24 Jul 2023 - Arches National Park Visitor Center; North & South Arches, Turret Arch, Double Arch

 

This morning we used the second of our two timed entry passes into Arches National Park.  We arrived in the park at 0824 hrs with no line and headed for the Visitor Center.  Nothing like waiting until the last day to stop by the Visitor Center!  

The Visitor Center has a great souvenir shop and some educational displays.  They also offer a movie that explains a lot about the park and we did not want to leave without seeing it. The movie was entitled "Arches - Window in Time".  One of the main points is how the Arches are continuously evolving.  Erosion eventually destroys them and that same erosion creates them, over a very long time. 

  

  We then headed to an area down the road just beyond Balanced Rock known as the 'Windows Section'.  We wanted to hike a bit more and see a few more arches before we wrapped up our stay here.  It is amazing that there are over 2000 arches in the park, so we are just scratching the surface.  Traveling there we took a few more pictures of interesting formations.

The Windows Section was quite busy but we found parking and headed down the trail.    From this one miles trail loop we could see  several arches and the hike was fairly easy.   We first hiked to the Turret Arch.  

The trail splits to the North (shown) and South Windows Arches, 

or Turret Arch so we beared right

The Turret Arch came into view quickly

From Turret Arch we continued on the loop and quickly the South Window came into view.  

There is a trail down to the base of the South Window Arch, which we took along with others.  

The South Window Arch.

From the base you can either hike to the south and east behind the South Window Arch, or climb back up from the base and hike north to the North Window Arch, which we chose.

  

A short hike revealed the North Window Arch and of course it was very busy.   

We waited for the crowd to clear a bit and then took a picture of Doreen in the center of the arch.  

Doreen is just a speck standing under the arch!

The rock around the top of the arch looks like it could give way at any time, 

but it will likely last for a very long time. 

The hike down from there back to the parking area is a bit steep, but they have built stone steps to assist in the footing.  

On the other side of the parking lot is the trail to Double Arch.  The hike is only about 0.6 miles and you don't have to move your vehicle.  

This stop was very successful but after our time at the Visitor Center and these hikes, it was time for us to head back towards the campground.  On the way back we stopped at the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint and took pictures of 'The Organ' which is an amazing rock formation which resembles a pipe organ with a row of "keys" along the bottom.

The Organ

Across the street is the likely remains of a very old arch or arches that have collapsed.  

Geologists believe this is what the arch(es) looked like.

How it looks today

We called it a day at Arches National Park and headed back to the campground.  After lunch we went to the local grocery store and reloaded on provisions.  After we leave here we head to Mesa Verde, then Monument Valley followed by Grand Canyon south rim, so we will not be seeing any larger towns likely until we get to Las Vegas.  

Tomorrow I will take Doreen downtown to do laundry and I will return to the campground to take care of some maintenance tasks while it is still relatively "cool" HA!  The thermometer hit 103F and it may be a degree or two cooler tomorrow.  We have really enjoyed our stay here.  The campground is very adequate and the staff is friendly.  The national and state parks we have visited here were amazing.  We are very glad we allotted six nights for this stop.