Arches National Park

 Instead of buying any of the tours offered by the Rocky Mountaineer, Trish and I rented a Bronco for two days and spent them exploring on our own.  We have been to Arches National Park before, but, it is so very spectacular that we had to spend most of our first day there again.

The sandstone formations and arches that we see today started out more than 300 million years ago when a vast underlying salt base began to push up domes in the overlay.  Some of these domes split and some even turned over leaving erosion to create the arches and other formations we see here today.

These days the Park requires people to get a time of entry pass.  This is a great idea as it spreads out access and eliminates the overcrowding midday that we used to experience here.  We had no difficulty at all finding parking space wherever we wanted it and the trails were not crowded at all.

At different times of the day, the light changes the shapes of the sandstone and the visual experience is different.  Here at Sand Dune Arch the light paints a unique visit.

There are also unique slots and trails.

After we left Arches, we took a road beside the Colorado River below Moab where we saw a multitude of Petroglyphs left by ancient Anasazi residents.

We have another whole day here before we get back on the train for Denver.