THE Trip, Arches National Park, Hike the North & South Windows

CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This would be our second hike of the second day of our visit(s) to Arches National Park.  Man particularly likes hikes, and I am good to tag along as long as they are not through knee deep sand, muck, swamp or water, or involve looking over severe dropoffs of 1000 feet or more, or involve large rock/boulder type structures I have to scale or slide down.  During our stay in Moab we take several hikes, 3 longer ones are in Arches, and all of those ended up involving something on the "no no like" list.  And, nope, none involved the 1000 foot drop off issue, whew!   Here is the disclaimer:  Yes, we do refer to the brochures available at the Visitors Center and/or the signage along the way, such as this sign:

And, here is the other, mmmm, disclaimer.  I did not see or understand that part about "climbs one hill".  Course, what is a hill??  Just a slow incline upwards from where you started.  Right??  I can handle a slow incline upwards, maybe, depending.  This particular sign does not say how long the climb is, 30 feet??  250 feet??  and, you will note, it also does not state how much of an elevation rise you will be climbing.  I mean 500 feet in 1.5 miles is one thing, 500 feet in .25 miles is totally different!  TOTALLY!

Below:  the North Window, just a few steps into our little walk.

Below:  Closer, as we hike up the "hill", is this the hill, or is there another in our future?

Below:  As you climb this hill via the trail stairs, if you turn around 180 degrees you get a pretty good view of the Turret Arch:

Below:  Back to our hike up the hill to the North Arch, how awesome is this, can we say TOTALLY awesome??  Yes, I believe we can.  The other visitors standing below start to give you some idea of the size, more overwhelming!

Below:  Almost under the window now, I no longer can get all of the window in the photo, only parts will fit. Below:  Man and some other visitors, almost totally below the window, or is that in the window, maybe standing on the window sill ledge?  You will note Man is carrying his hiking stick, said stick will be very handy later during this hike/walk.

Below:  When I finally came to the middle of the window sill ledge, about where that lady is sitting with her blue back pack, this is what I saw.  I am outta words, you fill in your own descriptive gasp:

Below:  Now, photos never do justice, and even though I try, Sony and I just cannot capture the size, the color, the magnificence of Mother Nature in this big big land.  But, in an attempt to do justice and to capture, I turned Sony UP, and looked straight up at the bottom of the window, and gotta say, that huge crack in there, was eye opening, and more.  I felt this overwhelming need to skedaddle down and away from that window, while it was still up and open.  Note those smaller (?) rocks kinda stuck in the crevasse??

Below:  So, we are at the "top of the hill", standing beneath the window, and down there is where we came from.  See, there is Big Butt, waiting for our return.  He is the 4th vehicle from the left.

Below:  Back on the trail we head over towards the South Window, no clammering up to the sill ledge here.

Below:  Because we are the kind of people that have to see what is around the bend in the trail, we kept on walking, till the bend:

And, we kept right on walking, deciding we were going to hike the primitive loop trail.  I'll show you that part of our little hike up the "hill" next time.



* Our hike around the North and South Windows at Arches National Park was done on April 28, 2011.
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