Aussies with Altitude: Spring Break - Arches National Park, Utah

This is pretty representative of our time in the National Park!

We drove from Grand Junction to Arches National Park, in Utah. It was only a few hours down the road, and the landscape changed dramatically from mountains to red desert, but still with heaps of rocky outcrops. Arches National Park has the largest concentration of sandstone arches found anywhere in the world, with over 2,500 arches found and recorded in the National Park. The sandstone arches, towers and other shapes are a result of water carving, chiselling and cracking the rock. They are constantly changing as a result of erosion, and only a few years ago a piece of one of the arches fell away, and some tourists who were standing close by, though fortunately not too close, recorded it on video!

The Three Gossips

We got the Junior Rangers booklet from the Visitors Centre for the boy’s to complete; as well as some water which is tapped from an underground spring, and headed off on the drive through the park. The National Parks promote water conservation, and also refilling a reusable water bottle. It is really cheap to buy bottled water in the supermarkets – like $3 for a pack of 24, six hundred millilitre bottles, so a lot of people drink bottled water. It is interesting to observe them trying to change habits, and behaviours!

Balanced Rock

One of the first, and my favourite rock formations was The Three Gossips. They are pretty cool, and you can see them from the edge of the road. Next on our drive, we saw Balanced Rock, which pretty much speaks for itself! We only had a few hours in the park, as it was only a stop off on our way to Monument Valley, so we decided to walk to Delicate Arch, which is one of the most famous arches in the park. We had lunch before we started, and headed off on our hike. It was a 3 mile, ‘strenuous hike’ (we read later!).

We had just started on the first bit, which is a well -defined trail, when Ryan asked why we had to do this walk, as he had done it yesterday, and had seen it all before! It was going to be a long week, if every National Park looked the same to them J.The boys all did really well, as the trail disappeared, and we then crossed over some slick rock. We had plenty of water, but there was not much shade on the walk – but Quinn managed to find some, to have a little rest!

The trail climbs steadily, and levels out toward the top of the rock face, before you get to Delicate Arch. It is an amazing view, but a bit nerve wracking with three boys who climb like mountain goats, and no edges on the side of the trails, only a sheer drop! However, we all made it up and back safely – though Quinn did get a ride on Phil’s shoulders on the way down.

We saw a little squirrel up near the Arch, (which is what Quinn is pointing at, in the photo above)and the boys were fascinated, as they are when we see the ones in the backyard at Castle Rock. They were really friendly, and obviously very familiar with people climbing past every day – I expect that they might be there for any crumbs they can get from when people stop to snack, when they reach the Arch.

We had a lovely warm, sunny day to visit Arches National Park, and it was a beautiful park with some amazing sights to see! There are a lot more Rock formations, including the Devils Garden Area, which we did not have time to go and see. You could spend days here, and still not see it all, but we had a great time anyway, and were really pleased that we stopped in at Arches. The boys got their Junior Ranger badge here too, so began their collection!

Here are a few more pictures we took at Arches. It is pretty unique, and very pretty to see. And a photo of me, just to prove that I was there too!