Arches National Park - then Drive to Berthoud
Wednesday, August 16, 2006I was toying with the idea of getting up real early and catching the sunrise at the delicate arch this morning, so much so that I didn’t make it in time! And the best thing to do would be (in my opinion) to find an arch that would work well with the sunrise. And I’m thinking that it might have worked ok, though it’ll be a while before I can verify.
After that arch (it’s a mile+ hike in to get up close) I drove to Burger King for a quick breakfast, then over to the Devil’s Garden. Not sure why he gets credit for so many places on earth, but that’s what ‘they’ call it. Spent most of the rest of the day here, hiking oh, about another 8 miles. Bring more water! I didn’t, but managed to make it out ok. There’s more than arches out here, which the photos will testify.
I wanted to leave the park by 2:00 to make it to my brother’s place in good time, but ended up being around 3:00. Then, stopped in to see some dinosaur tracks along the way, which was pretty cool (about 20 miles up from the park.)
I guess the thing that impressed me the most about this park, is that these sandstone ‘mountains’ are on top up here - about 5,000 feet. Yet, they are built from water, and carved by water. Do the math - something had to have happen that created such structures.
Take some time to look at the park from the air - here’s a link of the Delicate Arch via maps.google.com.
From then on it was driving time. I-70, going into Denver (from UT) is probably my favorite stretch of road. This was my 2nd time though this part, and this time was just a neat trip.
