Four U.S. National Parks in five days:
Arches National Park:
A day in the park.
After our hike to Delicate Arch my aunt and I return to the hotel to have breakfast. My parents ate a little while ago but my mother joins us to chat while we eat. It’s a beautiful morning and we take a table outside with views to the surrounding hills.
Afterwards, we still have time before our entrance reservation. I contemplate taking a nap, but find myself editing photos instead, trying to translate the wonder I felt this morning to the screen. I should have slept.
At ten we drive to the entrance. It’s only a few minutes and the lines are not long. At the visitor center we ask about short hikes we can do in the park. The ranger gives us a map and an itinerary and once again we are driving the loops around the park.
The ranger suggests we skip Park Avenue when we enter in favor of parking at the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint. There’s a hike that goes from one to the other, and by parking at Courthouse, the return hike will be downhill. In truth, the best option would be to have a designated driver drop us off at Park Avenue and then pick us up at Courthouse, but even then we’re not going to do that much hiking.
I hike a bit of the way along the path to take some photos and then walk back. My mother and aunt do their own short hike. I make a note to stop by the Park Avenue viewpoint on our way out.
The sun is up and the skies are blue. The rocks are beautiful and it feels awesome to be surrounded by them as we walk. Back at the car I encourage my parents and my aunt to drink. I hope that we’ll have have drunk the majority of the water that I bought the night before.
We drive towards the windows section, stopping to admire the rock formations at the Garden of Eden before heading towards the loop.
The upper parking lot is full and so we park at the lower one to visit the Double Arch before driving back to the upper parking lot to visit the North Window and the Turret Arch. It doesn't seem to be worth hiking the distance between the two lots, though a set of stairs offers the option.
On the walk to the Double Arch I point out a rock formation to my mom. It looks like a face, or the face of a camel. She takes a minute and then sees it. Yeah, she says.
After parking the car in the upper lot we set off towards the North Arch together. My parents decide to stop once the path turns to stairs but I decide to continue onwards.
Reaching the window, I stop to take a photo of the plains beyond. It's a popular sunrise spot. If I were feeling more motivated I'd consider returning the next day, but we have long drive back to Denver and I could use the rest.
From the North Window, I decide to walk to the Turret Arch on the way back. It's a loop back to the parking lot and I don't think it'll add much time. I skip the South Window so as not to make my parents wait too long for me to return.
We drive back towards the main road and then turn off to head back towards the Delicate Arch parking lot. We drive past where we parked in the morning and drive to the end of the road so that we can visitthe Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint. It's fun to see it from afar and from another viewpoint. I'm also happy that the hike comes from the other way and that you're rewarded with a closeup view of the arch rather than hiking towards it with it always in view. That said, there is no path to the arch from the viewpoint, as signs in the parking lot helpfully point out.
We drive back to the main road and take a right, towards the Fiery Furance viewpoint, stopping along the way to take photos of the landscape.
Our next stop is the Skyline Arch. Once again, we alight and start the hike together but my parents and aunt turn back after taking some photos with the arch in the background. It’s a short hike to the base of the arch and I continue onward until the path ends in a pile of rocks. I climb up on them to see if there’s a path beyond, but it looks like it’s the end of the road.
We drive to the penultimate stop of our trip, parking at the Devil’s Garden Trailhead. It’s the furthest point we’ll drive to in the park. The full loop is too long to hike, but a sign indicates that the hike to the Landscape arch is doable in a relatively short amount of time. I tell my parents I’ll be back in half an hour and set off from the parking lot. It turns out to be a little longer.
Devil’s Garden is an apt moniker for this area of the park. The path is paved, an easy walk, but there is no shade and I am walking with pace. I’m glad to have brought two bottles of water with me as I take deep gulps during my infrequent pauses, checking the time.
It’s worth the hike to see one of the longest arches in the world, however. The Landscape Arch almost seems impossibly thin as it stretches across the desert. It seems so brittle that the slightest pressure might cause it to break. I feel fortunate to have been able to see it.
On the walk back I run into a couple I had seen walking the path back from the North Window. I had paused to let them take a photo without me in the background. He had said it was ok, but I told him I wanted the background to be clear for the ’gram. She had laughed.
She admires my camera and we trade Instagram handles. They’re looking forward to seeing my photos and I theirs. After our brief exchange, I apologize for running ahead; I have parents waiting for me at the car.
On the drive back to the entrance we stop by a few turnouts to take photos of the monuments and landscape we have seen, but from the opposite point of view. The skies are a shade of blue that seems reserved for Pixar movies and part of me laments that this landscape has been bastardized into the backdrop of Radiator Springs at Walt Disney World; it almost makes me question that such natural beauty could exist in the world.
Nearing the entrance we stop at the Park Avenue viewpoint. We stand at the trailhead and take photos down into the valley and into the park. I point out a rock spire to my mom. It looks like Queen Nefertiti in profile. My mother nods in assent.
By the time we leave the park we are starving. We’ve spent over five hours driving and hiking and admiring the ethereal landscape. Perhaps a better pop culture reference would be the paintings Bill Waterson made as backdrops for Calvin’s Spaceman Spiff adventures. They’re as dynamic and as evocative and as otherwordly. It’s truly incredible.
24 May 2023
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