We ascended the plateaus called “The Grand Staircase” on Wednesday, an awe-inspiring climb, but not reducible to photos. Probably I should say “Phone-camera” photos, because that is what I am using for the journey. There are imposing colorful canyon walls lifting you gradually into higher layers of the Colorado Plateau.
The wooden ladder raised toward the daylight is a model of an underground Anasazi dwelling, typical of early settlements in this area, prior to the cliff dwellings. The Anasazi are today called the Ancestral Pueblo People, which connects them with their descendants still living in pueblos today. They also resided in the Mesa Verde area from 500 – 1300 CE, where they developed sophisticated clan-based communities, but on the surface and in the cliff dwellings.
In the meantime we visited The Arches in Moab, while staying two nights at the luxurious Element, a Marriott hotel near the entrance to The Arches. On Thursday we drove to middle of the Park, where the trail to the Delicate Arch began. It was an intimidating mile and a half hike with a 450 rise, lots of sloping rock one narrow cliff-side trail at the end. Called “moderate,” it was a radical trail for senior citizens. Fortunately the journey cooled down with refreshing breezes near the top.
As anyone who has been there will tell you, the Delicate Arch is worth the trip and hazard. We were completely gratified by our ambition and resolve, and rewarded ourselves with lunch at the top.
The hillside with the white icing is actually a reddish cliff area referred to as “fins,” slices of heaved up rock that cluster in The Arches Park.
We finally revisited the the Windows area near the park entrance, a neighborhood we visited the last time we paused at The Arches. There are three distinct “windows,” one visible from the parking lot, one a few steps beyond, and a third called the “Double Window.” They are also hard to recapture with my lens.
This was our last stop before Mesa Verde, coming up on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
