Below: Scenery from a rest stop by Moore, Utah and on the way to Moab, Utah. Karen Duquette was not sure what the big white structure in the far distance was, but she photographed it anyway.

Moab is a city in Grand County in eastern Utah, in the western United States. Moab hosts a large number of tourists every year, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The town is a popular base for mountain bikers who ride the extensive network of trails including the famed Slickrock Trail, and off-roaders who come for the annual Moab Jeep Safari.

Below: The view from the RV of the two RV Gypsies while parked at Spanish Trail RV Park in Moab, Utah

This park was very nice: the sites had trees, small grass patches, and a teensy bit more room between sites than the norm, and were well maintained. It is south of town so a bit out of the touristy chaos, but the road noise was a constant, even late at night. (As you can see in the above photo, the site of the two RV Gypsies was not far from the road, and semi's drove by at all hours).

Lee and Karen Duquette never use campground restrooms, laundry, or most other amenities (except for an accassional pool or hot tub), so they cannot comment on that kind of stuff. There was NO pool here anyway and no hot tub at Spanish Trail RV Park, not that they would have had time to use them anyway. If they come again, they will choose a different park.

Arches National Park

Below: Views from Arches National Park, showing the road outside the park in each direction.

Below: The Park Avenue Trail is one of the first major stops in Arches National Park.

Below: A panorama of the formations at Park Avenue. Amazingly, each side of the canyon were quite different in color.

Below: From the Park Avenue trail lookout point, Lee and Karen Duquette saw people down on the trail.

Below: The following day, Lee and Karen Duquette returned to Park Avenue and decided to hike the trail, since the above sign said it was an easy hike. The stairs at the beginning of the trail descended quickly and steeply into a beautiful canyon, but this already tired out the two RV Gypsies. So even though the canyon floor itself was flat and easy to walk, they only walked a short distance on the trail in order to take a few photos from along the canyon floor and then they returned to their starting point. But for those who are able to hike and do stairs, this is a one-way trail that goes through the Park Avenue area to the Courthouse Towers. This trail just was not for Lee and Karen Duquette at this time.

Below: OH NO! Getting the finger at Arches National Park.

Below: Zoomed-in views of the formations shown in the panoramas above.

Below: Later, but on the same day, Karen Duquette took a better photo of that same formation.

The sign below tells how arches start as small holes in rock faces and enlarge and eventually collapse from weathering and erosion. Sand grains once formed together as rock are separated and washed away; arches form, grow, mature, and fall.

Below: The Organ is an impressive "Sandstone Tower".

Below: Balanced Rock is exactly what its name implies: a large rock, balanced upon a narrower pedestal of stone beneath it. The trail has an elevation gain of less than 50 feet, and is short enough to make the trail fun for even the newest of outdoor enthusiasts. It is a loop trail at the bottom of this fragile, picturesque rock formation. (There has been a Balanced Rock in several other places that Karen and Lee Duquette have been, including at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona).

Below: Karen Duquette is not sure what formation this is below, (it might be the Porthole Cave Arch) but as Lee Duquette drove by it, Karen used her zoom lens to photograph it because there was a person standing INSIDE the formation. The two RV Gypsies guessed that the person got there from a trail at the back side of the formation.

Below: The Windows - North Window, South Window and Turret Arch

Below: The North Window - notice the people in the photo below, on the right.

Below: This section of the park, known as the Windows, boasts several arches in relatively close proximity. The first is a pair known as the North and South Windows (the left and right arches respectively).

Below: Opposite from North and South Windows is the Turret Arch.

Below: DOUBLE ARCH: This arch started as a cave where a large pothole at the top was continually being dug deeper and deeper by rainwater. Eventually the pothole wore through and created the large pothole-arch known as Double Arch.

Below: Arches usually form slowly, but quick and dramatic changes do occur. in 1940, a large boulder suddenly fell out of Skyline Arch, roughly doubling the size of the opening.

Below on the left is a sign showing the Skyline Arch before and after the 1940 rockfall.

Below on the right is the present day Skyline Arch. The arch now has a span of 71 feet and a height of 33.5 feet.

Below: Trail Data: Length 0.25 mile one way.

Below: Notice how small the people look as they approached the Double Arch at Arches National Park.

Below: The two RV Gypsies, Karen and Lee Duquette, got closer to the Arch.

Below: Lee and Karen Duquette got a lot closer to the arch then they stopped to rest. The trail was easy up to this point, but then it got very rocky by the arch, so Lee Duquette decided he was satisfied with the photos and view they already had.

Below: The panorama photo above and the two photos below were taken from the same spot. Different type of lens makes everything look quite different.

Below: Delicate Arch is the most recognizable arch in Arches National Park, and perhaps anywhere in the world. It also happens to be located along one of the most dynamic hiking trails within Arches National Park. More than 480 feet above the parking lot and trailhead in the valley below, Delicate Arch is hidden in a bowl at the top of one of the park's famous sandstone fins. Delicate Arch is freestanding, and magnificently alone in the natural sandstone bowl, standing out against the multitude of horizontal planes around it. The arch was once part of the upper section of the fin, until erosion took its toll upon the sandstone throughout the years, and now Delicate Arch is all that remains of that Entrada sandstone formation.

Below: As stated in the sign above, there are two very different trails in this area from which to see Delicate Arch. Lee and Karen Duquette chose the lower trail which was an easy 5-minute walk. You can see from the panorama that the lookout is actually a very far distance from Delicate Arch itself.

Below: Lee Duquette taking the above panorama photo.

Below; Even with Karen Duquette's zoom lens, Delicate Arch could not be photographed well from this lookout point.

After you have seen all of the above, return to the Utah menu page for the other eleven adventures of Lee and Karen Duquette in Utah, including several USA National Parks, Utah State Parks, Goblin Valley and lots more.

AFTER you have seen all of the Utah sites, please continue on to the adventures of the two RV Gypsies in Colorado: Great Sand Dunes National Park, Four Corners USA, the Royal Gorge, Ouray Hot Springs, and lots more.

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