Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Awoke early to try and get to Arches National Park before the madding crowds and before it gets too hot to be hanging around, as yesterday it reached over 34degrees... It's a nice, dry, heat, but still not ideal for riding motorcycles in, especially clad in heavy adventure gear and motorcross boots... As breakfast starts at 7am, I was there on the dot, grabbing a bowl of cereal and coffee and munching them down before hitting the road and the short drive to the park entrance. Arriving just after 7.30am, I once again exploited my all-parks pass from last year, and rode into the park, first stopping at the aptly-named “Balanced Rock”...





From here it was a short ride up to Windows, an unusual pair of arches, and Turret Arch, a huge lump of rock with an arch over the “entrance”. These unusual rock arches are formed by erosion of the rock layers deposited on top of the Entrada Sandstone, which itself was deposited as sand some 150 million years ago, and compressed into rock by subsequent layers. A series of uplifts and collapses as the Earth's plates move causes severe cracks in the 300ft layer of Entrada sandstone, then when the overlying rock layers are eroded away, the Entrada layer is exposed and weathered, the cracks widening in places and forming fins of parallel rock. Water then enters the sandstone, dissolving the natural cement that holds it in place, causing it to flake and crumble, forming the arches. Eventually, the same processes that form the arch will destroy it, causing it to collapse.








From Windows I rode deeper into the park, stopping at Fiery Furnace to look over at the weird landscape of rock slots, the different rock types clearly visible amongst the heavily eroded spires and flutes...





I then rode to the far end of the park, an area called Devil's Garden, where I met up with Nigel and Andy, and changed out of my bike gear and into shorts and trekking shoes, dumping my bike clothes and boots in my panniers, so that I could walk the 1.6miles to Landscape Arch. The first part of Devil's Garden is aptly-named, comprising huge and sinister-looking rock buttresses, through which the path meanders, before opening out to provide some great views over the plain (but into the sun, so no decent pictures). The ground becomes more sandy as you approach the fence that closes off the path under Landscape Arch, the original path having to be closed to tourists following a three large slabs falling from the thinnest section since 1991. It's considered to be the longest natural arch in the world, the span having been measured at 290 ft. And it's very impressive...





With Nigel and Andy deciding to turn back, I joined Edwin and Lorraine to climb a bit deeper into the park, clambering up the rocks and following the path over to two more arches, Navajo and Partition. The scrambling was well worth the effort, as we found some really odd looking rocks, where the erosion had worn away the rock from within, leaving a trellis-like layer of rock in front of the main rock-face... very bizarre...





Navajo arch also had a little surprise for us, in the form of a pine tree growing at the entrance, looking for all the world like a Christmas tree at the entrance to a cave-dwelling...





After Navajo, the trail took us up to Partition Arch, so called because there are two arches side by side, which when viewed from below look like being part of the same arch with a dividing wall between them. Viewed from up here, the main arch provided a great frame for the magnificent scenery below, the red of the rock clear despite the by now baking sun...





With the temperature verging on the unbearable, we walked back the way we'd come to the bikes, our progress being halted at one point by the sight of a lizard playing with, and then eating, a scorpion. Not something you see every day...





Whilst Edwin & Lorraine sat and ate their lunch, I put on my heavy bike clothes and boots and rode out of the park, stopping at the Visitor's Center where I was disappointed not to find any decent stickers (or fridge magnets). It was time to get back to the hotel and get into my shorts, so I rode back and did just that, before walking into town in search of the Post Office (to get some stamps) and lunch (a pizza, and a nice one too). Then back to the hotel to complete my other task for the day, fixing my fog lights. This turned out to be a real trial, as not only was the relay faulty, the earth wasn't making a good connection, there was a short in one of the lights, and to cut a long story short, 3 hours later, having re-wired the lights directly to my fuse-box, they were working again...

Just in time for the day's briefing with Kevin running through the plans for the next couple of days, something that doesn't really affect me, as the main group is heading to Mesa Verde, where Tracy and I went in September. I've therefore decided to stay an extra night in Moab, to allow me time to re-visit Arches at sunrise and also to see Canyonlands and Needles, perhaps even catching Deadhorse at sunset, and also allowing me time to catch up with the blog, which is a couple of days behind. I'm then going to ride with the group the day after, before camping at Valley of the Gods whilst they slum it in a motel in Mexican Hat... sounds like a much better plan, if you ask me... At the start of the briefing, though, Kevin reprimanded Jeff for carrying passengers in the van. Jeff looked confused, so went to the van to investigate, where he was formally introduced to his new “girlfriend”, a present from the group...





Should keep him company on those long days in the van...

After all that excitement we wandered off to Frankie D's, where we had a couple more Cutthroats and played pool, and enjoyed an excellent plate of chicken and ribs, although the ribs weren't as good as those we'd sampled the day before (but the chicken was). When the Cutthroat ran out, I decided it was an omen, and headed back to my room for an early night, ready to get up early to catch the sunrise...