Arches National Park, Utah

After spending a night at a campground in Grand Junction, Colorado, our batteries and devices were charged (generator not yet looked at), it was Saturday morning, and we wanted to go explore. We decided to go to Moab for the day.




Sledding down on a sand hill looked like so much fun (sand in unmentionable places, anyone?), but we decided to skip that. Instead, we went for a ride in Arches National Park. In the Mothership.




The road was crazy with hairpin turns, and while the driver stayed calm and collected, some of us needed to close our eyes, pray and quote scripture on several occasions.




What an amazing place! The rock formations were incredible.




Arches National Park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, and hundreds of pinnacles, massive fins and balanced rocks. There is an auto road that takes about a half a day to drive around with stops.  We saw the Windows Section, Wolfe Ranch, and Delicate Arch Viewpoint, and turned around at the Devil's Garden area. Which covers pretty much the entire park by vehicle. There's more to see if you take hikes - we only took one short hike, and walked around a little bit at most stops.




We saw another climber. What a insane brave thing to do!




We all loved this park. And were so glad our visit was in October - the weather was the hottest so far on our trip, but not unbearable. The temps can exceed 100F in the summer!




This whole area has an underground salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths.




In the late 1800s, John Wesley Wolfe, a disabled Civil War veteran, and his son, Fred, built a homestead in what is now Arches National Park. A weathered log cabin, root cellar, and corral remain as evidence of the primitive ranch they operated for more than 10 years. (From NPS website.)





Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, is definitely a stop worth making. Along our travels we felt each new place was a "new favorite", so it was with Moab, also. A favorite so far!




Since we had not planned our trip west at all much, many of these places, like the Arches, came to us as delightful surprises. The Captain had seen some of them before, but for the rest of us didn't really know what to expect, and were so in awe of God's amazing creation. So different from anything on the east coast (or northern Europe!).




We encountered a little excitement at the end of our ride. A tour bus had broken down on the side of the road. We were so thankful the Mothership handled our challenging ride just fine.

Our next blog post will still be from Moab - a slightly different perspective coming up next!

*************************************************************************************

Teimme päiväretken Utah'in osavaltioon Coloradosta. Kävimme Moab'in alueella olevalla Arches-kansallispuistossa. Puistossa oli autoreitti, jonka pystyi ajamaan asuntoautolla(kin), joten vietimme muutaman tunnin ajaen, ihastellen, valokuvaten, ja pysähdellen eri nähtävyyspaikoilla. Yhden pienen kävelyretken teimme myös. Uskomattoman upea paikka! Yksi suosikeistamme (taas:)

Seuraava blogipostaus tulee Moab'ista myös, mutta vähän eri näkökulmasta.