Arches Again

Visiting a national park a second time is never quite the same as the first. Sometimes the visits are vastly different. Clouds, temperature, season, time of day all are part of the experience. On this, my second, visit to Arches National Park, my dad and I arrived at sunrise to watch Delicate Arch shake off its morning shadows then hiked out to the iconic Utah landmark.

At the end of the whole trip, my dad said Delicate Arch was the most impressive sight of all that we saw. It really is something to behold--not just the 60-foot high arch itself but the way it juts up like a shark fin atop a swirling bowl of red rock.

We headed back to Moab for lunch, then returned to the park to hike the Fiery Furnace. An unmarked maze of rock, hikers must first watch a safety and preservation video and buy one of a limited number of daily permits before being allowed inside. We scrambled up, down, around, and through enormous rock piles before finally escaping an hour and a half later.

To end the day, we hiked out and back to Landscape Arch, a thin bow of rock stretched across a 300-foot gulf. Arches, even on a hundredth visit, I do not think would disappoint.