This place is a giant playground.  For fans of the outdoors, it is hard to beat.  It is very popular with bikers, hikers, rock-climbers, kayakers and a paradise for fans of ATV’s.  There are good opportunities for shopping and dining in and around town.  Many places offer tours either by jeep, ATV, bus, boat, horseback or air.  The choice is yours.

We arrived early afternoon on Friday and decided to go ride on scenic road 128 for a little while.  The road follows the curves of the Colorado River and offers fantastic canyon views.  Many movies and commercials were filmed in this area.

View from scenic highway 128 with the La Sal mountains in the background

Another fantastic view.

We found a very nice place to have dinner called the “Sorrel River Ranch”.  This resort sits right on the side of the Colorado River and offers dinner by the river.

Terrace where we had dinner.

The food was delicious but a bit pricey.

Sorrel River Ranch

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Chicken wanted a proof that he had been there....

The second day, we spent some time in the very famous Arches national Park.   It contains the world’s largest concentration of natural sandstone arches.  2, 000 arches are located within the 76, 518 acres of the park.  It also contains a variety of other geological formations like colossal sandstone fins , huge balanced rocks, pinnacles and spires.  Trails for hikers of all abilities are offered.  Of course, our hiking skills being pretty basic, we only did the easy trails.

The 3 Gossips

If you watch the movie Thelma and Louise again, you will recognize this formation.

Standing in front of the balanced rock.

There was a man playing the bag-pipe at the foot of the balanced rock that day.  It was so cooll

Chicken's impression of balanced rock.

Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch, the most famous arch formation in the park.  It is 52 feet tall.  Since my picture of it was so bad, I am actually using a downloaded picture (with permission).  The arch is portrayed on Utah’s license plate and on Utah’s centennial postage stamp (1996).

Landscape Arch

Landscape arch is the longest of the many natural arches located in the park .  It is considered to be the longest natural arch in the world with a span of approximately 290 feet.  Since 1991 though, 3 large slabs of sandstone fell from the thinnest section of the arch (measuring 30, 47 and 70 feet) which forced the closing of the trail that used to pass beneath it.  It is believed that the arch is slowly falling apart and while there is no way to estimate it,   on how long it will remain for visitors to see is questionable.

Doug resting on the trail to Landscape Arch

Pretty rangers lead hikes in the more dangerous parts of the park.

Chicken really liked this ranger….