See it before it falls apart – Arches National Park, Utah

This is one fragile environment that we can’t blame on climate change. Natural forces of erosion are gradually wearing away the stunning sandstone arches in this unsung but beautiful corner of Utah. This one for example, Landscape Arch, lost a huge chunk of rock recently from its left shoulder. Another break like that and the arch will be history.

The park is littered with these transient relics of a bygone geological age. Some small, some tall, many precariously balanced on ever-thinning supports, this is a park where with little driving you can see so many natural wonders in a couple of days. Moab is the natural base for a visit here, and is a cool laid back town that is a famed mountain biking capital. It is also a place from where you can travel a similar distance and visit the eerie landscapes of Canyonlands NP.

We travelled here in 2000, in what was actually my first ever trip to the US. On a three week jaunt around the parks of Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, we joined up with a group of hikers to explore Arches. A special mention here to our tour guides, a wonderful Ma and Pa couple (I’m sure they won’t mind me saying that) who made the four days we spent with them a lot of fun. (Dick, Carol, if you’re reading this I hope you’ve stopped using that picture of us in your brochure a long time ago.. not flattering!) I looked them up recently and was pleased to see they are still going strong. They organised a set of great hikes over the duration of the tour, and kept us well fed, watered and amused throughout.

One word of warning – most people know this by now, but we did learn the hard way about the US/UK difference in the meaning of the word “fanny”. It was only after the two of us stared in shock and then fell about laughing when one of our hiking group complained that “her fanny was sore” from all the scrambling that the penny dropped, and we worked out yet another example of how we are divided by our common language. (Maybe the warning is more apt for American coming this way?)

(Apr 2000)