rises the arch! A marvelous freestanding structure, it’s the kind of sight that makes you less interested in the nattering of geologic explanations, and more willing to believe that here God proved he’s an artist. The arch sits on the edge of a bowl, and resembles "a bow-legged cowboy’s pair of chaps." Through the gap there’s a high view of the landscape, including the La Sal Mountains.
You’ll want to spend some time soaking it in. And taking pictures, of course. Evening is perhaps best, but morning is also nice. Don’t hesitate to get some shots of yourself standing inside the arch. Just don’t dally, since there are probably professional photographers getting impatient with you.
Again, though short, this hike shouldn’t be underestimated. At the same time, if it’s not too hot it’s very manageable. This last week my wife and I made it with our kids. I carried Sofie (one and a half) on my back in the baby carrier. If you can believe it she slept on the way down. Alek (almost three) bravely tried to make the climb on his own. Although his enthusiasm waned and we had to stop twice, he made it and was quite pleased with himself. Though he did want to be carried most of the way back down. If you do bring children on this trail, keep them near you. Especially at the top where the potential for fatal falls isn’t negligible.
Fiery Furnace and Devil’s Garden
The Fiery Furnace is an intricate maze of fins, crevices, arches, and spires without marked trails. Enough people have been lost within it that the park tries to control visitation. Permits and instructions can be obtained at the visitors center for a fee, though they prefer you sign up for a 2-3 hour ranger-guided hike. Certainly worth the hassle.
The final section of the park is called Devil’s Garden. Here is the campground, surrounding which are several notable arches within easy walking distance. To the north, where the road makes its end loop (18 miles from the visitors center) is the parking lot and Devil’s Garden trailhead. This area holds more arches than any other, and the 7.2 mile loop trail is worth the effort. At some points it is primitive, and shouldn’t be attempted in wet conditions. But the first mile is very easy, leading between high fins to the filament of rock called Landscape Arch. The world’s longest natural stone span, this arch is almost as long as a football field, 106 feet above the ground, and only 11 feet wide at its narrowest and 6 feet thick at its thinnest. Its resemblance to a bridge inspires the desire to walk across it. Only a handful have made that climb, at least one has died trying, and such attempts are, of course, prohibited.
If an easy, short hike is all you want, you can turn back having seen Landscape Arch and a few others before it. After Landscape Arch the trail becomes primitive. But just a little farther on are short turn offs to Partition Arch, offering nice views, and Navajo Arch, a fun place to play hide-and-seek. The rest of the primitive loop is full of arches, and a great place to spend time away from more crowded park areas like the Windows or Delicate Arch. At its far west end stands a pinnacle named Dark Angel.
Two other less frequented areas of the park are Klondike Bluffs and Herdina Park, both accessible over dirt and four-wheel drive roads.
RECOMMENDATION
Arches is easily reached, and has superb accessibility, so much being visible from the road or from short hikes. There are opportunities for more serious exploration, and plenty of spots ideal for reflecting on nature’s stark largesse. At times busy, with 750,000 annual visitors, it’s still easy to find peace and quiet off the beaten path. Nearby Moab offers every convenience, and a gateway to myriad recreation possibilities. There is no better scenic destination. Add the nearness of so many other worthwhile sights and you can’t go wrong (Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capital Reef, and Mesa Verde National Parks; Grand Staircase-Escalante, Cedar Breaks, Rainbow Bridge, Natural Bridges, Hovenweep, and Yucca House National Monuments; Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Lake Powell are all within 200 miles of Arches).
I’ve seen my share of America, and several points beyond. But whether you’re talking about the karst formations around Guilin, China, or the towering walls of Yosemite, Arches National Park ranks among the most visually impressive spots in the natural world. Quite frankly, it makes places like the Grand Canyon (unless you actually go down into it) seem boring.
Arches will always be one of my favorite places, and perhaps always be the place I return to most often. This past week I had the opportunity to introduce my wife and kids to Arches. In a way it was like sharing a new piece of myself with them. If you have any appreciation for the world under your feet, Arches is something you should see. It will become a part of you like it has me.
– Panguitch
Websites with more information aren’t hard to find. Here’s a couple:
http://www.nps.gov/arch/
http://www.utah.com/nationalparks/arches.htm
My review of Edward Abbey's memoir, Desert Solitaire: http://www.epinions.com/content_427069247108
Recommended:
Yes
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Location: Springville, UT
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