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On our “weekend”, which happened to be Friday and Saturday, we toured Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park. The first day we devoted to Arches NP. Arches began as a National Monument in 1929 and was rearranged, enlarged, then shrunk before becoming a National Park in 1970. The Park’s unique geological features are mostly byproducts of erosion.

The majority of the arches, windows, pinnacles and pedestals are in the red Entrada Sandstone layer with some in the lighter, tan colored Navajo Sandstone. The colors and the formations were familiar to us. They are the same formations that run through Monument Valley and the Colorado Plateau. Of course, maybe we’re just used to these formations because we have seen them in so many movies!

Parts of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1988), Thelma and Louise (1990), City Slickers II (1994), and Mission: Impossible II (2000), among many others, were filmed in the area.

During our tour of Arches we didn’t run into any movie stars but we did see some amazing rock formations. Arches has over 2,000 natural arches with more being discovered (or created by erosion) every year. Of course, sometimes arches succumb to erosion and collapse. Since the Park opened they’ve lost over 40 arches.

You may have a general idea of what an arch is but how do you define it? Amazingly, no one really agrees on the definition. Geologists have heated arguments about what is a hole, a window or an arch! The only formation they agree on is a natural bridge. It is an arch that spans water. There is, however, some disagreement over whether it is still a natural bridge when the water dries up or if the waterway is intermittent.

The official policy at Arches NP is that any opening greater than three feet in any direction is an arch. Whew, glad they figured that out! We couldn’t see all the arches so we satisfied ourselves by visiting some of the most unique ones. We started at the North and South Windows (yes, the park classifies them as arches) then hiked over to Double Arch. That was probably my favorite formation.

Double Arch started as a cave, turned into a tunnel and, when part of the roof collapsed, two arches were created. It was cool and shady under the arches and they commanded a great view of the valley. It was near here that Ed Abbey lived in a small trailer while working as a park ranger in the late 1950s. He described the area so vividly in Desert Solitaire that I felt like I was retracing his very footsteps!

We couldn’t pass up a hike up to Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is striking because it is perched on a huge slab of sandstone and is the only vertical relief in the area. It looks like it was placed there instead of being an erosional remnant. Of all the arches in the Park, Delicate Arch is probably the most famous. Utah has adopted it as an official symbol, you’ve probably seen it on their license plates.

The area around Delicate Arch was once part of the Wolfe Ranch and one of the old cabins, built in 1907, is still standing. It must have been a hard life. Cattle ranching in the middle of high desert; hot summers, cold winters and very little water. What tough people they must have been!

Near the Wolfe Cabin, across Salt Wash, is evidence of the people who preceded the Wolfes. The petrogylphs were probably made by the Ute Indians, sometime after the late 1500s. Although it is impossible to date the actual carving the animals depicted give clues to its age. Namely the horses.

Although horses originally evolved on this continent, there were no horses (no mules, no donkeys, no burros) until the Spanish brought them over. Of course, this magnificent beast of burden was well received by various Native American tribes and the Utes were no different.

We couldn’t miss Landscape Arch, the second longest arch in the world (why don’t they ever tell you where and what the first one is?), especially since it may not be around much longer. In 1991, a 60’ chunk of the arch fell, narrowly missing some tourists. Since then the Park Service has erected a fence to keep visitors out of harm’s way. It is impossible to know when erosion will collapse the arch. We only know that eventually it will.

On our long day spent at Arches we merely scratched the surface of what this park has to offer. It was a perfect day; warm, sunny and full of wonderful sights! Our next day was an exact copy of the day before; perfect.

Before entering Canyonlands National Park we drove out to Dead Horse Point State Park. It was our lucky day, Utah was celebrating Utah State Parks Day and entrance was free! Really though, it would have been well worth the fee to get in. Unlike Arches, where you hike among formations, at Dead Horse Point you are on a mesa with expansive views.

Unfortunately, the park really earned it’s name. The mesa is jagged and parts of it stick out like fingers. Dead Horse Point is one of these fingers and it narrows to about 30’. In the past cowboys would round-up wild mustangs by herding them out on the point and constructing a makeshift fence across the narrows.

Then the cowboys would pick out their new horses, take down the fence and let the rest run free. Something went wrong once and the captive mustangs weren’t released. They died of dehydration, in sight of the Colorado River but 2,000 feet above it. Whatever the name, it’s a wonderful park and I’m glad it has been preserved.

On to Canyonlands. Canyonlands is hard to describe, it is so diverse (with three distinct sections) and so huge (over 300,000 acres). The Park is divided into three parts by the Green and Colorado Rivers; Island in the Sky District, Maze District and Needles District. We toured the Island in the Sky District which is just north of the confluence of the two great rivers.

Historically this land was little used. While there is evidence of the Ancestral Puebloans and Fremont peoples in the Park, later tribes like the Utes, Paiutes and Navajo seemed to have avoided it. The area was so difficult to travel that the first through route wasn’t established until the early 1800s.

This trail became known as the Old Spanish Trail and it ran from Santa Fe to Los Angeles. The National Park Service is in the planning stages of creating the Old Spanish National Historic Trail which will encompass parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico.

In the late 1800s came the cattle and sheep ranchers to eke out a living. The rugged country attracted those who needed a place to hide, most famously Butch Cassidy. Other than the occasional outlaw, things were quiet until the discovery of uranium in southeastern Utah in the late 1940s.

Ironically, Canyonlands owes its existence to uranium mining. If miners hadn’t created roads in this inaccessible land few would have seen its beauty and the drive to preserve it wouldn’t have started. Thankfully, there was very little uranium found in this area. As it was, the superintendent at Arches, Bates Wilson, used the abandoned mining roads to show the area’s wonders to government officials. It worked and in 1964 Canyonlands was established.

During our visit we were able to overlook both the Colorado and the Green Rivers—just not at the same time. We were about 2,000 feet above the rivers and honestly, from that high up I couldn’t tell the difference between them. They both looked like brown ribbons edged with bright green plant life.

Most of the plant life we saw was lumpy, blackish colored cryptobiotic soil. Yes, the dirt is alive. It’s really the coolest thing, cyanobacteria (one of the oldest life forms found on earth) lives in the top layer of soil. It builds up little communities that form a crust which retains moisture. It also adds nutrients to the soil which benefits other plant life. It takes hundreds of years but this microscopic organism is slowly combating desertification!

Before we were ready the sun was setting and our two fun-filled sightseeing days were over. Time to get back to work. We really enjoyed this little corner of Utah and we’re looking forward to returning someday.

Photos: View photos from Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands.

Dates: We visited these three beautiful places on 09/29/06 and 09/30/06.

Update: Fixed a broken link (Lance 11/17/06).