You enter Spanish Valley from the south on Highway 191 with a great view of the valley floor and already see some wonders...
... like this Arch in the making and ...
... this big and beautiful spire is called Church Rock.
There are sandstone canyon wall all around...
... and even a non-park arch named Williams Arch, it's span is 91 feet and height of 46 feet, is located about 24 miles south of Moab.
Next to Wilson Arch is the great rock wall that I called Halloween Wall because the face of the wall looked like a Jack-O-Lantern.
Finally we arrived at the Arches National Park's welcome center...
... and drove slowly uphill.
Yes, I did get some flower pictures like this purple Yucca...
... that was well wort two pictures.
I also liked this yellow flower with the red rock background.
We stopped and walking into what they call Park Avenue from a small parking lot and I thought this spire was something great ...
... until I looked down Park Avenue.
The magnitude of this view is beyond description.
Sharyn helped this nice young man from Pasadena by taking a picture of him at the overlook with his camera, while I took a picture of Sharyn taking the picture.
The sheer size of everything is mind boggling the rocks on this ledge are NOT pebbles ...
... the large one is as big as a car.
Natural shapes and colors ...
...create images for the imagination...
... like this rock balanced on a pier that looks like an eagle looking down at the visitors.
There are layers upon layers of varying types of rock.
This spire looks a little like an Easter Island statue.
Some of the shapes look like walls with slits at the base ...
... and they line Park Avenue like a newly discovered archaeological ruin of an ancient civilization.
Some even look painted...
... or like masonry walls...
... and some look like great statues...
With people standing on top.
Courthouse Rock as another or those tall steep walls and was the next stop on the drive through Arches National Park.
I wondered how it managed to stay standing in a high wind and how long it will stand over time and the elements.
All along the drive were tall spires that looked like stately giants frozen in time...
... while others were twisted like tornadoes frozen in place.
In the distance were even more of these shapes some tall and some lower to the ground.
Farther away were the arches, "windows" as they were called, almost like looking through time portals from some star gate that will propel us to another dimension.
Perhaps this formation was a naturally occurring Stonehenge.
I don't know if there is one unique "Balanced Rock" but this one is a stop on the drive through the park given that name.
Some of the formations like this one make me wonder how it was nature chose this particular spot to allow this particular rock to remain as everything else was cut down.
Then suddenly there we were at the first Arch ...
... and then another...
as we were right in the center of several giant rock "windows" looking and enjoying the absence of rock where rock used to be.
I wondered if the natives of the area too shelter beneath these giant rocks...
What a thrill to see this double arch for the first time not knowing anything like it even existed.
I can imagine a time villages existed here and great meetings were held to honor nature and it's grandeur.
Huge covered places must have been coveted in the heat and cold of this high desert area.
As always there were the giant shapes amongst the red rock cliffs.
I thought is fascinating that this tree had managed to survive growing on and into a rock plate...
... or how many ton boulders managed to stay atop tiny spikes on the hills.
Nature is indeed a wondrous thing creating stair steps like a master mason on the face of a rise.
How do plants live in such a harsh environment...
... and even flourish ...
... yet they do. It is no that accident but the ability to adapt that plants survive and shapes form in this place.
Perhaps the lesson is one of standing firm and giving a little to the wind, ice, water and heat is what shapes us all.
Perhaps mankind's urge to find adventure is what keeps us moving forward even though at times it can be dangerous.
Adaptation to our environment is one of the keys to a sometimes thorny path...
yet bushes can grow on rocks and rock faces form under a bright sky. This is one National Park worth the effort to see and explore.
No Scrabble
Quote of the Day ~
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." ~ Charles Galton Darwin
