gswrt: days 9 and 10: arches and stuff

on our way from bryce canyon to arches national park we happened to drive straight through capitol reef national park. the park preserves a bizarre fold in the earth's crust known as the water pocket fold. it's not too surprising that there is some geological anomaly out here. since we were driving through and enjoying the scenery we stopped to get our passport book stamped.

after driving a few hours through crazy utah mars-scape geography, we arrived in moab. we are definitely at the low end of the adrenaline junkie spectrum in moab. everyone here either moutain bikes on slickrock, sky dives, white water rafts, rock climbs, or sky dives on a mountain bike through the mountains into a raging river. they all say "dude" a lot.

we accessed arches national park just outside of moab. it is a beautiful place, full of big monolithic sandstone and large arches. the arches came to be after compressed salt beneath the earth's surface was washed away by water, leaving the sandstone formations. this whole trip has been a big geology class. we're probably only earning a C. david has mastered this one idea: "just think, all of this used to be under water."

we took a short hike through some large sandstone walls. it was educational.

then we drove around the park, discovering many different arches. this is a picture of the double arch; there are two sandstone arches over the same cave-like space. if you look closely, marta can be seen in the bottom of the picture. she's waving.

the next day, we hiked along the parks longest maintained trail. it's called devil's garden, and it's a 7 mile loop through some of the park's best arches. the hike follows large smooth sandstone formation, and required a bit of leaping. david demonstrates perfect leaping form in this photo.

one of the most famous arches in the devil's garden is landscape arch. it is 300 feet wide, and very narrow. it's hard to imagine how it stays up. of course, physics probably plays a role, but we're kind of tired of learning on this trip.

marta wanders out onto a ledge to look at landscape arch.

the final arch we saw is known as delicate arch, maiden's bloomers, or cowboys pants or chaps or something. it's on utah's license plate. it's over five stories tall, and in 2002, the olympic torch passed through the arch. no one protested. this beautiful arch clings to a cliff edge, overlooking the vastness of the park and the la sal mountains in the distance.

we have now completed our last national park hike of this trip. we're enjoying a provo girl pilsner at a picnic table outside of our hotel in the warm moab evening. it's been a good trip, but the time has come to head for home.

tomorrow morning, we start the move in earnest. we'll be sleeping in the central time zone tomorrow night, and we can't wait.