Delicate Arch is one of the popular destinations in Arches National Park. We had seen it on our one previous visit to the park in the early 90s, but it was on a relatively short and moderately strenuous trail to the rim of a steep canyon across from Delicate Arch, so we weren’t able to get very close.
On September 24th, 2007, we took the longer trail that goes right up to the arch. The trail is slightly over 3 miles round trip and the arch is out of view for almost the entire length of the trail. Starting from the parking area of Wolfe Ranch, the first half mile is easy and well defined. After that, however, the trail goes out over open slickrock, but is relatively easy to follow as its path is marked with rock cairns.
The easy part of the trail is readily seen in the picture below. The slickrock part of the trail goes across the image from about 1/3 down on the left side of the picture diagonally across towards the upper right side. Hikers going across the slickrock can be seen in the picture on the right above, which was cropped from the original of the photograph below.
It was a good hike and the day was cool. Even though it was cool, one bottle of water each was NOT enough. The National Park Service recommends at least one quart (litre) of water per person. In the heat of the summer, it would be prudent to carry more.
Posted by Mike Goad
"Tips, Hints 'n Ideas", Hiking, Parks, Photography, places, travel
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January 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Wow. That’s pretty amazing. It’s kind of neat that you can see the slickrock (not that I know what slickrock is but it sounds dangerous) from the color in the picture based on how you described where it was. And yes, you can never have too much water.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am
From Wikipedia: “The name “slickrock” was given by early settlers of the area because their horses’ metal shoes had difficulty gaining traction on the rock’s sloping surfaces.”
It’s actually sandstone, so the surface is rough like sandpaper rather than slick.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:35 am
It looks cool Mike. You seem to have many different types of walks over there. The ones in the area where I live are all trees, water and mountains. Many of the ones you do seem more desert-like.
Do you need to wear different footwear for these types of walks than you would for hiking up mountains in colder climates?
February 9th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Sorry for being a little late answering your question, but it’s been a little crazy around here for me, what with all the bad weather and getting back into the swing of work.
I generally wear the same kind of footwear no matter where we’re hiking. It needs to be somewhat sensible, I think, and provided decent support and some protection for your feet.
I’ve been amazed sometimes at some of the footwear we’ve seen on some of these hikes and walks. Sandals and flip-flops a mile or more from the trail-head. High heels, too, though not on any of the long hikes, but even on short ones, it’s not very bright – or safe –, as you can’t always count on a perfect surface.
Actually, though, the day that we took this hike was not hot. It probably didn’t get out of the upper 60s. Cool enough that we had a sweatshirts on for part of the walk until we warmed up.