More in The Arches National Park

After the Delicate Arch sunrise, we continued on this trail to see additional arches and more.

Ute petroglyphs were carved sometime between 1650 and 1850.

Near the trail head of the Delicate Arch trail is Wolfe Ranch. Here is a link to the NPS page with its history.

And then we were on to the next area. The views from the road were amazing.

 
This gigantic arch is called North Window.

Turret Arch as seen from North Window Arch.

We hiked through and around Turret Arch. It's an interesting formation and got its name because of the tall rock on one side.

Looking back at both North and South Window Arches from Turret Arch. This was a great hike--only about a mile long, but filled with vistas in every direction, so it seemed much longer.

 
We fixed our typical lunch after our hike to the Window Arches and Turret Arch. We turned sideways in the front seats and rested the cutting board on our knees to form a table. Then we were off to more Arches adventures including the "Old Man" formation. See any resemblance?

Our next stop was the Balanced Rock area. These vertical structures including the Balanced Rock are due to the harder cap rocks resisting erosion more than the underlying mudstone. Eventually, the underlying sandstone will erode causing these structures to collapse. So meanwhile we can enjoy this balancing act and no climbing is allowed.

 
Balanced rock is 128' tall. We began to refer the ravens as our spirit guides because they appeared to be showing us the way along trails.

The next hiking trail was to Sanddune Arch, which was inside this rock formation and to Broken Arch. The total roundtrip trail out to and between these arches is 1.7 miles.

 
The arch itself is only about twenty feet tall and was dwarfed by the tall sandstone structures around it.

There was a pretty long walk across a scrubby area to get to the next rocky formation.
This formation was interesting because the top layers are much lighter in color than those on the bottom.

So Broken Arch looks like it's not broken after all.

Looking up from under the arch, you can see a crack.

Back at our campsite next to the Colorado River, a pair of Wild Turkeys roamed through the campground.
We were tired puppies after hiking all day and while these hikes were not particularly challenging, but we walked about ten miles, plus the average altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level makes any walk more of a challenge for those of us who are acclimated to altitudes much closer to sea level.