Impressive pinnacles with ‘unique’ personalities are found throughout Arches National Park.
Outer Banks, North Carolina: We have been on the road for a month now— zig zagging across the country— climbing over mountains, crossing rivers, traveling through deserts and forests, zipping through urban areas and moving more slowly through rural. We’ve traveled from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic and driven through 13 states so far.
Let me report: It’s strange out there when it comes to the pandemic. Some states are doing everything possible to reduce the the number of people catching Covid-19 and the resultant deaths. Others are like, whatever. Or they feel that restarting the economy takes precedence. Sadly, had they aggressively fought the pandemic to start with, we would now be in a much better position to get people back to work.
We drove through Atlanta a few days ago where the governor of the state was suing the mayor of the city because she wanted to implement a city-wide mask ordinance. Thankfully, more and more people are voluntarily wearing face coverings. Even the President is declaring it patriotic. My sense is if wearing a mask can save just one life, it’s worth it.
It isn’t strange, however, that Arches National Park has a lot more than arches to ooh and aww over. In fact, I find the fins and pinnacles located throughout the park equally awe-inspiring. I’ll provide some of my favorite examples over the next two to three posts. My last post on the park will be dedicated to arches.
This is a close up of the pinnacle I featured at the top of the post.And this knobby guy— with my help— provides a perspective of just how large the pinnacles can get. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)A different view.These would-be/will-be pinnacles are known as the Three Gossips. A different perspective suggests that one of the gossips might have dinosaur blood. Gossiping about it might lead to getting your head chomped off.This is one of the views that greets you when you when you enter the park. If you look to the right, you can see a precariously balanced rock.I think it is more impressive than Balanced Rock if only judged on its odds of teetering over. But who knows? Maybe it will hang out up there for another thousand years. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)This is another view that welcomes visitors to the park.This fin is known as Wall Street. In other words, some person at some time thought that these eroded rocks had a skyscraper look. Here’s another view of Wall StreetMost of the major landmarks have names given to them over the years. I find it more fun to look at them for the impressive monuments to nature and geology that they are.Or provide your own names. Peggy saw this as The Hand.Here, she demonstrates why.Here’s one I can easily see, the Sheep. Its nose was once part of an arch. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)We found this interesting. “Petrified” sand dunes frozen through chemical reactions in ancient times. The La Sal Mountains serve as a colorful backdrop.I’ll conclude with a couple of scenic views Peggy and I found at the beginning of the park.
NEXT POST: Peggy and I travel farther into Arches.
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