Smoky and Shann's Excellent Adventures: Day 21--Arches National Park (with update)

I have two words for Arches National Park: hot and crowded. That's the Shann talking who had just spend four hours hiking on a really hot day. Temperatures were predicted for the 90s, and I'd say they were that for sure! The sky was almost cloudless, so unless you could find a tree that wasn't already occupied by a hiker in the same condition or a large overhanging rock, you were stuck in the heat.

Cactus are starting to bloom everywhere.

Now I have some more words for Arches:

Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch

Trail from Landscape Arch

Incredibly beautiful -- As soon as we had driven up the switch-back road and topped the crest, it was apparent that this was a special place. Every direction you looked held your gaze because of it's striking beauty. Not only were the rock formations out of this world, the wildflowers are abundant. According to one ranger, this is one of the best wildflower years in quite a while.
Well loved -- I say this for several reasons. There were lots of people there today, so something important must be drawing them to Arches. These people were from all over the world. Most of them treated the park with a great deal of respect. I saw only a few people stepping off the path, and I heard some gentle reminders about this. There was no trash anywhere. And, most important, the people I saw were for the most part conscious of those around them and didn't hog the arches. Of course there were a few exceptions, but not many considering how many people were in the park.

We arrived reasonably early this morning. Well, early for us! Smoky thought we might avoid some of the crowds by driving to the end of the park first and working our way back. When we got to Devil's Garden, the very large parking lot was practically full. So much for our theory of beating the crowd.

We started down the trail, stopping first at Pine Tree Arch. It was a relatively short trail to this one, which was a good way to start. There was also a little shade, which I appreciated a lot!

After Pine Tree Arch, we headed on toward Landscape Arch. This one was a good bit further away, and by now the mid-day sun was beating down on us. Lots of people walked this trail with us, some much faster and a few a little slower. The trail was fairly wide but involved a lot of up and down hiking. Landscape Arch was worth the hike. It is the longest natural arch in the park and in the world.

Raven watching hikers.

Whip tail lizard (maybe)

Smoky got some great photos of the area, and we headed back to the trail head. On the way to the car, we were greeted by a raven, who was sitting regally on the fence post, eyeing everyone who passed by. Smoky decided he must be on the payroll, along with the small lizard who had posed for his photograph earlier!

We found an empty table in a picnic area nearby, and brought out our lunch, which consisted of plain sandwiches made of last night's leftover Idaho Trout (the trout was wonderful), some fruit, and a cookie and some chocolate. While we ate our lunch, some folks came up to claim the one remaining table. By the time their whole crew was there, I counted 10 people. I'm not sure what they had for lunch, but one of their coolers was quite large, and it took several people to bring the other bags of food! Now that's the way to picnic!

By 2:30 we decided to get out of the hot sun for a while. I think the heat got to me today, so I opted to stay in the motel and do the laundry while Smoky returned to Arches for late afternoon photos.

Update: Smoky proved his mettle, recharging his batteries with the beautiful late afternoon light. Here are some of the photos he liked the best: