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Okay first.

While the park is called Arches National Park, whenever I considered what we might see there I always figured it was gonna be one great big arch and a whole lotta canyon-y landscape.

But the name's plural for reason.

There are tons of arches. As many as 90. Or 2,000. I wasn't paying super close attention.

There's just lots.

And while we did see arches and while they were magnificent, there's one thing that has nothing to do with geology that impressed me most.

So.

We're at the first stop in the park, the one called Park Place Trail.

We step over to the viewpoint at first but quickly realize there's a fairly reasonable trail running down the middle of the canyon. After a careful descent, the rest is pretty flat.

Ish.

Anyway, we choose to do a little of it, managing our way down, continuing about halfway into the canyon where I take a 360 degree photo, Kimmer takes some snaps herself, and I record thirty seconds of sound. Birds. Wind. And nothing else.

Now, on our way down, we passed an elderly gentleman wearing shorts and a bright salmon-colored shirt on his way back to the viewpoint. We spoke with he and his walking partner both there and on our way back.

They had actually done the full trail one mile going and we're about to finish the one mile coming back. And, by the way, if you're one of those who considers me to be elderly, lemme put it this way: he's the kind of elderly that elderly people call "elderly".

Now, I'd actually been on a photographing spree when Kimmer spoke with them for the second time before continuing on to the viewpoint from whence we came.

The gentleman's companion was just starting to make her way up there, too, whilst he continued to wait a beat, gathering up his energy. You see, while a mile down and back doesn't seem like that big a deal, it pretty much is when you've gotta take frequent breaks to catch your breath, rest your muscles, and will yourself to keep moving.

And we were catching him at the end of this, which for him was an Herculean effort. An effort that's lasted three hours by this point.

Now I've holstered my camera, continuing my walk, and about to pass him on his left. And as I do, I hear him shout to his companion ahead of us

"I'm going to make it!"

Not in dis-belief. But in absolute belief. This challenge for him with nature, with geology, with gravity, with time and age... today he was the victor.

And that accomplishment was something I could feel in his words.

And I love that.

So that was the best thing.

😁

The funniest thing came at our next stop called the Windows Area for the numerous rock arches you can observe there, many of them right up close.

Kimmer 'n I are walking down from the upper parking lot when a group of teens catches up with us and I catch a bit of their conversation that's prompted by the sheer hotness of the day. The relentless heat dogging their every step.

Or something like that.

Anyway, what I heard was

"I wish I could have a triple scoop ice cream cone right now."

Which conjured out of thin air both the image and the sound of a brightly painted ice cream truck with speakers atop its roof broadcasting a children's song in music box tones.

I could straight up imagine it coming up the hill just then, thinking not only how cool that would be...

But that I'd also most definitely be trampled by the teens behind us running for their tripple scoops.

😆

Now, the reason we're walking from the upper parking lot to the lower one is because the arches we wanna good, long, in-person look at are on this side.

The Double Arch.

The Double Arch is a formation of arches in this area of the park, an area with the largest concentration of natural arches in the entire world. Aside from the obvious, Double Arch is so named because it consists of two arches that share the same stone as a foundation for both their outer legs.

The larger is 144 feet wide by 112 feet high, the smaller is 67 feet wide by 86 feet high.

For my own personal reference, the larger of the two arches is 16 feet shy of the height of the Macy's building in downtown Seattle.

Nobody really cares about those kinds of comparisons, though. Because when you're standing dead center under the larger arch, you.

Are.

Dwarfed.

You're tiny.

You're miniscule.

In the presence of massive natural architecture.

It's intimidating.

And.

It's frustrating not only trying to explain what it's like standing there...

It's a fool's errand trying to capture its essence in a photograph.

The breathtaking beauty of it, of course.

The incomprehensible scale of it that feels like you're standing beneath a massive natural dome.

The entirety of the arches that extends well beyond their width.

And, most importantly, how it feels to be intimidated by all that. To feel awe as you take it in. To wonder at its dangerous beauty.

Yeah.

IMAX might help.

Better photography skills would definitely help.

But it's the physicality of the experience that boggles the mind. Hearing how voices bounce off these rocks in peculiar ways. Walking toward the arches and toward them and toward them, reaching them well after your brain tells you you should've reached them. Climbing, navigating your own path up rock formations until you're under the shade of the first arch. Beginning the even steeper climb toward the second arch before deciding that effort's madness. And then...

And then seeing a young girl who's managed to climb halfway up one side of the first arch. The big one.

There she is, posing for pictures taken with telephoto precision. Humoring the words of her parents "Okay that's it. That's as high as you go."

And then marveling as her dad climbs up to join her.

Now they're both posing for pictures.

Eventually, we succumb to the reality that this is a moment for our perceptions, for our memories. Because the full scale of this experience can only be understood this way. Can only be fully appreciated this way.

Can only be enjoyed.

This way.

And we... are incredibly fortunate to be counted among those to experience it.

😲🤔☺️😍

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