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| This is what the area looks like (from above) |
Monday, March 27th, we spent the day in Arches National Park, mostly doing the 2 things that had been recommended to us by people we’ve spoken with. And we had a great day doing them!
We started by obtaining a hiking permit (the day before) to enter an area of the park known as “the Fiery Furnace”. It is a series of giant rock “fins” or walls that are aligned northwest-southeast and create a maze of slot canyons and (mostly) dead ends.
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| John, on our way up one canyon (which was a dead end) |
The hiking permit allows you all day access to that area and you create your own “hike”, which is mainly a rock-climbing exercise. The object is to find areas of interest, such as hidden arches and slot canyons, and not follow any trail markers or anyone else’s tracks – which is easy to do because there are no trail markers and precious few tracks, and the ones we found didn’t lead anywhere anyway! It is a VERY different experience than any other hikes we’ve done. It reminded me of being a kid and just scrambling around on rocks at the beach or in the mountains, trying to find somewhere “to go”. It’s exactly like that in the Fiery Furnace. We hit lots of dead ends and had to retrace our steps and try again. We climbed thru one slot canyon to the top of the fin and had great views of the whole Arches park.
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| This area had a natural bridge (mid pic) and we found a slot canyon off of it |
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| This was the fin we ascended, and that is our route! |
We had to be careful when we were on top of the fins as we
had already learned that there are only certain places where you can get in (or
out!) and we didn’t want to drop into a canyon that dead-ended and have to
climb back up on top. So we had nature markers (odd trees or rock formations)
to track our route along the top (you aren’t allowed to leave any markings or
cairns). We made it back out!
John thought the whole thing was really cool: it was a fun place to scramble around in, the “fins” were different than what we’ve encountered so far in Utah, and it was fun to discover places that others may not have (and great to be in a place that wasn’t crawling with people!). There are only 75 people allowed into the Fiery Furnace per day in an attempt to create an opportunity for exploration and solitude.
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| On our way UP!! |
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| Some of the washes (sandy bottoms) had gorgeous greenery |
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| Dawn with our first arch! Yay!! |
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| This arch, which we named "Peek-a-boo" was our greatest find! |
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| My little Mountain-Goat-Honey-Bunny!!! Coming back down. |
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| John, looking at the fins. I love this pic b/c it shows the "desert varnish" on the rock on the left. That's what the indian peoples etched into to create petroglyphs. It's essentially just staining from evaporation of water that crossed the rock. |
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| We're coming back to do this!!! The boulders are about 6' high each |
We found an amazing rock pile mid-afternoon that we wanted to climb and explore and see where it took us… but alas, we had another hike planned for the day, so we exited the fins and ended our Fiery Furnace adventure. We both agreed that we would love to return and do it again (and try to find that rock pile) but we need better shoes!!!
And John needs more hand cream... his hands cracked and bled from the dryness of the rock and the exertion!
Our next adventure took us to the "signature" arch in the Arches park. It's called "Delicate Arch" but there's nothing "delicate" about it. It's the arch that is the symbol of Utah: it's on the Centennial automobile license plates and the cover of most brochures for National Parks. Recognize it?? The La Sal Mountains are in the background, and if you look really closely, you can see people underneath the arch (hint: they're tiny and look like ants). The arch is gigantic. There is a natural ampitheatre that forms just below the arch, and there was a gazillion people sitting in it, looking at the Arch. We definitely were NOT in the solitude of the Fiery Furnace anymore!! This was not John's favourite hike. He said it had interesting topography and an anti-climactic arch. I liked it and think it's a "have to see".
We hiked down from the Delicate Arch and took a secondary trail over to some petroglyphs, and it was really something to see! They were MUCH more visible and interesting than the ones we saw at Capital Reef. We had a great (full) day at the Arches...
Our next adventure took us to the "signature" arch in the Arches park. It's called "Delicate Arch" but there's nothing "delicate" about it. It's the arch that is the symbol of Utah: it's on the Centennial automobile license plates and the cover of most brochures for National Parks. Recognize it?? The La Sal Mountains are in the background, and if you look really closely, you can see people underneath the arch (hint: they're tiny and look like ants). The arch is gigantic. There is a natural ampitheatre that forms just below the arch, and there was a gazillion people sitting in it, looking at the Arch. We definitely were NOT in the solitude of the Fiery Furnace anymore!! This was not John's favourite hike. He said it had interesting topography and an anti-climactic arch. I liked it and think it's a "have to see".
We hiked down from the Delicate Arch and took a secondary trail over to some petroglyphs, and it was really something to see! They were MUCH more visible and interesting than the ones we saw at Capital Reef. We had a great (full) day at the Arches...
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