UTAH – Life Elevated
July 7, 2019
Early morning, before Sunrise, dad went to the park to take some sunrise photos. We were sleeping. Dad’s plan was to be back for breakfast. He went to The Windows section to capture the sunrise, as it’s famous for the sunrise view. Hikers usually sit on the Window to get the panoramic view with the sunrise colors. This is one of the most scenic locations in the park, and it has North Window, South Window, Turret Arch and Double Arch. This area also include Garden of Eden, Elephant Butte and Parade of Elephants.
My dad came back by 8 AM and we had our breakfast. We thought to visit some of the places in the park and do some hiking. After the Delicate Arch, I was super excited to visit the other arches and wanted to do some hiking. Hike to Delicate arch boosted my confidence to do more difficult hikes 😉
Dad took us to The Windows first. When we reached there, the parking lots were full and we had to take a round to get the parking. My sister started sleeping, so me and my mom went to the Double arch. It’s a 0.25 mile trail from the parking lot and it’s an easy one with some loose sand, where two massive arches that are joined at one end. It’s the tallest and the second longest arch in the park. In the past, it was called Double Windows.
After spending some time in Double arch, we went back to the parking lot, so we can visit the other arches in the same area – The Windows and Turret Arch.
When we reached the car to check my sister, she was already awake and ready to explore. Dad and sister joined us to the walk to “The Windows”.
The trail to the Windows section is an easy one, and that makes it a busy section in the park. The trail started off flat- gravel surfaced path and then stairs till we reach the North Window. We can stand and sit directly beneath the North Window. We sat there for sometime waiting for dad to come as he was busy taking snaps.
From the North window, we continued the trail and reached the South window. We didn’t go down there, as it’s beautiful view from the place where we stood. Both North window and South window together called “The Spectacles” because from a distance it resembles glasses.
We continued the trail downhill to the Turret Arch. It’s the smallest arch in the Windows section. There is a small arch near the main arch, which may combine in future with the main arch and form a larger one. We climbed up the rock slope to get a nice view of the area. I helped my sister to climb up the slope while my dad was helping mom to climb it.
I walked along the Turret and climbed up a rock formation to take some photos.
We walked back to the parking lot and got into the car. While walking back we had a nice view of the Double arch and the Parade of Elephants.
We thought to take a drive through the other attractions in the Windows section. It’s almost 1:30 PM and we could still see people are coming to visit the Windows.
From The Windows section, the next stop was Delicate Arch View point. There are 2 view points – Lower and Upper. Yesterday, when we went to the Delicate arch, we could not notice it from the road, but now we could identify the magnificent, free-standing arch from the main road.
Lower delicate arch view point is a 90 yard round trip trail and it’s an easy one. We cannot hike to the arch from here. We get a very distant view of the arch from the lower view point. The information about the arch is also exhibited here.
Upper view point trail is longer and moderate trail which climbs steeply 0.5 mile to the view point. It’s separated by a canyon from the arch. Since it was hot and we were tired, we didn’t go on the trail, even though I wanted to go to the view point and have an excellent view. We missed it 😦
We came back to the car and had some refreshments, so we can explore more attractions in the park.
We drove further north and reached the Sand Dune Arch trail. It’s an easy one and great for kids. Sand dune arch, as the name says, there is a lot of sand around it. The arch has shade almost throughout day due to the two large sand stones guarding the arch. We spent some time there playing in the sand and walking around it. My sister was not happy initially, because she fell down at the entrance of the arch, but later when she saw the sand and the stones, she started enjoying it.
Broken arch trail is 1.3 mile round trip and an easy one across open grassland. There is no shade on the way, but we can see lot of vegetation. We could see the broken arch from the parking lot, but it’s farther than we think it was. It’s named so due to the visible crack on top of the arch, but it’s intact. It will stay that way for a long time. We reached the broken arch, dad and me climbed on it, but mom was staying down as she was tired. So we didn’t continue the trail to Tapestry arch, and we headed back to the parking lot.
From there, we just drove through the Devil’s garden loop, and thought to take a break for the day, as we all needed some rest, and my sister is also exhausted. So we headed back to Hotel, and on the way, we all were very hungry and we bought some burgers from McDonald’s in Moab. We all were so tired, so we slept as soon as we got to the bed.
The Crazy Nomad 