On Saturday January 7th I traveled to Arches National Park near Moab, UT to go on a popular day hike called the Devil’s Garden. I arrived at Arches mid morning and checked the weather at the visitor center. They told me there was a chance for rain or snow. I decided that I had already come this far and I was prepared for a chance of precipitation.
Edward Abby would wish I didn't drive, but I always enjoy the drive through Arches, its not too long and the view from the road is spectacular.
I then took off up the trail. The Devil’s Garden Loop is about 7 miles round trip. It was January so I didn’t expect there to be huge crowds of people, but there were still about 15-20 people milling about at the trail head. The weather was partially cloudy and temperatures in the upper 40s.
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| Landscape Arch |
I followed a very well maintained “developed” trail until I came across Landscape Arch. Landscape Arch is the longest arch in the park (Rainbow Bridge National Monument at Glen Canyon is the longest in the world). I will just say a few words about each Arch, my un-poetic words and untrained photography really do not give justice to most of the things I come across out west. Landscape is nested in a hillside that has eroded; the evidence of recent erosion can be seen below the arch. A sign at the view point explains that we are not to go any farther because pieces of the arch are still falling.
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| Partition Arch |
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| Navajo Arch (from inside it) |
After snapping a photo I continued up the trail, which was now a “primitive” trail. I had to follow cairns up some slick rock to reach the first junction in the trail. I chose to check out the two side trails that each lead out to an arch. Within a half mile I was able to get up close and personal with Navajo and Partition Arches. Partition Arch was named for the division between the two holes. Navajo Arch was pretty spectacular. As I approached it, it didn’t seem like much, but different from the other arches I had seen, this one was more of a doorway into a canyon that resembled a 200 foot wind tunnel.
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| Looking out on the hike at the Lasal Mountains |
I returned to the main trail and continued out to Double O Arch and Dark Angel. I had to cover more ground to get to these features. While hiking out to them I observed some weather moving in over the Lasal Mountains in the distance. I made note of it and continued. As I hiked along some of the ledges and other rock formations I thought how much it would suck to fall and get stuck. I wasn’t really worried about me, I packed to be prepared. However, I saw a lot of people hiking in street shoes and wearing only a hooded sweatshirt. I guess that this is normal for park visitors to not prepare for the activity they are doing.
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| Double O Arch |
I finally arrived at the Double O Arch. It was pretty cool, one on top of the other. I had to wait a while to take a photo, because some folks had climbed on top of the Arch. I was a bit annoyed with these guys, there are signs everywhere saying stay off the rock features, if they fell I would be obligated to provide EMS, and it was just rude to myself and the other hikers who had to wait to get a photo while a couple of people played on them.
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| Dark Angel |
Anyways I got the shot and hiked out to the last feature, Dark Angel. Dark Angel is a spire that juts out of the ground randomly. It was cool; I didn’t sense any dark forces at work there, just a crazy guy hiding in the bushes.
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| Snow Falling on an Arches Sunset |
After that I hiked back with a father and son who had been exploring the area for a few days. We also stopped at the Windows trying to get a sunset photo, but the snow had other plans. We had some good discussions and ended up grabbing some food in Moab post hike. Overall the hike was good, it is one I would do again.
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