Whimsy and Wonder

Still on a high from our unplanned tour of Mesa Verde National Park, we got back on the road on the afternoon of September 21, 2020, and headed for our planned destination - Arches National Park in Utah. The Mesa Verde visit set us up for a perfect arrival time  at Arches - it was just after 5:00 pm and the sun was bathing the amazing rock formations in striking afternoon shadows. We set a strategy to drive through the park, stop at just about every lookout, snap some photos, and stand in awe of the unique and sometimes whimsical terrain that typifies this place. 

Some of the iconic formations have been given names, such as "The Tower of Babel", "The Garden of Eden", "The Three Gossips", and "Parade of Elephants". But Nancy finds her own characters everywhere she looks. At the "Windows Section" she sees a snarling large-nosed monster with huge teeth.

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Richard took advantage of the afternoon light to get this silhouette of the "Three Gossips". Check out the photo gallery to see more of these unique formations. It truly is the weirdest terrain we have ever seen. The sun was setting and we were starting to get hungry, so we decided we would return in the morning for the few key sites we didn't get to. 

Approaching a Mexican restaurant for dinner we faced a small army of young maskless folks. We made a hasty retreat to a grocery store for a picnic in our hotel room. A couple of vodka gimlets made it all work.

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Up before dawn, we headed back to Arches to catch the famous "Delicate Arch" in the early morning light. It was a decent hike up to the lookout point where we had a great view from a distance (the hike to get up close was more than we had time for). Undeterred by the "end of trail" markings, we continued out on a large flat rock face for an even better vantage point.

As we turned to leave, we were sprinkled with a light shower of dusty mountain raindrops. Timing is everything.

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