Arches National Park — Utah, August 16-17, 2015

When we naively arrived at the campground at the Arches Nat’l Park on August 16, we learned that they were “full”, and that reservations were usually necessary months in advance.  We stopped at the visitor center and watched the orientation movie, where we learned that the Park contains the largest concentration of arches in the world — more than 2000.  We then went on to Moab and checked into the KOA campground.  Next morning, we detached our Chevy Tracker “dinghy” and went back to the busy and crowded Park to see some of the sights.  We had intended to begin early enough to avoid the heat, but somehow didn’t get to the trailhead for the Delicate Arch until about 8:30 am.  Fortunately, it was partially cloudy at that point and we traversed the “moderately difficult” trail without difficulty.  Nice arch, but crowded in the immediate vicinity.  On the way back along the path, we visited an historic log cabin farm house, and then a cliff with spectacular pictographs.  We drove to and stopped at several other locations, including the Balanced Rock and the Double Bridges sites.  At the latter I photographed a young couple having fun taking interesting pictures of each other.  By mid afternoon the temperatures had gotten uncomfortable, so we returned to the campsite for a second night before venturing further east.  But those adventures deserve their own blog entry.  See you then?