Now we know why Arches is one of the most popular of the national parks, visited each year by 700,000 tourists. Just inside the park are massive sandstone walls

that are difficult to comprehend even being right up next to them.

There were all sorts of interesting formations, such as crossbedding (fine diagonal layering within larger, originally horizontal layers).

We saw the “fins” we have heard so much about, the narrow slabs that give rise to the arches,

a line of which forms a formation called Park Avenue.

There were so many unusual things to look at in all directions.

Some of them looked like people.

Then we started seeing the arches: Delicate Arch,

North Window Arch,

and Double Arch, which is much huger than it looks in this perspective – there are tiny people walking around underneath it that you can’t see.

We even saw some fascinating footprint fossils on the ground near Double Arch; I’m sure I could identify a Reebok, and a Nike …

Later we went back and got our bikes. We haven’t been able to ride lately because we’ve been camped on gravel. Every second vehicle in Moab has a bike rack & bikes on it, especially mountain bikes – the local “sliprock” is a mountain-biking delight – and also dirt bikes.

There is also a super amenity for street-bike riders: the Moab Canyon Pathway, over 100 miles of paved smooth blacktop bike path that goes from the north edge of town out several directions into the rock formations. We parked the Smart car and hopped on our bikes and rode toward Arches N. P. When we got to the Colorado River, a couple of miles north, we turned east and rode along the river, skirting the southern border of the park.

At first the trail went next to a road; then it veered off away from the road, next to some towering cliffs.

We saw lots of interesting rock formations close up,

including some baby arches in the making.

Coming back, we were between the river and a gorgeous sheer rock wall.

Then we rode across a bridge over the reddish, silt-filled river

and up the path north some more before turning around and heading back to the car. What a fabulous bike ride! As memorable as the airplane ride over Canyonlands, in a completely different way.