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Arches National Park Day 2 & 3: More amazing arches

Another day and Elise and Samuels first chance to see Arches NP after a well needed rest day.  Eric was happy to go back for more.  First stop was the walk to the famous Delicate Arch, one of the most photographed natural sights in all of the USA.  But it's not just the arch that is photogenic.  The walk to the arch (a bit over a mile each way) provides some lovely panoramas.

The Arch itself is a super popular sight and it's very hard to get a photo without someone in the shot.  Eventually we did.  It's easy to see why this is one of the most famous of arches, it's not the biggest but its classical shape plus it's location at the top of a sharpish ridge really creates an impression.

There's quite a few nasty drops around Delicate Arch including a few rock slabs that start out in a gentle slope before getting steeper and steeper and eventually dropping off into near vertical cliffs.  A few brave people were happy to wander down the sloping rock to positions that looked uncomfortable (or downright scary) to us.  Speaking of uncomfortable, the last part of the walk in and out is along the coolest most awesome looking natural rock ledge.

At the end of the walk we visited some petroglyphs made by the local Native American tribe.

Followed by a short walk further down the road taking in vistas of Delicate Arch from the foot of the mountains.

Next stop was the area of the park known as The Windows.  The Windows features some of the more massive arches in the park and we took a few short walks here.  First to the North and South Windows and Turret Arch.  Things were quite busy in this part of the park including the family right out of National Lampoons American Vacation who proceeded to bog their car in the car park and then let the kids run amok all around the Turret while people were trying to take photos.
Elise on the trail to the Windows



Turret Arch

The Windows

Just across the way from the Windows, Double Arch is one of the more massive features in the park.

We'd seen a lot of arches so a trip to Balanced Rock gave Elise and Samuel some variety and a chance to see this crazy rock which Eric had visited the day before.  This was our last stop for the day.

The next morning we decided to make one last visit to the park on the way out of Moab.  This allowed Samuel to pick up his Junior Ranger Badge and add yet another NP to his growing list of Ranger Qualifications.  We also took a quick walk down Park Avenue to the Courthouse Towers to see these huge and inspiring rock walls.  The walk meandered down a dry river with lots of interestingly textured bare rock slabs which meant the interesting scenery wasn't just confined to the big cliffs and towers overhead.

And with that we said farewell to Arches and hit the road back to Colorado.

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