Family hike in Arches National Park

For our first day in Moab my son-in-law suggested a hike in the Devil’s Garden area of Arches National Park that would take us by several arches. Landscape Arch, pictured above, was the largest. In fact, it is probably the longest natural occurring sandstone arch in the world. Kolob Arch in Zion is in the running, but I think Landscape Arch has been determined to be the longest. Kolob Arch is certainly a lot harder to get to (we hiked to Kolob Arch back in 2009).

Landscape Arch is nearing collapse. Over the last 20 years, significant rock-falls have narrowed the thickness to only 11 ft at its thinnest. Kolob Arch appears that it will last much longer.

After Landscape Arch, the trail became more interesting, traversing slick-rock and sandstone fins. After checking out Partition Arch, Navajo Arch, and Double-O Arch, two of the kids started complaining about how much their feet hurt. Wow! Each of them had quarter-sized blisters rubbed raw. We thought they had good shoes for hiking. We slapped on some tape, and shoulder-carried the 4 year-old, but the hike back was not so enjoyable (compounded by the mid-90 degree temperature). The kids seemed to feel much better after getting back and swimming in the pool.

Links
—Arches National Park 2012 photo gallery