Arches National Park: Tower Arch

After walking one of the most popular trails our first day here, we decided to hike to on of the more remote arches our second day--Tower Arch. Tower Arch is located a little over 7 miles off the main road. The road is gravel all the way. When we arrived, we were the only car in the parking area. As we set out over the first ridge, we noticed the terrain was a bit more difficult than that at Delicate Arch.

  Once we made it over two ridges, it was relatively easy going to the arch.

Unfortunately, as Bob went to get our camera off a rock after this picture, he bumped it and it fell on the ground. The lens cover didn't want to retract and we thought there wouldn't be any more pictures this hike. After working with the camera for a bit, turning it on and off many times, the lens cover started working correctly!
 
Then it was on with our hike to Tower Arch.  Little did we know when we stopped for this picture that Tower Arch was near! The tall spire with the boulder on top stands behind Tower Arch.

 To get to the arch, we had to walk between the fins. Once through the fins, there was Tower Arch!

You don't realize how big the arches are until you stand under one and have your picture taken.

 Bob and I had the arch to ourselves for about ten minutes, then another couple arrived. We talked with them a bit and found out they were from Gaineseville, Florida! What are the chances of that? Well, we talked for a while, found out her parents live in Deltona and she attended Timbercrest Elementary. It is definitely a small world.
While they were with us we searched for the carving at the base of the arch and finally found it. It was made by a man instrumental in having Arches declared a monument.

 Time for us to head back. Bob took a picture of the view from the top of one of our original ridges. We could see Devil's Garden in the distance.

 After we got back to the rv, we had some lunch and a little down time. Then it was off to explore the rocks behind our campsite.

 

We had fun goofing around. This is a great area to camp.  So far the days have been warm and the nights just right, but according to the weather reports, that is about to change.

Later that night, after we were in bed, Bob heard 'someone' getting into his chips. He checked to see if I was still in bed, I was, and then he headed into the kitchen to find the culprit. It was a mouse! He set out traps and finally caught the critter. A trip to the store was put on the schedule for Saturday. We needed more chips and a big covered plastic container to keep them safe from other little critters. DON'T MESS WITH BOB'S CHIPS!

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah--Delicate Arch and Park Avenue

Driving from Devil's Canyon Campground to Devil's Garden in Arches National Park was about two hours. We stopped at Wilson Arch south of Moab to snag a geocache.

Once we arrived at Arches, we still had eighteen miles to travel before we reached our destination! The campground is located at the end of the park road. The views were amazing as we traveled through the park to our site.

After setting up camp we sat outside and  scoured the park brochure to find out what hikes were available, their length, and their locations in the park. Then it was down time. It was such a beautiful day, Bob and I both sat outside and read our Kindles! Later that evening we took a walk around the campground. This is the view at the back of our campsite.

Thursday morning found us readying for a hike. We decided to be tourists and hike one of the most popular trails first--Delicate Arch. If you have ever seen Utah's license plate, Delicate Arch is the one pictured on the plate. The hike to Delicate Arch is 3 miles round trip. There is a change in elevation of 480 feet. And I can say it changes pretty fast going up!

The first stop on the hike was Wolfe Ranch. It was settled in the 1880's. It is hard to believe that 5 people lived in this one room cabin at one time! There was barely room for the kitchen table.

Then it was onward and upward. The trail had switchbacks at the beginning, then it was a straight up walk on slickrock (not slick unless it is wet, just the name of the rock!) to get to the top of the ridge.

Once at the top of the ridge and down a ways on the other side, we had to walk a ledge to get to the viewing area for Delicate Arch.

Of course, we didn't stop there, Bob and I continued on to the base of the arch. There was a huge bowl that had been carved about the same time as the arch that made walking interesting.

We stayed for a while, taking pictures of tourists and having our picture taken.

 

I have to say there was more German and French conversation wafting in the breeze than English. That has been our observation at all the national parks and monuments so far this trip. We ate a protein snack, Bob dropped a peanut and out of no where a ground squirrel came and snatched it!

Time to make the descent! It was our turn to tell people, "keep going, you're almost there, just over the ridge and across the ledge, it is worth the trip!" Usually when we said across the ledge some faces looked aghast. We explained it was a WIDE ledge and worth the walk.

This is a view of the slickrock as we were going back down to the parking area.

When we got down the slickrock and almost to the parking area, we took the side path to view the petroglyphs. An elderly couple with canes was trying to decide whether or not to make the trip to the arch and we told them about the slickrock hike to the top. They decided to go to the lower viewing area a bit further down the road.

Once back in the car, we returned to the rv for lunch and to plan our next adventure. Our decision was to head into Moab to find the post office so we could get our mail forwarded before we leave the area. On our way back to our campsite, we decided to stop at Park Avenue to do the one mile hike which for us was two miles as we didn't have anyone to pick us up at the other end!

 

We enjoyed our late afternoon hike as there were very few others hiking at that time of day.

 

Then it was time to head back to the rv to plan our second day of adventure at Arches National Park! And yes, we have phone and Internet at the campground!

Blanding, Utah--Base Camp to Adventure! Sept. 27 to Oct. 2

Blanding was just a short drive from Goosenecks. Bob found a National Forest campground nine miles north of Blanding that looked promising. When we arrived we were pleased with the accommodations!

 The campground had been recently refurbished and the site we chose got excellent sun during the day for our solar panels. Of course there were no hookups, but a water faucet was nearby so we could replenish our diminishing water supply! In addition to being a great campsite, we had great phone, Internet and television reception, which we found unusual considering the remoteness of Devil's Canyon Campground.

Once we were set up, we drove back toward Blanding collecting geocaches along the way. There were several near Recapture Dam and Lake, but some were missing.

When we arrived in Blanding we toured the Visitor Center and picked up another cache as well as information on things to do in the area.

Then it was back to the rv to plan our activities until time to move on to Moab on Oct. 3. Plan A: visit Canyonlands National Park, Needles District on Friday.

Bob downloaded geocaches along our route to Canyonlands. It was a nice drive to a park we hadn't yet visited. One of our first stops was a campground/restaurant where a geocache was located. We never would have noticed this place if we hadn't been geocaching.

Our next stop was at Newspaper Rock. It is on BLM land. This rock has been used for many years for Ancient Puebloans and pioneers to carve their stories.

 Our next stop was an old uranium mine. There was a geocache located in the rocks above the mine entrance.

 Then it was on to Canyonlands NP!

We looked around the visitor's center, talked to a ranger about the hikes available and off we went to tour the park. Canyonlands has three distinct sections and we were touring the Needles District. The other two sections can't be reached from this one! They are Island in the Sky and The Maze.

 We chose to hike the Pothole Point Trail, Cave Spring Trail and Roadside Ruin Trail. As we drove from Roadside Ruin to Cave Spring Trail we passed the Wooden Shoe Arch.

 

 Bob and I found that ladders are a standard feature of the trails in this area!

 This is a replica of an old cattle operation located on the Cave Spring Trail.

We enjoyed our hikes in Canyonlands......

....and our drive back to the campground. We took a different route back--one that took us over Blue Mountain. The leaves were changing at the higher elevations.

 The mountain had a patchwork of green (pinon pines and Utah junipers), red (oaks), and yellow (aspens). It has been quite a long time since we have seen foliage colors like this.

Once back at the campground, it was time to make Plan B for Saturday. It looked like more geocaching as we drove to another great national monument--Natural Bridges.

Saturday morning, as we drove toward Natural Bridges, we stopped at Mule Canyon to visit an Ancient Puebloan kiva ruin. It is interesting to see all the ruins in the area.

Then it was on to Natural Bridges National Monument. It is a smaller park than Canyonlands, and it has different features.

After the prerequisite visit to the visitor's center, we drove the nine mile loop road to view the three bridges. Our first stop was Sipapu Bridge. There was a hike that goes to the bottom of the bridge, so off we went after viewing it from above. There was a change of 500 feet in elevation. We did much better on this hike than we did on the one at Canyon de Chelly. I think we're getting used to the higher elevations.

Of course, there was not one, not two, but three ladders to assist in the descent to the canyon floor. This was the easiest ladder of the three.

Here is view of the arch from about halfway down.

 Here we are at the bottom of the arch. It was cool under the arch and at one time there was water running through the canyon floor. On this day there was just a small pool of water.

 As we continued our drive, we stopped at the Horseshoe Ruins Overlook. It got its name from the shape of the doors cut into the granaries.

 Then it was on to view the other two bridges--Kachina....

.....and Owachomo. We hiked to the bottom of Owachomo since it only had a change in elevation of 180 feet.

 Then it was time to head back to the rv. Of course we geocached on the way back since we still had plenty of daylight. Once we got back, we sat outside and enjoyed the sunset/moonrise. This picture was taken facing east. The sunset provided the blues and pinks as the moon rose above the horizon.

Sunday was our chore day---UGH! We needed to do laundry. Since most stores are closed in Utah small towns on Sunday, we were hoping that the laundromats wouldn't follow suit! We were lucky, one of the two laundromats was open! After we got our laundry done and back to the rv, we had lunch and decided to do some more geocaching. This time we headed east of the campground along county roads (translation - gravel) looking for BLM Three Kiva Pueblo.
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Our first geocache stop was at the top of a canyon. We looked and looked, but could not find this one. However, we did enjoy the view.

We found Three Kiva Pueblo, no caches here, but we did enjoy looking around the site.

We even climbed down into the kiva to have a look around. I can say that the Ancient Puebloans must not have been very tall as we had to duck.

 From Three Kiva Pueblo we headed south back to town.. We found another geocache named Ruins and Petroglyphs so we were surprised to see ruins and petroglyphs that were unprotected near the cache.

  We think this may have been a granary because of its shape.

After arriving back at the rv after a successful afternoon of caching, we decided to walk to the lower campground loop and hike the short nature trail. What a surprise to find ruins across the canyon from the trail!

Monday we did some grocery shopping and visited Edge of the Cedars State Park in Blanding. The state park  has quite a collection of artifacts found in the area and was well worth the visit. Behind the museum is a rebuilt ruin, complete with kiva.

Our last day was also spent geocaching, but this time in the town of Monticello. Our first stop took us to a memorial park that used to be a vanadium mining site during World War II. After the war it was used to process uranium. Needless to say all sorts of problems resulted from that process. Today the site is a park complete with a walking trail to memorialize those affected by the uranium.

After a walk through that park, we went to Lloyd's Lake, and  found two caches as we hiked around the lake.

Then it was back to the rv so we could get ready for a day of travel. Next stop Devil's Garden Campground in Arches National Park. At this point we don't know if we will have Internet or phone service, but if we do, I'll post every few days. We will be there for a week!