Day 3: Five star hiking experience

November 8th, 2005

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Do you know there are more than 2000 natural arches in the Arches National Park (to qualify as an arch, the hole must have a diameter bigger than 3 feet so not all the hole in the rock can be an arch in the park), but most people go to the Park with just one goal, see the Delicate Arch. In deed, delicate arch is a truely iconic: The Utah state automobile plate uses Delicate Arch as their state symbol (like NC uses the first plane in flight as their symbol) and even US National Park Services uses Delicate Arch as their symbol. It becomes a must-see to Arches National Park, but it was not too easy to see it in close distance, you have to take a long walk (3 mile round trip, 2-3 hours of walking).

The reason I liked the hiking to see the arch is the actual experience: it is truly unique and you have to experience yourself to feel the power. The walk can be strenous to someone who are afraid of heights and you will walk on slickrocks (there wasn’t any trail except someone left marks on the rock) and use the ledges of cliffs, and best of all, you have no clue whatsoever on where is the goal and how far you are away until you made the last turn at the last minute. Actually I heard most following people’s first words after the arrival were: “Oh My God”.

The view at the first is truely spectacular. Mt La Sal sits far in the background (Mt La Sal has snow at its peak all year long). The surrouding cliffs created the feeling of the height while not impacting the openess of the view. The arch stands out at the edge of a cliff. The arch is like a muscular soldier - the texture of the rock due to the wind and water make the arch looks strong. You can easily feel the pressure from it.

The Delicate Arch spot is most crowded at sunset hours during a day, and during the peak season there could be more than 200 people sitting on the top of the mountain at the same time to enjoy the view. The day we picked to visit was Monday and since the sky was really cloudy, so not really too many people were with us, actually by the time we arrived, we are the only visitor (a couple of others arrived later on). So this gave me a great privilage to take Delicate Arch photos from almost every possible angle - I ended up with about 80 shots of the same arch!

The nature created the delicate arch and it will eventually destroy it, the arch will erode or colapse due to wind, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you should pay it a visit.

Entry Filed under: Travel