Today we continued our exploration of Arches National Park. We drove to the trail head of Delicate Arch and took a strenous 3 mile hike to see it. It was a very tough climb and we were all glad to get there. The formation is one of the most photographed in Arches. On the hike down we took a side trail to see some petroglyphs that are very well preserved.
On the way in we stopped and looked over a cabin that was built by a family in 1880 and lived in until about 1905. It was sure a tough place to live!
Then we drove to the end of the road and took the trail to Landscape Arch. It is amazing that it is still standing. The formation is over 300 feet long and a 60 ton piece broke loose from it in 1991 while some visitors were standing under it. They heard what sounded like thunder, soon realized what was happening and scattered before they were buried. Someone even managed to get an awesome picture of it! Due to the obvious danger visitors are no longer allowed to walk beneath it.
It was only 80º - almost 20º cooler than the average, for which we were all extremely grateful. I don't think we would have hiked five miles today in 100º temperatures. We were all worn out from our hikes so a grocery buying trip into Moab included an ice cream stop.
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