Friday, September 21, 2007 ;
1:18 PM
Sep 19
Wed
Moab is the gateway to 2 of Utah's lovely National Parks: Canyonlands and Arches. We only had time for Arches this trip.
Moab is also where many movies were shot, and there were really many tourists in Moab, though the summer holidays were already over.
The scenery is really awesome, breathtaking, can someone give me more adjectives to use? Run out of great-sounding adjectives already. Nothing can describe how we feel when we hike amongst the towering rocks.
Arches and delicate structures are formed when the salts in between hard rock layers get eroded away with time and weather changes. Resulting in such beautiful works of art.
This is the most famous arch in the NP. Called the delicate arch, it is used as the background of the Utah Centennial car licence plate. So all the cars driving around sport this on their cars. Our Paseo has this plate too.
We hiked 2 different trails for 2 different views of the arch. Hiking to the arch itself can be done too, but we didn't cos it'd take 5 hours maybe?
Anyway, when we were hiking to the Upper view point of the arches, so many people coming down from there were telling us it's very steep and suggest for us to go to the lower one instead, seeing we have 2 young kids.
Of course, true to our hiking nature, we smiled but ignored their suggestions. Not just one group told us, but more than one. However, they were all well-dressed Americans (ie used to cushy life, not rough-it-out hiking), so they probably think that trail is difficult and steep. Not our sons. :-)
They walked the whole trail by themselves. We don't hurry them of course. It wasn't as bad as the Inspiration Point one at Grand Teton. And the view was worth it (see above pic). Much better than at Lower view. We went to the Lower viewpoint too.
Below shows some pics from the Lower viewpoint.
Above left: this one was really funny. We were standing right in front of the Delicate Arch, and asked someone to take a family pic for us. This is what he took. huh? Where's the Arch?
We did other trails too, within the Devils Gardens and the Windows Section.
Above: me and kids, then dh and kids, hiking through the Devils Gardens.
Weather was extremely hot and dry. No wonder they call it the Devil's Gardens. Not many plants and animals can survive here. And this was not even summer. Notice plants couldn't grow very much, most are short shrubs.
Fauna? They say the Bighorn sheep are in the Park, but they're in hiding and mostly in the higher parts of the mountains. 
So we managed to spot mostly insects. These 2 animals are the most unique already. Above left: a lizard. Above right: A Bombardier Beetle.
Above: the Landscape Arch. It's very thin in the middle already. Not known how much longer it can withstand the elements of nature.
Below: we drove to the Windows Section. Saw "The Parade of Elephants" formation of rocks. This was the leading elephant. :-)
Across the park, there'd be signs reminding visitors not to take any of the red rock of Arches NP. The rocks are really glistening red/ orange and very beautiful. Even in our motel in Moab, there are signs saying "Please do not use our towels to wipe the red rock dust from your cars, bicycles or shoes. " :-)
Also saw this cute rock formation called "The Balanced Rock" below.
Just before getting out to hike the Windows Section, ds2 fell asleep in his car seat. Still holding on to our lunch drink. (Below right)
So dh and ds1 got out to hike while I stayed with ds2 in the car. It was so hot! Grrrr. But I don't relish carrying him around while hiking too. So...
Above left: A glimpse of the North and South Windows.
Above left: you can see ds1 as a tiny figure in an orange top standing right below the arch. He hiked all the way there first, ahead of dh, so dh could take these few photos.
Below left: caves within the rocks.
After that, which took almost 2hours, we left Arches to continue on our journey back home in Northern Utah.
Reached home at around 9pm. Tired but happy.
Random pic below: ds2 loved his Crayola markers so much -- besides drawing on paper and on his hands, he decided his face should be decorated too. Found him like that, in horror (me, not him. he was happy). Dh couldn't take it and took a pic of him, while I was carrying him to have a look at himself in the mirror.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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Across the park, there'd be signs reminding visitors not to take any of the red rock of Arches NP. The rocks are really glistening red/ orange and very beautiful. Even in our motel in Moab, there are signs saying "Please do not use our towels to wipe the red rock dust from your cars, bicycles or shoes. " :-)
