Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

Driving along the valley in Idaho and Utah was much of the same scenery.  The roadway was flat and bordered by distant, snow-topped mountains.  Very little agriculture due to the poor soil. Nothing to look at along the road, not even cows.

Then, in Utah, the landscape changed dramatically.  The mountains moved closer to the road.  They were not the traditional rocky-looking mountains at all.  They were very colourful-deep red, green, beige, white, black even aqua.  Much of the landscape looked like the Grand Canyon, only this time instead of being on top, looking into the canyon, we were driving through it.  Beautiful.

We didn't really plan to visit Arches National Park but the area was just too unusual to pass by. 

Many millions of years ago, this area in Utah was covered by a sea (hence the salt lake.)  As the sea evaporated, it left behind huge, thick salt deposits.  Then, sand from the surrounding area blew over top of the salt, leaving many layers of sand.  The colours in the sandstone reflect the composition of the sand deposits.  The sand compressed to create rock (very colourful rock).  Then, rain water began to seep into cracks in the sandstone rock, eating away at the salt base that this rock was resting on.  Ice formed in the cracks, expanding the rock and breaking off pieces.  Wind cleared out the loose stuff between  big pieces, leaving a series of free-standing big, flat rocks called fins. 

Wind and rain continue to erode these fins.  Some look like they are balancing loose stones on top. 

Others have strong rock on the sides and eroded interiors, creating an arch.



This is called Delicate Arch and it's on the license plate for Utah

It was a strenuous hike to get to this photo spot for the Delicate Arch.  We took this photo from the next mountain top over. Look closely at the photo and you will see people under the arch.

We camped in the national park campground along the Colorado River (the same river which cut the Grand Canyon.)  It felt like we were in the Grand Canyon.  It felt like we were in a wind tunnel.  The gusts rocked the van throughout the night.  We thought we heard rain but it was sand pelting the van.  Still, incredibly scenic.

Our view of the canyon and river, leaving the campground.