When we talked about retirement, seemingly a long time ago, we talked about wanting to see all of the US National Parks. It seemed a lofty goal, as in fact it is. 63 different parks comprise our National Parks system. That’s a daunting task, but we wanted to see them all.
Arches National Park, which we visited yesterday and the day before, was our 21st National Park together. If my math is right (which I am sure it is), that 21st park marked 1/3 of the way through the system. One-third of our way through some of the most wonderful lands America has to offer.
That gets me thinking. Our National Park system, as well as our first national parks, were spearheaded by Theodore Roosevelt. Much of the land acquired and donated to the newly-formed NPS was by John D. Rockefeller (two exceptionally wealthy and powerful men). Much of what we profess to love and hold to our hearts was the result of actions by those whom were exceedingly well-off. With all of their vast wealth and resources, they understood what it meant to protect lands “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people”. Both of us are grateful to those who came before and chose to put the common interest ahead of personal gain.
Yesterday morning we headed back into Arches to see some of the sights we had been denied the day before. Again, we hit the entrance station by 6:00am so that we could avoid as much congestion as we could. We started the day at the furthest end of the paved road at Devil’s Garden.
Getting there early secured us a good parking spot. There were hikes in that area that would take us to three separate arches – Landscape, Pine Tree, and Tunnel Arches. The first quarter-mile of the hike was though a narrowly-spaced series of rock “fins”, each several hundred feet high. It was like walking between skyscrapers placed 30 feet apart.
Once we passed through the fins, the path proceeded across sandy lands covered in sage and scrub. Landscape Arch is the longest arch in the park, spanning a distance of more that a football field. The best part? The arch narrows to an impossibly thin section about three quarters of the way to the right, frustrating our understanding how this thing could remain in one piece.
On the return to Livvy, we took a brief detour to visit Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. Both were magnificent in their own right. We then headed to the Windows area, a very heavily-visited area in the park.
At Windows, we first hiked to Double Arch, a rare occurrence where two arches, joined at one side, are formed. The end of the hike included some bouldering, ending up under the two arches, which we completed. The view was unbelievable! Of course, I had to climb up the back-end of the bowl to see over the side, but that’s just me!
At the other side of the parking lot was a short hike called The Windows, which included three arches looking out over the surrounding landscape like windows. And all three of the “windows” allowed us to climb up inside to really take in the view. Because the parking lot was big and the trails to the windows well-maintained, there were a LOT of people. However, following our map on AllTrails (a trail-mapping website that is invaluable in this kind of journey), we knew that an infrequently-used trail continued behind and below The Windows, giving us not only amazing views but time completely alone. AllTrails really came through!
Now that we had seen all we wanted at Arches, combined with increasing traffic and temps, we headed on over to Dead Horse Point State Park for lunch. Dead Horse Point is close to Arches (as well as or next national park – Canyonlands), and it would make a great spot for lunch. The drive over crossed high plains of grass (in short supply out here) and lead to a point overlooking an enormous canyon carved by the Colorado River. It made for a perfect lunch spot.
This morning we made the 45-minute drive to the northernmost section of Canyonlands National Park, known as Islands in the Sky. One of four distinct areas, Islands is the most visited and most accessible without a four-wheel drive vehicle. As Livvy is NOT built for off-roading, we decided to see this quadrant of the park.
The drive to the entrance covered most of the same roads we took to Dead Horse Point the day before (the two parks are right next to each other). The views enroute were so different than what we have been seeing lately. Lands covered in grasses, instead of just scrub, spread out on all sides. But we knew that just beyond our line of sight, the flat lands tumbled down steep cliffs into the Green and Colorado Rivers.
Our first hike of the day was at Grand View Point at the southern end of the park’s access road. The hike followed closely to the canyon edge, ending at a narrow ledge of rock perched at the point. The views both along the way and at the end were indescribable. Even pictures cannot do justice to the utter vastness of the landscape.
Our last hike was Upheaval Dome. This odd feature is a two mile across circular depression in the surrounding landscape. Scientists cannot say for certain whether it is the result of a collapsed salt dome or the site of a long-ago meteor strike. Karen believes it is a salt dome collapse. Either way, the hike up and around the outer rim was amazing.
After that, we had had enough of both the increasing temps and increasing crowding, so we made our way back to our campsite. After a lovely dinner we are now relaxing and enjoying the surrounding beauty. Tomorrow is a rare rest day. We are not leaving the area and in fact, we aren’t even leaving the campground. All we are doing is relaxing and, possibly, going for a swim in the pool.
After Canyonlands today (our 22nd national park), we are more than a third of our way to our goal. Will we reach our goal of 63 parks? Who knows. We are determined to try, and so we move forward. The important thing to remember is that these parks, these national lands, are important to our society. They are important to our culture. They are important to each and every one of us. It is imperative that these lands, including the National Parks, Monuments, Recreational Areas, Preserves, Historic Sites, Battlefields and others remain in the public interest. If you haven’t experienced any, I implore to you do so. It will change your perspective.
With 22 down and 41 to go, we sign off from Moab, Utah and look forward to tomorrow.
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