Delicate Arch -- It's massive and old and doesn't look that delicate

We got up the next morning to a La Quinta breakfast, it wasn’t bad, the biscuits were really good and I didn’t feel bad about eating a couple because Skip was going to make me walk up mountains today.  By the way, Skip wouldn’t recommend the biscuits and gravy.

There was a fairly long line of cars waiting to get into Arches National Park.  This was Tuesday in October and there was a line and crowds everywhere.  I'm retired and in mourning, these people should be working for a living.  Actually it was mostly retired folks like us.  Still, it's Tuesday.
 

After I got into the park I understood why all those people were waiting in line to drive in the park.  It’s absolutely amazing.  Towers of reddish brown rock spring out of the ground like they had been planted there, huge slabs of limestone grow hundreds of feet of out the earth, there are huge mounds of petrified sand that look like white rock and there are hiking trails and people walking everywhere.
 

We drove through much of the park to park and hike to Delicate Arch, one of the sights which attracts people from all over the world.  We heard Spanish, German, some eastern European languages, some eastern languages and we chatted with a guy from the south of England as we took a breather on our hike up to the arch.
 

This hike is just three miles round trip, but I swear it was all up hill, like both ways.  We hiked for about 30 minutes up winding rock trails and then up a long slab slick rock until we hit more sandy trails and then walked on rock again around a cliff on a rock trail no more than three feet wide.  As we winded around and turned one last corner 40 mile per hour winds hit right in the face and I made a heroic save of my really cool hiking hat.
 

The delicate arch is made of stone and is huge.  It was formed over eons not years and it stands about 100 feet high, an arch made of stone connected to a mountain.  It is the most famous natural stone arch on the planet, and it is spectacular to sit at its base, look around at the unforgiving terrain and appreciate what this remarkably diverse world can show you when you open your eyes.

We got back to the car, drank some hot Diet Coke and drove around looking at other sites.  We ended up hiking a short trail to the Window Arches where two of the stone arches were formed at the same time.  It was a perfect spot to surreptitiously drop some Marty ash.  It wasn’t that much, but little pieces of my bride are hanging out in the high desert permanently a part of a grand eco system.
 

We hit one more trail that allowed us to walk 125 steps down into the canyon.  For those of you keeping track, yes, you must climb those steps to get out of said canyon.  Not bad for an old fat man.
 

We got back to our motel that evening comfortably tired from the day in nature, the day in the sun, the day in the wind, the day communing with what is best on this earth.  It was another good day.
 

We got out in the town a little more, ate a small dinner and went back and downloaded the day with each other.  Having Skip with me allows me to experience all the things this trip was designed to experience.  He allows me to feel the feels and say the strange shit that hits me from time to time.
 

This is a good trip, we left for Colorado Springs by way of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison early the next morning.