Delicate Arch and the Park Avenue Trail

September 3, 2014
Portal RV Park near
Arches National park
Moab Utah

Before I show you our hike to the beautiful Delicate Arch I want to ask if those of you on the email subscription list are having trouble with the link to the blog working.  I’ve had a couple of people for whom it isn’t going to the post.  Please let me know by email or in the comments if that’s happening to you so I can trace the problem.

 

After driving through the gorgeous Salt Valley (if you missed it, don’t.  See it here),  we drive on to the Delicate Arch Parking lot.  It’s getting to be later in the morning and the heat is climbing.  High of 95 today they say.  So we decide we don’t actually need to hike the 3 mile round trip trail to stand under Delicate Arch since with the way we hike it could take us 2 hours or more to go up and come back.

Instead we opt for the upper viewpoint and that turns out to be really great since it seems most folks have decided they do have to stand right beneath it.  There are a lot of people over there.

 

 

 

This trail starts out unsuspectingly easy but then turns into steps climbing straight up to a slick rock ridge.  It’s a little over half a mile one way.

 

 

 

 

 

Well the viewpoint trail ends but David is going on up the slick rock to get an even better view.   Guess this sign is to tell those who want to be finished hiking that they are.  Doesn’t seem we can hurt the slick rock by walking on further.  So we do.

 

 

 

Here’s about how far away we really are from the arch.  3/4 of a mile I’m told.  Can you see it over there on the left end of the far right formations?

 

 

 

But with binoculars and  cameras we can see this lovely arch really well.

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The people look  like ants.

 

 

We get our picture with the arch.   Aren’t we a pair?? 

 

The views walking back are great!

 

 

That little speck of red is David. Everything but us seems really big in Utah.

 

 

 

By now it’s mid day and the heat is really coming on.  This is what our indoor/outdoor thermometer says later in the afternoon.  Thank goodness we are at Portal RV where the AC is keeping Winnona  16 degrees cooler inside than out.  We’d be cooking if we were boondocking in the Arches campground.  Good campground decision for this time of year I say to myself.  The temperatures for the next 4 days are expected to be in the low to mid 90’s.  Whew…..

 

 

 

We had just gotten here yesterday when airstream trailers started moving in.  First one or two and then more and more.

 

 

When I went up to do the laundry, I commented to the two women in the laundry room that there was an airstream invasion and they said yes there was and they are part of it. Seems we are sharing the campground with an Airstream caravan. They are spending 7 weeks touring the Southwest together. 29 rigs and 54 people.  We have rows of airstreams here.  I’m lucky I could get a reservation.

 

One of those people is the inspiring Beverly Kuhn.   She and her husband were full timers for quite a few years before he died. 

She sold their larger airstream trailer  and bought this cute little airstream van and now at age 82 she still travels around with her new furry companion.  She’s a trustee of her Airstream club in San Diego California where she lives in an Escapees park when she’s not traveling. 

I can’t remember if she said she’s done 11 or 15 of these caravans and just loves it.  I went over to her rig this afternoon to chat with her and asked if I could put some pictures up on my blog.  She’s a real inspiration.  I sure hope I am that young and spry when I’m 82.

 

 

After dinner David and I head out to hike the Park Avenue Trail now that the heat has let up.

The Park Avenue Trail is an easy one mile hike along a canyon floor offering close up views of balanced rocks, massive fins, and lofty monoliths.  They suggest you might want to begin at the Park Avenue parking lot, walk the trail and have someone pick you up at the end near Courthouse Towers at a second parking lot.   We don’t have anyone to pick us up so we are going to do an out and back of 2 miles.

 

One of the first things I see is the monolith they call Nefertiti.  And it looks exactly like every statue or drawing I’ve ever seen of her.  Now that’s amazing.  

Nefertiti who lived from 1370 BC to 1330 BC was the “great royal wife” of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten.   She was made famous by the bust statue made of her, now in Berlin’s Neus Museum. The bust is one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt.  This picture of it is from Wikipedia.  You can find out more about this Queen who is considered an icon of beauty by clicking on her name above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nefertiti is on the canyon wall to our left.  The canyon’s other side is bathed in shadows.

 

We look down and can see our trail below us.

 

The shadows change as we start down the rocky trail

 

 

Remember these steps, you’ll see them again when we climb back up but they’ll be going somewhere different.

 

 

 

Because evening is coming on the shadows darken some areas of the canyon. But the sun shines its golden light on others and it changes as we walk along.

 

 

 

 

We come to the wash and the bottom is a rock face with the most beautiful designs.  I wonder if the ocean floor could look like this.  Is it rock too?   It’s almost overwhelming to look up at the massive rocks and amazing to look down at the designs.

 

 

The rock face goes on and on.  Can’t you just see the water flowing?  

 

 

 

David contemplates crossing the river.

 

 

Reminds me of paper marbling.

 

Yes you have come to today’s over done picture section.  It’s just so beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can see the mouth of the canyon and Courthouse towers from quite a distance away.   That little bitty white dot is the moon rising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skies begin to color.

 

 

 

With that color in the sky we know the sun is down and the canyon will quickly be getting too dark to see. Of course we have not remembered to bring flashlights. We never think we’ll be gone that long and we always seem to be. You’d think we’d learn. But instead we just hustle up our pace to return. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We look back as we hurry along watching the color develop in the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

Before I even reach the steps I’m singing “I’ll build a stairway to heaven, I’ll climb to the highest star”.  Or at least to the moon.

 

 

 

Nefertiti, silhouetted against the blue black sky, bids us a silent good night  What a wonderful hike to take in the evening.  Probably in the morning too.  Hope you get to do it some day.  Hope we get to do it again!