Across the Country-day 11-Arches National Park

Day 11 In Moab
The pictures are worth a thousand words. It is beautiful country. The Green River...

Today we are off the see the Arches National Park. started in 1971. The aches are caused by salt beds.
The largest arch in the park is called Landscape Arch which is 306 feet span.  In 1991 a 60 ton rock slab fell creating 180 tons of new rocks on the ground. I don't have a picture of the Arch..

ī,

I have left my foot here as a reference. This is an oak tree that is 40 years old. Small due to lack of water.

You can see here the layer cake affect ..water, sand, water, sand...

This arch  is 23 feet high.

Balanced Rkō,, ock..only 3500 tons of stone.

Rogers holding up Balanced Rocks..

If you look at the people, it should give you a reference as to the size of these rocks.

Our guide told us that 1/2 million bikers come every year to go on the 68 trails that weave through the sand dunes.

If you can't read this, the arch is 35 feet high and 33 feet wide.

I had to take this on a zoom lens. There is a big drop off between me and the arch so it is impossible to hike from my position. I am so disappointed by the rain because the colors of these rocks are magnificient.  The oranges and reds are unbelievable. I am disappointed because I have seen the beauty of these and David and the kids are not experiencing the magnificent colors that I am aware of.

Rain drops on the windshield..This is where Indiana Jones was filmed. Called the Cove of Caves.

 There are about 2,000 arches including the Delicate Arch.  The Park encompasses 76,679 acres.

 There have been 43 arches that have collapsed since 1971.  It started to rain again..

We stopped to have lunch in Moab and the kids thought this was funny. I told them that Grampa could make them one when we got back to Joe's pond.  We had them as kids.  For those that are too young, you put an elastic on the clip first and then on the barrel end.  Ready, Aim, Shoot.....

On our night tour our tour guide would point out all kinds of faces formed in the rocks.  We got to hear some of the same stories because our guide was the same one we had during the day...

ET go home......

The eye of an alligator.

Then as it got dark the lights from a truck on the road across the river would shine on the rocks and the guide would tell stories. Fun.  The locals know not to drive down that part of the road at that time of night because of the blinding thousands of watts that it took to illuminate the  rocks.

Salt here has potassium rather than sodium....so I am told....

We leave here to travel onto Canyonlands

See you there....