Follow the Colorado

Different State but the Spectacle Persists

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Sunday, September 27 2026

Road video and map

When I originally imagined this trip it was partly because the Colorado passes through areas I already loved and partly to find new places to visit. Today was one of the former as I blogged about today’s journey (in reverse) 11 years ago on my first retirement road trip. I knew the scenery was spectacular but the weather today was perfect for photography, driving and walking. It was partly cloudy so my photos have less of the excessive contrast of full sunlight, 83° F (28° C) high with a gentle breeze and low humidity and there were fluffy white clouds floating in blue sky to provide the backdrop.

The journey started on Interstate 70 again but across largely flat terrain with no river in sight. I joined the Colorado while driving Utah highway 128 towards Moab and, almost instantly, was alongside the muddy river driving through deep canyons of red rock.

This was my first pull in along Hwy 128 and is the start of about 30 miles (48 km) of scenic driving.
The river is just to the right of this image taken about 8 miles (13 km) further along the road. The scenery changed but was always bright red and impressively huge.
Another 7 miles (11 km) along the road. The river continues to erode the sandstone.
This is 20 miles (32 km) from the first image. Here the river is the boundary of Arches National Park which is on the right.

There were many more pull ins than I remember from before but they can only be built at certain locations and the view from the road was often better than from a nearby pull in. I have marked this section on the road video map if you want to see more.

At the end of Hwy 128 the entrance to Arches National Park is only 4 miles north and that was my next destination. Since I have visited before I only spent about 3 hours there and walked 3 short trails to see some of my favorite spots. Unlike along Hwy 128, the formations in Arches are not the creation of the Colorado river. The land was deformed when salt deposits under the sandstone rock buckled, collapsing in some parts and lifting the rock in others. This caused significant cracking in the surface rocks resulting in the thin rock fins that are apparent throughout the park. As I described yesterday, erosion and cracking due to water and winter icing erodes these fins and, in Arches, many have been punctured to create over 2,000 arches ranging in size from 3 feet (90 cm), which is the minimum size for the Park Service to consider a hole to be an arch, to 112 feet (34 m) in height or 306 feet (93 m) in width.

This pair of almost parallel fins is called Park Avenue for its resemblance to a street of skyscrapers and the fact that some of the fins resemble people. The fins and monoliths range in height from 270 feet (82 m) to nearly 600 feet (183 m).
The three spires seen on the right here are at the end of Park Avenue and are named the Three Gossips as they appear similar to people exchanging stories. The gossips are rather tall at 350 feet (91 m) high.
Arches are continually being formed and falling over very long periods. The three blocks in this picture are believed to have once supported two huge arches.
This is the famous Balanced Rock at Arches. The person at the right gives this 129 feet (39 m) tall monolith scale. The rock on top is estimated to weigh about 3,700 tons so I was hoping it wouldn’t lose its balance while I was walking around it.
These two impressive arches are known as the North and South Windows. They are 51 (17 m) and 65 feet (20 m) high and 93 (28 m) and 105 feet (32 m) wide respectively. Often considered as eyes, the rock between them is called the Nose Bridge.
Just 1/2 mile (800 m) or so from the Windows is Double Arch the nearest of which is the tallest in the park. Unlike the others this was not formed by erosion of a fin of rock but from undermining of the rock by downward flow of water and melting ice.

Tomorrow is forecast to be cool and wet, 76° F (25° C) for a high with 90% chance of rain – very unusual in this part of the world.

2 thoughts on “Different State but the Spectacle Persists”

    1. I looked at the NP prices going into Arches. Admission to the park is $30 per vehicle. Annual pass for all parks and monuments for non US residents is $250 (compared with $80 for US residents, a Trump anti foreigner thing).

      Reply

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