Friday, October 3, 2014

Most importantly for the day - Happy Birthday, Kate!  

We headed into Arches National Park for a ranger-guided tour at 10:30.  It was obvious we are not morning people - nearly missed the start of the hike from the Windows Wall parking area.  It was also clear you need to get to the parking area early in the busy season. Good thing our car is small - I cheated just a little on parking to get to the hike on time.

Ranger Glenn wanted to give us a little archaeology mixed with geology, to give us a sense of the people who have lived in the area. First stop was Turret Arch.

From here we could look back and see the Parade of Elephants as he pointed out the Carmel and Entrada Sandstone layers in the rock.  If you spot the elephant, he is in the entrada layer of sandstone and he is standing on the Carmel layer. (The color does not necessarily change between the two layers.)

This is called the Parade of Elephants.  Can you see the Elephant in the center of the picture?  

The Windows Section of the park was named for the North and South Windows in the wall below.  As we rounded the wall, the trail became more primitive.  At one point, an arrow just pointed left at a big rock.  A few of the group had a little trouble scrambling up the big boulders, but we all made it.

The La Sal mountains were visible in the background of many of our pictures, which was nice since there was no cloud drama.  I guess the beautiful rock formations should have been enough on their own, but I always like a little something extra.

Ranger Glenn was a wealth of information, pointing out different plants that the indigenous people used to survive and why they (the people) disappeared.

David is holding a twine made from yucca fibers.  The yucca was also used to make paint brushes (by chewing the leaves until they become fibrous.)

 The brown beads are dried pinyon tree pine nuts.  (Pine nuts (pignolias) sell for $16 to $25 a pound and are delicious!)

I bet ranger Glenn was in his element around late night campfires - he clearly liked to tell ghost stories.  He was trying to impress young Lucas (in the blue coat to the ranger's right) with a tale of the mysterious disappearance of the native people 600 years ago.

We usually get home and query "What did the ranger say?"  So, I decided to video the talk.  We have already referred back to the video a couple times.

The double arch was a short 1/4 mile starting from the end of the ranger-led hike.  This was one impressive piece of nature's handiwork. The arches were even more impressive as we got closer.  There are some people in the picture below to help give some scale to the arches.

The close arch spanned 148 feet and had a height of 104 feet.

The people below climbed up as far as they could in one of the arches - they said it was about a 100-foot drop on the other side of their perch. I asked if they wanted their picture framed in the arch and he asked how good was my catch.  No way I was going to try to catch his camera!

I hope their picture turned out well and they have a great souvenir from Arches NP.

David has done this for so many people across the country, but this takes the prize for the most extreme.