It’s Day 71 of quarantine for our family, and I find myself itching to get back into nature. We’re lucky that Orange County doesn’t have as many restrictions and we can still go for walks. Still, trails were closed for a bit. To revisit nature, I thought I’d write a post on a trip we took to Arches National Park a while ago.
We visited Arches National Park on a trip to Utah. It was a whirlwind of a day trip, starting at Salt Lake City, driving the roughly 230mi to Arches National Park, then an additional ~30mi to Canyonlands National Park, then the ~260mi back to Salt Lake City. We rented a car and listened to SiriusXM Chill the whole time. It was great! For this post, I’ll focus on Park Avenue, the Tower of Babel, and Balanced Rock. I’ll highlight some other areas of the park in another post.
Park Avenue
Our first stop was Park Avenue, named because it reminded early visitors of the outline of buildings in a city. I really like the misty clouds in this shot and how they almost seem like they are coming out of the rock formation. Honestly, I was surprised to see clouds, as the temperature was above 100°F.
Tower of Babel
On the way to the Tower of Babel, we saw the Courthouse Towers, which are huge! The Tower of Babel is also really tall, but it reminds me more of a submarine sail than a tower.
For this next shot, I wanted to shoot angled upwards to exaggerate the height. Like with the previous shot, I like the texture of the clouds, which looks almost turbulent. In order to get more detail out of the rocks, I shot at +1.0EV, which helped increase the contrast between the darker portions of the rock.
For this next shot, I wanted to include the cars in the lower left corner for scale. Just look at how tall the tower is!
And here’s another shot as we drove to Balanced Rock. I really liked the emptiness in the rock formations towards the right. I imagine something big just plowing through and taking a large chunk of the landscape with it. Sometimes my imagination goes a little crazy!
Balanced Rock
Probably one of the most iconic landmarks to visit in Arches National Park is Balanced Rock. This 3,600 ton behemoth stands at 128ft tall. Eventually, erosion of the mudstone pedestal will cause Balanced Rock to tumble. In fact, Balanced Rock used to have a neighbor, Chip Off the Old Block, that collapsed during the winter season of 1975-1976. Visit Balanced Rock while you can!
A Bit of History of Arches National Park
There is a lot of rich history about Arches National Park, and some fun facts! Hunter-gatherers migrated here about 10,000 years ago, after the Ice Age. They created debris piles that can still be seen today with a keen eye.
About 2,000 years ago, cultivation started. Rock paintings remain throughout the park, but they leave more questions than answers. What was life like back then? Who actually lived there?
Spaniards explored the area and used the Old Spanish Trail, which links Santa Fe to Los Angeles. The US 191 follows this trail today. Although the Spaniards were thought to be the first European settlers to traverse the area, the first real concrete evidence of European settlement comes from Denis Julien, a French-American fur trapper. He had a habit of inscribing his name on his explorations and left one here on June 9th, 1844.
On April 12th, 1929, President Hoover signed a document reserving just over 4,500 acres to establish Arches National Monument. In 1971, Congress declared Arches a national park, recognizing over 10,000 years of human history.
When the Summer Olympics were held in Utah in 2002, the Olympic torch from Greece to Salt Lake City passed through Arches National Park, right underneath Delicate Arch!
Pingback: Arches National Park - Fiery Furnace, Skyline Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch - Baking Priority
Pingback: Arches National Park - Double Arch, North Window, Delicate Arch