Having seen pictures of Arches National Park on wall papers, there was a lot of anticipation for this park. The park quite well lived up to its hype.
We did an early morning trail walk to the Landscape Arch to see it during sunrise. The arch was an easy 0.8 mile walk from the trailhead of the Devil’s garden trail. Once we got to the arch area, a barricade prevented people from going under the arch itself for safety reasons (rock pieces from the arch fell down in the past). Landscape arch has the longest span of all the arches in North America. Seeing it from a distance, it took us sometime to really appreciate the arch. Only when we compared it with the size of trees under it, we got a perspective of its span. Indeed, its span was as large as a football field (about 300 ft)!
And, it was a surprisingly thin arch to be holding on for that much span length. No wonder people were being discouraged to go under it or over it!
From the landscape arch, the Devil’s Garden trail path continued. This was to take us to several other arches such as Navajo Arch, Partition Arch and Double O Arch.
While the trail walk until the Landscape Arch was easy, the walk on the trail following the Landscape Arch involved walking on rocks with big drops on the side. It was a difficult trail, and actually a risky one for people with fear of heights.
We chugged along the trail walking on top of rocks, and taking time to enjoy the views of all rock formations, interesting trees and the arches along the way.
After reaching the Double O Arch, we decided to continue further to complete the Primitive Trail loop. National Park Service website mentioned this as a difficult hike, but how bad could it be? Having already walked on top of all those rocks at all those heights, it couldn’t be much worse or riskier. Or so we thought! But, we were wrong. We hit a point where we had to walk on a slant hill with a drop of about 50 ft.
In fact, until we saw people walk on this slant, we actually sat there wondering where the trail path was. As I saw these people walk, I thought the trick was to ignore the fact that it was a steep slope or that there was a big drop, and to just walk upright. But, fear of height wouldn’t just let me continue further. I would lean towards the hill wall trying to hold on to it thereby causing me not get a firm footing. I backed off at this point. Sigh! I decided to turn and go back the whole way I had come thus far. The others in my group managed to clear that challenge and continue. On my way back, I just kept wishing that there were no similar or harder challenges for them further down the Primitive loop trail. Thankfully, we all made it through our respective ways safely.
We then visited the Balanced Rock.
And, we went to the Delicate Arch view Points. These were points to view the famous Delicate Arch from a distance.
Separately, there was a trail to get to and under the Delicate Arch itself. This was very enticing, and we had time the next day early morning to do it if we wanted. However, it was supposedly a risky hike with walk on narrow ledges having steep drops. We chose not to do this hike.
We exited Arches National Park, and started our drive towards Antelope Canyon and the Horse Shoe Bend. A few miles south of the Arches National Park, we found another nice arch called Wilson Arch, just a small hike from the side of the road.
