Zhang Zhaohong: Utah Travel Guide (3)

Zhang Zhaohong: Utah Travel Guide (3) Phoenix Zhang Zhaohong Leaving Bryce Canyon, we drove to the most famous scenic spot in Utah –...

Phoenix City Zhang Zhaohong

Leaving Bryce Canyon, we drove to Utah’s most famous scenic spot – Arches National Park. As we all know, Utah's car license plates, stamps, magazines or postcards all have images of "Delicate Arch". The rock arches here are world-renowned. We drove 270 miles along National Highway 70 and Highway 191. This is a beautiful road, very pleasing to the eye, and the journey is full of surprises. After 3 and a half hours, we arrived at our destination. Arches National Park has more than 2,000 natural rock arches. Hundreds of millions of years ago, there was a vast ocean, and the seafloor salt beds and debris were squeezed to form rocks. Later, the earth's crust rose up and turned into land. The salt rock below was unable to withstand the pressure of the rock above and broke. After continuous weathering, it collapsed and gradually became the arch today. Compared with the weathered rock pillars of Bryce, the scenery here is unique. Countless unformed and formed arch bridges abound, making it one of the largest concentrations of natural sandstone arches in the world. The smallest arch is only 3 feet wide, and the largest is 306 feet long. These arches are distributed on dozens of miles of mountain roads in the park. Travelers have walked dozens of miles in total. Even if you only see the main arches, it will take several days and you cannot see them all in one trip. Arches National Park is home to the world-famous Arches. For example, the longest Landscape Arch is located in a place called the Devil's Garden in the north. However, we did not have enough time to visit it this time. It is said that some parts of it are very narrow, and it is doubtful how long it will last. We watched the typical single-hole arch, double-hole arch (North Window and South Window), and a large and small turret arch (Turret Arch) under the sunset. These are very famous arches. We continued towards Delicate Arch. Arches made of sandstone will collapse due to wind and rain erosion, but the exquisite arches have withstood long-term wind erosion without falling, so they are famous all over the world. We came to the foot of the mountain. The landmark indicated that we needed to walk 5 kilometers. The mountain was sloping and the mountain road was rugged. We had to rely on the markers piled up by pioneers to reach it. It took three hours to go back and forth. It was getting dark, and we could only look far away, but we had no chance to go to the top of the mountain. To appreciate the beauty of the exquisite arch, it is best to go up the mountain before dawn. The ideal moment is when the red sun rises and thousands of rays of light dye it orange-red. But this is a visit trip, and I hope to come back to see it in the summer. Arch Park is a magical place. In addition to the arches, there are also numerous unique landscapes such as strange mountains and rocks, and balanced stones. All the stones have textures with very strong color contrasts. There are no tourist buses in Arches Park. When we travel by car, we often park the car on the side of the road and walk to various scenic spots. We also take many beautiful scenery photos. There is a distant view with several strange stone figures in it, which is very amazing!

We didn’t leave Arches Park until dark and drove to a nearby town called Moab. Since nearly one million people visit Arches Park every year, the town has become quite large, with many star-rated hotels and restaurants. After eating at a Chinese restaurant called "Sichuan Banyan", we went to the hotel we booked. This star-rated hotel is very new and clean, with a quiet environment. There is an outdoor swimming pool and a hot water bar in the center. On a cold night, there are American children playing in the water. There is a large fire plate next to it, and tourists are warming up. It is really a world of ice and fire. We chose this hotel online because of the rave reviews. The breakfast was exquisite and rich. We were tired after the past two days and needed a good rest. We have to go to a world-famous resort tomorrow.

>More photos: http://www.paaca.us/photogallery/new_page_3.htm

>Arch Gate Park is a magical place. The arch bridge scenic area can be photographed from a distance. There are many strange stone statues with human heads under the sunset, which is very amazing!

Single-hole arch

Double-hole arch for north and south windows