Wednesday, October 1, 2014

It was lightly raining at the coach, but I decided we should head to Arches National Park anyway.  At the worst, it might still be raining there, and at best, we should see a lot of cloud drama behind the rock formations.  The first turn-out inside the park is something named Park Avenue.  The size of these fins is staggering.

Park Avenue is a 2-mile round trip hike we will do on another day.  I would like to see this area at sunrise.

The looming, threatening rain clouds did indeed make a nice backdrop for the formations looking towards the east.

At the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint, Joani caught the reflection of the sky in puddles on the rock making for a unique picture.  Unfortunately, the LaSal mountains were completely covered in clouds

The view looking toward the Window Section of the park.

Balanced Rock is one of the park's iconic landmarks.  We stopped for a few pictures even though the breezes were starting to get just a little cool (Joani would say cold).  We had not planned well and had no jackets (or scarves, or gloves or earmuffs) so we could not get out of the car for any length of time.

Balanced Rock is about 128 feet, with the balancing rock rising 55 feet above the base.

The big rock on top is the size of three school buses.

We cruised through the parking area for another of the parks main attractions, the Double Arch.  I got out for a quick picture, but we will definitely be back for a more in-depth exploration.

The picture below called for a pretty abrupt stop along the roadside for this opportune alignment of the moon with the rocks on top of the Courthouse Towers. 

We were losing our light fast. I think this is the top of the Tower of Babel, part of the Courthouse Towers (the placards were vague).

We stopped back by the La Sal Mountain Viewpoint on the way out of the park to see the changing colors by the setting sun.