Moab UT. Area Part I

Arrived in Moab, UT on May 3. Moab will be our camping home site while we tour Arches and Canyonlands NP's, Deadhorse State Park and Moab in general. Moab is known for its bike and off-road vehicle trails. Will see how far "off" road we can get with the Tahoe! Population of the town is little over 5000 but there are at least that many visitors here right now.

Arches National Park - Just a short 4 mile drive north of Moab, where the park accommodates over 1.5 million visitors each year. There are over 2000 arches in the park, opening has to be minimum of 3 ft. long to be called an arch, 43 arches have collapsed since'77 (Good news there are NOT 2000 pics of arches). The park lies atop an underground salt bed that is responsible for all the rock formations. During the millions of years of flooding, rain, wind, etc. debris has compressed as rock. Salt under pressure is unstable and gave way to the raising rock. The stone within the park is Entrada Sandstone & Navajo Sandstone.
The park is undergoing some major road work and the Devils Garden section is closed until after we leave (this area contains Landscape Arch which is the longest in the park).

National Monument 1929 becoming a National Park 1971

Lets start with the most viewed arch - Delicate Arch. It's on the Utah license plate. There two different places to view, Viewpoints with short walks and a 3 mile hike to sit by it. We did both!

From view point with regular lens

View point with telephoto lens

Up and close to the "Arch"

Larry trying to fill the void!!

La Sal Mountains can be seen in the background with snow caps

John Wesley Wolfe, one room cabin, settled in the Salt Wash, Arches NP, in the late 1800's. John suffered from a Civil War leg injury and thought the drier air would help him. After several years he moved back to Etna, OH where he passed away in 1913 at 84. Cabin is located at the trail head for Delicate Arch hike.