Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Arches NP, another favorite park!



























































































































































































































































































































































































We were pleasantly surprised today - Arches National Park is gorgeous! The raw beauty is beyond description in many cases. Over 200,000,000 years ago, it began when this area was a portion of an ocean. Then, over millions of years, the water evaporated and the salt remained with many minerals and hardened into a kind of cement. The winds, rains and other weather eroded the ground, in some cases over 5,000 feet. It left holes, caves and striations that we see today. The process is still ongoing so when we return in another million or so years, this entire area should be vastly altered again. The first pic is what we saw from our picture window this morning and the second is what we saw from our side window. I could really get to enjoy this! The red rock is a form of salt and some of the boulders that have fallen show the red on the outside and white on the inside. The arches are magnificient. How can God sculpt these holes and caves into the salt rock? How can he balance a large rock on top of a narrower pinnacle? We even saw Bucky Beaver standing and watching a giant turtle crouched on a rock over him, The Magi, Goofy, The 3 Stooges, ET and a host of others. If you look, you will even find Elvis! The park even is home to petrified sand dunes, sand dunes that have turned to cement. While at the park, we met with Robbie and Alice Simons, friends we have met in the MOC. We know them through the MOC Forum and Facebook and now have met them in person. What a great couple. They even have a 2006 Montana like ours and we now have some great ideas from them on modifications we will try to make on our Monty. They are hosts at the Arches NP Campground and we were lucky that today was their day off. Carol, Sunshine and I had a great visit with them. They are set up in Arches NP and have one of the greatest views ever seen from the picture window of an RV.

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