Epic Road Trip 2017 - Day #6

We have really enjoyed our stay at Creekside @ Moab Cowabungalow. This morning we set off for Arches to do a little hiking. We drove up to the Devil's Garden Trailhead and set off to see the Landscape Arch. This arch stretch the span of more than a football field and is incredibly thin. A large section of this arch fell in 1991 and since then visitors have not been allow to stand under the arch.

 

 On the way back to the truck we took a small detour to the Pine Tree Arch and the Tunnel Arch. I think I should mention that it was a little warm and we definitely were glad we brought the water backpack.

On the way back down the road from the Devil's Garden, we made a stop at the Sand Dune Arch. This short hike was a great break from the heat. It was a short walk into a cool deep sand canyon. The arch was perfect. There was a small chip in the side wall of the arch due to a piece that fell in 2014. We saw some really cool animal tracks on the walk out.

                                  

We went to lunch during the hot part of the day from 11 to 3. Lunch was at Jailhouse Cafe, Moab's breakfast only place. It was really good. After lunch we went back to the bungalow and took a lovely nap in the air conditioning.

After a fantastic nap we wanted to go back to the park and do a couple more trails. A quick stop to Walker Drug/General Store provided me with more sunscreen and we were off. We snapped a few pictures at signs before setting off to see Delicate Arch from one of the viewpoints (not the hike).

 View from Panarama Point:

It was hot (108°F) when we set off to see The Windows.We only did the 1 mile hike seeking shade when we could find it. 

We decided it was too hot to do any other trails (and we had seen several of the features before on our previous trip). A quick stop at the visitors centers completed our visit to Arches and we were off to Moab Coffee Roasters for some gelato, smoothie, and coffee. For dinner we ate at Fiesta Mexicana (delicious!!) and then took a walk around Moab enjoying the sights.

What We Learned: Today we learned more about the geology of Arches and Utah rocks in general.  We knew some about the source of the rock coloring, but we were curious about the green coloring we saw occasionally.  Turns out the green coloring is due to iron in the soil as well, like the red coloring.  In the green areas, the iron was deposited in an anoxic environment (e.g. boggy, swampy) instead of under open air where it could be more easily oxidized and turned to a red color.  Some of the white colored areas occurred where rock rich in oxidized iron (red) formed, but over time fluids (e.g. groundwater, natural gas) flowed through the rock that leached out the iron and "bleached" the rocks.

For the day we traveled 91.4 miles and saw 45 state license plates and 4 Canadian province license plates.