January 8, 2020 • 44 mins
When it comes to iconic images from the national parks, Arches is right up there with the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful at Yellowstone, and the bat cave at Carlsbad Caverns. Especially the Delicate Arch, which is so popular that it’s featured on Utah’s license plates. Arches National Park in Utah was a bucket list priority of ours once we first started living and traveling in the RV. It was actually one of the first national parks we visited once we made the official leap from Chicago condo to RV. This episode, we recount our time there among these natural wonders, each with their own unique personality—from Delicate Arch to the Parade of Elephants to the park's own twins, Double Arch. We'll also talk about our visit to the city of Moab.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me just say that, thanks to Arches National Park
in Utah, I now officially have a T shirt with
an image of myself on it. And even better, it's
an image of a photo I took of you looking
all artsy by the dulk at arch. Yeah. It's a
great photo, got a lot of of on Instagram when
I first posted it. It was taken of me from
behind kind of gazing off at this iconic arch in
(00:21):
the park, and it was transformed into a Parklandia T
shirt for our online March store with the caption get
over it, as in, like, yeah, we're close pictures of
myself on it, get over it, or you know, get
over it like the fact that this is a massive arch. Sure, yeah,
it's a double entendre. I guess I remember having this
like hilarious interaction with a brieft at a coffee shop
(00:43):
in Chicago a few months ago. I was wearing the
shirt of myself at Arches as I want to do,
and I was patiently waiting for my coffee. Or it
was September, so I think I was getting like a
pumpkin spice latte since that's the time of year where
I exclusively eat pumpkin spice flavored things and the briefs
that came up to me and he asked me about
the shirt because he was from Utah, and it caught
(01:06):
his eye because obviously the arch naturally and then I
had to explain to him that the shirt is an
image of myself and he was like, oh wow, I
had no idea, and we both had a good laugh
and hopefully he was laughing with me and not at me,
but I I wasn't clear on that either way. The
shirt accomplished what we wanted to do, catch people's attention
(01:26):
and promote the podcast National Parks. I know it was great,
and honestly, I'm super proud to be a human billboard
for Artist National Park. Hi. I'm Matt and I'm brand.
This is part Glandia, a production of I Heart Radio.
We packed up our stuff in Chicago, sold our loft,
and now we're following in the country with our dog
Fin in an RV exploring America's national parks. Happened. Today's
(01:49):
episode is about Artist National Park in Utah. When it
comes to iconic national images for national parks, arches us
right up there with the Grand Canyon, and then there's
like Old Faithful at Yellowstone, in the bat Cave, at
Carl's Bed Caverns, but especially the Delicate Arch, which is
(02:09):
so popular that's featured on Utah's license plate. Yes, it's
a biggie. This place is super significant and a big
buck list priority for both of us once we started
lipping and traveling in the r V, and it was
actually one of the first national parks we visited once
we made that official leap from Chicago to r V.
Oh yeah, that's right, and fittingly, it was the second
(02:31):
national park we visited on our Crust Country road trip,
after Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis. So we
literally went from Arch to Arch. Yeah, we did, and
that was actually super inadvertent. We didn't play in that,
but like we realized once we got to Artis in Utah,
We're like, wait a second, we went from the Gateway
Arch to Artists Like, that's magical. Yeah, it works for
(02:53):
a lot of reasons, not just because it was poetic,
but the weather at the time of the year was
just perfect too. Yeah, I know, it really was. We
got to mow Up, Utah, where Arches are located in
southeastern Utah, in early December. I think it was literally
like December one, and it was chilly at first. It
was pretty brisk, but also super sunny and especially comfortable
(03:16):
for hiking and light jackets. And I was wearing my
Doc Martins, which are really not at all appropriate hiking
at higher since they're about as heavy heavy as anvils
and just really cumbersome. But it looked good and like
they are now on a T shirt with myself, so yes,
And but for the hikes they were, they were fine. Um.
We didn't do anything too long or too strenuous, just
(03:38):
some of the big popular spots there. Yeah, nothing too hardcore.
We had a limited amount of time at Artists, so
we really wanted to maximize it by visiting the big
like icon trails, and we had to start with the
delicate Arch trail. Of course, you cannot come to Arches
and not do this trail. It should be like priority
number one, and for us it was. I think going
to Arches not doing delicate art would be like going
(04:01):
to Universal Studios and skipping Harry Potter World, which is
really the only reason to go to Universal Studios these days.
To be honest, it's a little bit of a burn there.
I think you know how we feel about Universal Studios
spoiler alert, We're not enthusiastic about it. Harry Potter World
is another story though. Anyway, the Delicate Arts Trail is
(04:21):
a must, and not just because it's featured on the
license plates or or T shirts. It's popular for a
really good reason. It's the perfect length, the perfect amount
of comfort, elevation gain, and it's one of those trails
that's just like an epic wow factor grand finale. Once
you come around the final bend and then you see
the arch itself surrounded by hikers getting photos. Um. I mean,
(04:43):
it was just like this beautiful like landscape of the
LaSalle Mountains in the background and everything all of it.
I know. It's really one of those kind of grand
finale trails. You walk up to it, it's a fun trail,
and then you round a corner, it's like, wow, oh
my god, this is overwhelming and the best possible way,
And it's no wonder this place is so iconic, and
this arch in particular, it's photogenic as hell, and especially
(05:06):
in a cloudless sunny day like when we visited, where
everything's just so pristine and majestic. I loved it. It
really is an amazing site. But let's start talking about
the trail leading up to this trails. It all started
for us at the visitor center in Moab, just off
the main road, which was super close to the r
(05:28):
V park where we reserved a couple of nights. The
visitors centers at the base of this massive plateau called
the Colorado Plateau, and that there's this main park road
that really twists and turns up to the top of
the plateau where more than two thousand arches are scattered
across the colorful landscape. Yeah, some of those arches are
very tiny, and then some are huge, and you many
(05:50):
of them you can see from your car or v
um and then there's something you can't just see at all. Uh.
Then there are ones like the Delicate Arch, which is
so major that there's like a parking lot by the
trailhead that fills up fast. So get there early, especially
if you have an RV, because you need to snag
one of those uh few large vehicle parking spots. Yeah,
you really do. Fortunately, we were fine and we're able
(06:11):
to get a spot no problem. And I think a
lot of that how to do with the fact that
we were visiting off season, since most of the parks
one point four million annual visitors tend to visit in
the spring or early fall. We were right at the
cosp of winter and like literally it snowed a lot
the very next day, so it was we really locked
out with the timing on Arches, although the snow totally
(06:33):
messed up our plans to visit Canyon Lan's National Park nearby,
but that was a total bum in Like terms of
Arches specifically, the weather worked out perfectly in our face. Yeah,
it really was an ideal day to visit. We mentioned
in our mas Verity episode from season one that the
park road they are felt similar to the park road Arches,
and I stand by that. I think they're both these
(06:56):
long zig Zaggi roads that start by visitor centers and
then meander up to the top of these plateaus or
Maso's and Arches is very Maseveda like, except less green,
more desert. Yeah, if you drive along this main park road,
it's super easy to find all of the parks trails
and everything is like either directly along the route or
(07:18):
right off the route, including the delicate arch right. So
it's it's very convenient, very easy to navigate here, which
is so refreshing, especially when you're driving in an RV
and you don't want to be like kind of fiddling
around or going down these narrow, off the beaten path roads.
So once you get to a delicate arch and you park,
you start the trail and one of the first things
(07:38):
you see that we saw was this tiny ranch home
which tiny tiny like um it's like the O G
tiny house and it was built by John Wesley Wolf
in the late eighteen hundreds. This was the time when
ranchers were migrating into the area in droves, well before
Arches became a National monument and then ultimately upgraded to
(07:59):
a National Park in nine and remnants of their inhabitants
is still there today, as we saw with this citty
bitty little rancho. Yeah, it's crazy to imagine people living
in this environment. Uh, it was so much more desolate
at the time than it is today, and especially in
such small living quarters. The house was super small. I mean,
(08:20):
it makes our our V look like a huge like mansion,
you know, and that's really saying something. It was basically
just like one rickety little room and this was for
like multiple people, which is unfathomable. That's not a lot
of personal space apparently. No, definitely not like it's literally
no bigger than most people's bathrooms. Um, but you know,
(08:40):
the trail continues on for about a mile and a
half after that, all the way up to the arch itself. Um,
there's like steady inclines. It's like a modernately difficult like trail,
especially since it's like in directs all night the entire
time without any shade. Yeah, there's really no tree cover here.
And even though it's pretty easy to do and not
that long of a trail, it's an adventure experience for sure.
(09:02):
You crossed this massive expanse of slick rock at one
point in the trail then dips down into these little
grottos filled with shrubs, and then you shimming along the
side of a cliff as well, with the trail running
along the cliff wall until it ultimately around the corner
to delicate arch, and then you have this show stopping view.
Now it's such a beautiful and incredible site. It's like
seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time. It's
(09:24):
such an American treasure, I know. Yeah, it is like
the Statue of Liberty except instead of being made by
France and gifted to the US, it was made by
mother Nature over the course of millions and millions of years.
And this thing absolutely looks like a work of masterful art.
It's made of sandstone that's been whittled by wind and water,
and it's got these vivid tints of orange and red.
(09:46):
It honestly looks too good to be real. When we
made it to the end of the trail, we definitely
made sure to sit down and enjoy the views for
a while. We even packed lunches, and then we ate it.
We just laid down on the sandstone for a bit
to like drink it all in. Yeah, we did, and
kind of um ward off all the crows there was
went to the large crows that were like slowly inching
their right closer to us, trying to eat our eat
(10:06):
our lunch. And I'm like, no, you need to animals.
Don't feed the animals because then they get used to
it and they'll just like fly all around you and
hop around. It's it's a lot. And then so we
had lunch, we kind of relaxed a little bit, and
then you went scurrying and down by the art and
I was afraid that you would slip and plot it,
(10:26):
but it all worked out fine and I got some
really cool, like adventurous hands on potus of you being
a daredevil. I I wouldn't do that doing things. It's fun,
it is fun, and there were other people doing you
were the only ones, so I was somewhat reassured. You
were listening to park Landia from my Heart Radio. We'll
(10:48):
be back just a moment to talk more about art
As National Park. Hi. I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This
(11:09):
is park Landia, and today we're talking about Arches National
Park in Utah. Geography. Yes, and we've touched on the
geography and the landscape here already a little bit, but
we want to get more into the details of Arches
National Park and what makes this place so incredible from
a historical perspective. Yeah, absolutely so, Arches. This place took
(11:30):
a long process to form and get where we are today,
Like Mother Nature really took her time with this one.
And you you can't rush art like this. It's it's
too good. No, not at all. And in fact, many
of these Arches took hundreds of millions of years to form,
and it all started when this part of Utah was
actually under a sea. Yeah. I think the best parks
(11:52):
always start underwater in some form, because we learned similar
things when we're at Carl's By Caverns in New Mexico
and Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and how both of those
were under subtropical waters at one point and then like
how amazing they turned out. Yeah, that's so true, And
just like those parks, things started to take a shape
once the sea began to evaporate, leaving saltbeds throughout the
(12:12):
southeastern Utah. Yeah. So over time, these salt beds were
once again covered in water and other sediments as rivers
began to flow through the region. Meanwhile, this area turned
into a desert environment during the Jurassic period. So basically,
while t rexes and boss raptors terrorized poor herbivores, Utah
was steadily transforming into a wild landscape of sandstone art. Yeah.
(12:34):
The sandstone didn't take shape at Arches right away though.
First it was all covered by lots of sediment material,
which was also heavy and made the lower saltbeds heat
up and actually turned into a liquid basically like lava. Yeah,
So things started to shift around into the earth, and
some of that liquid salt burst through the upper layers,
creating these salt domes which made curves in the sandstone.
(12:56):
And with this foundation in place, a rows of wind
and water over the years then began to chip away
at the salton sediment and expose the sandstone underneath arches
throughout the park are many different shapes and sizes, but
they're all continuing to erode today. Yes, and there's a
lot to take in the whole process. Sounds like a
super elaborating, complicated recipe from like a serious cookbook that's
(13:16):
as thick as a phone book. It's really take a
lot of time to make these things come out of
the ground and turn out. Quit takes time. Yeah, in
terms of if we're like, you know, cookbook comparison. In terms,
this isn't one of like Rachel Ray's thirty minute like
microwave meals or whatever. It's more like one of those
Julia Child recipes that takes like a full day to create,
with the whole shopping cars, birth of ingredients. I've never
(13:37):
even heard of perfect comparison. Yeah, thanks, So when I
get confused, I this is like a safe space form.
I tend to compare things to meal preparation, and it
really kind of calms me down and puts things in
perspective and I can I can like go with it.
Are you relaxing enough to talk more about the history
of arches? Yeah, I think so. Thank you for checking
(13:58):
sure thing, So I need level. Like salt and sandstone sculpting,
arches has more history relating to humans as well, right, history,
So people first started living in this region some ten
thousand years ago, which feels like this morning compared to
the two three hundred or so million years when this
place started to take shape. But but still that's a
(14:19):
that's a long time ago. Yeah. Native people's like ancestral
Pabloans and Fremont tribes first came here to hunt, farm
and gather that grew their crops like squash, beans, and corn.
I mean it all sounds very similar to like when
we talked about ma Severde. Actually, yeah, it really does.
The crops the exactly road, the Plateau's all of it
(14:39):
very ma severea eat. But a big difference is that
this area wasn't abruptly and mysteriously abandoned overnight like ma Severde.
Now it's actually had steady human occupancy in some form
or another ever since then. Um Mute and Peyote Indians
lived here as well, followed by Spanish missionaries and European Americans.
Even Mormon setup shop here for a bit before realizing
(15:02):
how impossibly difficult it was to farm in this harsh
desert desert terrain. But other ranchers definitely gave it a go,
like John Wolfe who we mentioned earlier. Right. And then finally,
after centuries of human occupancy successful or not, Utah locals
finally got wise to the idea that, oh, hey, these
sandstone arches are incredibly unique and special and maybe they
deserve some federal protection. Yeah. I love how arches got
(15:25):
It's like start as a national monument. It's a heart
rooming story of passionate moeb residents trying to get the
attention of the federal government and the rare example of
like it actually working out. It's it's beautiful. This Moab
newspaper writer named John Taylor was so inspired by the
sandstone formations pretty much right in his backyard, that he
(15:45):
wrote about them enough to catch the attention of the government,
enough so that President Hoover designated the region a National
Monument in Like, what an uplifting story. It's that this
is so rare. It's usually just kind of complicated and tedious,
but this is this is beautiful, Yeah, and even more uplifting.
It was upgraded to a National park in n with
more than seventy six thousand acres of land, and today
(16:08):
it's one of the most beloved and visited national parks
in the country. Magnificent vistas, so there's obviously a lot
more to see in through here than the delicate Arch.
So once we were done with that trail, we hopped
back into our r V and we drove to Double Arch,
(16:30):
which was a super easy trail and super easy to
park at even for RV. Plenty of room here now,
the whole park was generally very RV friendly. When we
unhooked our trailer down by the visitor center, though, since
we had asked, like the park rangers, they suggested, like,
don't take the trailer in, just do the RV because
it's such a windy, narrow road that it could be
(16:51):
hard for our vs much larger than ours. But ours
worked out perfectly and just fine. Yeah, it really did.
That was a good suggestion from the park Rangers. I
don't think we would have realized that. We didn't realize
how like narrow and winding the road was. But it
turned out to be an easy drive with just the
RV no trailer. But then again I was doing none
of the actual driving myself, so I was just kind
(17:13):
of assuming the driving was. It looked easy, you look
like you had a nice time with it. Yeah, it
really wasn't that bad. Um, but the Double Arch is
like pretty epic. I mean, if the Delicate Arch is
the most iconic arch here, then this is a close
runner up. Yeah, I definitely agree with that, and that's
because double Arch is the largest arch in the park.
So it's not only enormous, but it's like there's two
(17:34):
of them right next to each other pretty much, and
they're just these gigantic, looming, massive sandstone twins. And I think,
like when I posted my instagram about um, the Double Arch,
I refer to it as the Mary Kayton Nashley of
Artist National Park, which is a perfect description, I think
I might if I might say so, And frankly that
(17:55):
should be a T shirt as well, because the thing
is seriously huge. I mean it is like even from
the parking area. It's gigantic, but then you walk along
the short flat trail to get close to the base
of it, and it really looms above you. Um, some
people were just scrambling up the rocks. Um. I mean,
it's just like this beautiful little rocky base and uh,
(18:17):
you know, you can get a little bit closer for pictures,
but it's impossible to capture it on in one photo.
It's just best to stand back. Yeah, it really is,
like this thing is so huge, Like climate at the
base would really not really do it justice because you
can't see or like kind of capture the whole thing
just in like a single glance like that. So I
think it's best to, yeah, like you said, stand back
(18:39):
and kind of drink it all in in one vista.
And Double Arch is located in what's called the Windows
portion of the park, which has the largest collection of
arches and everything. Here, pretty much everything is large and
huge like Double Arch yea plus sense there's like so
many arches in close concentration here. You can really see
a lot from this one trailhead, including the Cove Arch,
(19:02):
Ribbon Arch, and even the Parade of Elephants, which like
sounds fun. Yeah, I love it. I love any natural
formation that makes me think of Dumbo, like Prade of Elephants.
Great name, and it gets its name because it's a
section of sandstone that looks like a lineup of elephants
holding each other's tails in a long, single row. And
if you love Dumbo references, you're going to love the
fact that this isn't even the only formation here named
(19:24):
after elephants. Yeah, it's great. And nearby is another formation
called Elephant Butte, which is the tallest point in the
park at five thousand, six hundred and fifty three ft
of elevation, and that's more than six feet above the
park road. This is a great hands on butte for
climbers and hikers looking to get off trail a little
bit and a little more hands on. It's not too
scarier difficult as long as you watch your footing and
(19:47):
use your hands for balance too, So it's good to
go off and try that. Then there was that one
portion called Devil's Tower or no, no, no, Devil's Garden.
That one is a really, really super popular part. It's yeah,
it's very popular. It sounds less cute than mail from informations,
but it's not as scary as it sounds either, it's
actually cool as hell no pun intended, double as garden
(20:09):
cool as hell. Spell that out for you. Oh man,
we're peaking at dead jokes right now. Yeah. Deuvil's Garden
is located at the very end of the eighteen mile
park road, home to the only campground in the park.
That's also the longest trail in the park. Yeah, so
you know, I like that because it's any I always
seek out like the longest possible trails, and this one's
(20:31):
a little over seven miles round tripped, which is sounds
pretty moderate actually, even though it's it's marked as strenuous,
which again I seek that out like strenuous lawn trails.
Side me up. But this one is really not too
difficult at all. The landscape can get craggy and requires
a bit of scrambling, which I think is why it's
probably categorized as strenuous, but it's not bad, and I
(20:52):
think as long as you're prepared and have the right
footwear in water and stuff, you'll be fine. Yeah. The
trail goes by formations like the lands a barge, partition arch,
double oh arch, and there's a private arch and even
the Dark Angel. Yeah, Dark Angel. It's nice to know
that there's a sandstone tower out there named after a
defunct Jessica Elba TV series. The names there are great, actually,
(21:15):
like elephants and dark angels and Devil's Garden. Someone was
having a fun day in the office when they named
all these things. I mean the left a mark on
all of us. Yes, yeah, it really did. Arches is
really killing it with these names here. I mean elephants
and devils and dark angels. Oh my yeah, okay, that's
all of it. Love it. In case you're looking to
get even further off the beaten path, you can get
(21:36):
a free permit from the Visitor Sentatory of Backpacking and
explorer more of the back country. Just keep in mind
that a good map is pivotal, and be prepared with
more than enough food and water because the Arches landscape
is an expansive, unforgiving dessert, so you have to be
ready for that and the potential for like intense weather.
(21:58):
It's not called Devil's Garden for thing. Let's just say that.
Another fun fact those that pets are actually permitted at
overlooks and unpaved roads as long as they're on a leash.
They can't take a hike to the Delicate Arts with you,
but the love the views just as much from the
numerous overlooks. Yeah that's right. Food. Now it's time to
(22:19):
talk about the town of Moab, which is home base
to both Artist National Park and Canyonlands National Park nearby. Yeah,
this place is also a very popular hub for off roading.
Apparently in general, it's like the ideal for small city
people who love hiking, climbing, and outdoorsy activities. Super outdoorsy.
I had heard a lot about Moab before visiting here,
(22:41):
and it was always a place I was curious about
and kind of wanted to visit. And I'm really glad
that we're able to carve out some time to explore
the town as well and the small downtown area too,
especially because we happen to be staying here during Moab's
annual Christmas Breed and so we're able to watch some
of that on our first night after getting some sushi
for dinner. Yeah right, So I know that, like the
(23:04):
Utah Desert, is not really the optimal place to satisfy
a sushi craving, but we really needed it. I think
like it had been a while since we've had sushi
and we literally crave it like more than any other food,
and we were desperate times called for desperate measures, were like, yeah,
we're in the middle of the you know, utah dessert.
But and it had a spicy tuna role But it
actually turned out to be really good sushi. But like
(23:25):
it was kind of surprising because it was also quite affordable. Yeah,
it was affordable. It was lovely and it really hit
the spot. And another good thing was the restaurant was
like a block off the main drag through downtown, and
it was super warm and cozy, and it had a
warm saki. All of it was just really hitting the spot.
And I'm just warm and cozy thinking about It's such
(23:45):
a happy little nook that place. And the parade was
great too. It's such a fun surprise and a great coincidence,
I know, magical. I feel like we needed that holiday
cheer too. This is such a recent stop on our
r V journey and everything was really new, and I
was feeling kind of really homesick and emotional, missing Chicago
and friends and such. So it really made our heart
(24:07):
feel better to watch these floats go by, and it
was like a Christmas Miracle. We didn't time it. We're like, oh,
there's a Christmas parade. Let's It really was like such
a beautiful time. I mean, I just love when we're
taking this journey through the country and we like randomly
stop at places and then there's a block party celebrating
the hundred years of this ice cream shop or the
(24:29):
annual Christmas parade or things like that, because like it's
just crazies, really magical moments where your right place, right time,
and you get a lot of these were like around
the road, and this is when it was like super
special places. Um. I mean, I think the next day
we just stayed in the RV park all day because
it was basically a blizzard, which is not normal for
(24:49):
that time, but it's just it's a you know, great yeah,
I know. So it was kind of nice and coming
from someone like me who gets so restless nancy like
it was, it did feel good to like be forced
to stay in and relax a little bit. I had
no ideas now that much in Moab, like ever, let alone,
early December, like this was caught us totally off guard,
(25:11):
and we just happened to be there for for this,
like bizarre, crazy snowfall and like gay for that, I
guess because it was really it actually was super super
pretty and pristine, and it just worked out and it
was nice to hold up watch DVDs relax in the
RV with Finn, and I was also able to sit
(25:33):
in the RV parks outdoor hot tub all by myself,
which was so great. Just like I had waited to
the afternoon where most of the like brunt of the
snowfall had somewhat dissipated, so like just these like light
snow flurries just floating and bobbing around in the hot tub.
And it was a huge hot tub. It was like
the size of a swimming pool, so I could like
(25:55):
literally float around and so great. Yeah, that snow made
like everything just look like this huge beautiful painting, the
whole landscape, and it was just really beautiful. I mean,
it had this the orange sandstone desert with this bright white,
fresh snow. It was absolutely amazing. Yeah, the whole thing
like looked like a giant creamsicle. Is like seeing these
(26:16):
orange rocks capped off with like these layers of perfectly
white snow, fluffy snow. It was it was incredible so
after enough snow had melted and Moheb had thought, we
went back to the town again the next day to
check on some more like local spots like MOA Brewery,
which seemed like the largest and most popular place in town. Yeah,
making the rounds and Moaw Brewery was the one that
(26:39):
I think we had heard about the most. It definitely
came up at the top of like all our Google searches.
So if nothing nothing else, they have amazing s c O. Yeah,
it was a fun place. Um there was a bar area,
a main dining area, and merchandise store and they even
make their own gelato and they also operate a small
distillery so they make spirits like Fox in Gin and
(27:01):
this place is really doing it all crazy. Yeah, it's
definitely a great place for beer, especially and they have
lots of options on tap and cans and bottles, plus
their own root beer jeez, I know, really impressive. It's
one of those places that does something for everyone, from
amber loggers and I pas which I love, two pills,
nerves and nut brown nales and probably anything else you
(27:22):
can imagine. And it's always fun to sit at a
main bar and just have some drinks. The food is
a bit all over the place. Um, but it's got
things like poutine, hummus, pretzels and chili and other surprising
things like ravioli and euros. Yeah, you know, a little
little random. I think you're probably better off coming for
beer and then some standard snacks like wings and stuff
(27:43):
like that, because things are a bit, like like you said,
a little all over the place and daring. Yeah. I
remember after dinner and drinks there, we tried to go
to the was a movie Fantastic Beasts at the local
movie theater, but for some reason, the theater closed early
and wouldn't unlock their doors for us, even though they
could like clear us see us like at the doors,
(28:04):
like excuse me. You just feel like say, hey, I'm
sorry we closed down early because there's not enough attendance. Great,
tell me that. I know. Maybe you want to yelp
about it, and I don't even I never do that.
We went to some like tavern for a nightcap afterwards. Yeah,
so that was a kind of fun alternative. I think
although nightcap might be a stretch like this wasn't anything
(28:26):
snazzy or fancy. I think you wind up having some
sort of like red bull shot or something like, what
do you remember when you had you had something and
you're like you were familiar with what it was, and
I'm like, you seem a little too comfortable with this
Red Bull drink like you. I mean, it was probably
just like, um, let's just say it was a jag
or bomb. I don't know. I can't remember what it was.
I think it was like it was a Vegas bomb,
(28:49):
the Vegas bombs in U right, Yes, Red Bull and stuff.
I can't tell you because it's been too many years
since they've actually had one or ordered one. Yeah, for
the best, I don't remember what I had, but it
was at this place called world famous Woody's Tavern, which
is okay, the name is appealing, but I think it's
(29:12):
like not at all world famous obviously, like no one
outside of mob probably knows what it is. It was
perfectly fine though, and like good for kind of basic drinks.
It was a little rustic and like woods in there,
the type of place where you like just go up
to the counter and have like a whiskey coke or
something like that, or a Vegas bomb apparently. Yeah, and
(29:33):
now we've pretty much wrapped things up on our time
in Moab and arches. But we're going to talk about
animals and wildlife in ecology right after this quick break.
(29:58):
Hi am Matth, I'm bread. This is park Landia, and
today we're talking about Artist National Park in Utah ecology.
Getting to a segment here about ecological concepts pertaining to
roads and habitat fragmentation at arches. So, roads and highways
can pose a big threat to animals that require large
(30:20):
swaths of land to survive. I think that's something we
can all that's like a given, and that's especially pertinent
here at art Is because the roads can be scary
dangerous to animals and human thoroughfares often stop moving between
neighboring populations of a single species, resulting in habitat fragmentation
and loss of connectivity between populations. Yeah, Like one of
(30:42):
those things are the desert bighorn sheep, and the sheep
are native to the deserts um of the inter Mountain
and southwestern US and Mexico. They're commonly depicted in the
Pabloan and Fremont pictographs in the area um. They're very
different from other big horn sheep and their mammals for
that matter, because they can go into these long periods
(31:03):
of time without water, and their body temperature can fluctuate
a bit to help them deal with the intense heat
and the cold in their own desert home. Yeah, the
desert is no joke, and because desert bighorns are extremely
vulnerable to live stock diseases as well, like anthrax and scabies,
and because European explorers and settlers have been fond of
hunting them since the sixteenth century. Populations of desert bighorns
(31:26):
in Utah were in a steady decline, and in nineteen
seventy five, the state's population numbered around a thousand animals
until the nine eighties, when scientists began relocating them to
nearby Canyonlands National Park. Now there's around three thousand desert
big horns in Utah and seventy five in arches Um
National Park. You can see them along Highway one south
(31:48):
of the visitors Center. The current problem is that the
infant mortality rate of the desert big horns has been
extremely highlyly, possibly due to that habitat fragmentation and increased
traffic on roads be tween moeb in the park Um.
Scientists are like still studying whether the deaths um of
so many desert big horn lambs like might also be
(32:09):
due to predators like mountain lions, coyotes and foxes. But
you know, we have to be very careful when we're
driving on these um roads. Like if you think about it,
like we're at a point in the National park system where, um,
this year, for the first time ever, there's more visitors
at national parks than theme parks. And so when you're driving, now,
(32:30):
let's say that we increased it from one desert big
horn got hit last year, now we have this increase
in parks and now two more getting hit. You know,
how does that take an impact as we grow these
national parks. We just have to start to really pay
attention um and you know, not be wild, not be
(32:51):
distracted too much. If you're the driver, you have to
focus on the road. I know it sounds silly that
we have to remind us, but like I'll catch myself
doing it, Matt cat catches me doing it, and you know,
and so you know it's really important to us. Yeah,
especially and it's like understandably distracting when you're in a
beautiful landscape like art is, like there's so much on
(33:11):
either side of you and in front of you and
behind it that you kind of like are drawn to
look at it. So it's hard, it could be difficult
to like maintain focus on the road ahead of you.
But it's also the double edged sword of increased visitorship
to national parks into places like Archids National Park in particular,
where it's wonderful and great that so many people are
(33:33):
interested in it and planning vacations around it, and that's awesome,
but it also poses an increased threat to the wildlife here,
like the desert bighorn sheep. So caution at all times
and focus and all that, you know, because you can
have a great time here while also being safe and
(33:53):
keeping the animals safe. Yeah, and these desert bighorn sheep
are just so beautiful and such important part of ecology.
I mean, they've been here for tens of thousands of years.
It's not like they're new or they're innovasive species there
originally from here. Yeah, and like they've been through enough
like the anthroox and hunters and traffic, like they've had
(34:15):
an ordeal, so they've had to deal with a lot
of different things. Yeah, it's a lot. And then also
because arch is located in a high semi arid desert.
The climate here is extremely variable, so you have this
whole thing to factor in. Animals have to be ready
to face both snow storms in the winter, which we've
(34:37):
we've been through and swaltering summer temperatures that can exceed
a hundred degrees fahrenheit in addition to water scarcity. So
animals are often nocturnal, which means active at night to
kind of get out of this most intense heat and stuff.
And they're also crape pulscular, which means they're most active
(34:57):
during dawn and dusk. And then they're really only just
a few that are diurnal meeting active during the day,
and that's because of these harsh, brutal temperature swings potentially. Yeah,
and there's a lot of beautiful animals here in Arches.
I mean, next, we have the kangaroo rat. I mean,
these little rodents live pretty like stressful desert lives. For starters,
(35:17):
they really can't take the heat and they limit to
the amount of time they spend away from their like
cool dry burrows um, sometimes plugging into the entrance of
their bureaus to keep it cooler. UM. But they also
come out at night, when the temperatures drop and it's
dark enough to hop around unseen. UM. They are bipedal,
only using their two back feed for local motion, sort
(35:39):
of like a kangaroo um. They collect seeds and vegetations
and the occasional insect if they can get it. UM.
Everybody in the desert wants to eat them. Coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, owls,
I mean really, you can just name it. And they
are the bottom of the chain, almost poor things, but
they are fast and have extreme intensitive hearing, so they
(36:01):
have that going for them. They also don't drink water
at all, which is crazy. Their bodies produced water by
metabolizing the seeds and plants they eat, so that's also
a benefit. They don't need to be hopping around in
you know, vulnerable, exposed, deth erent landscape to get water.
That's really crazy, isn't it when you think about that,
Like they just you don't drink water, get water from
(36:22):
their food. That's such a little amount, it's crazy. But
there's also those pinion jay's UM. The flocks of pinion
jay's can be found around the park, traveling in large
like upwards of like five birds at a time, noisy,
little like flocks. They're like screwing the ground and like
tree canopies for insects and pine seeds, especially those are
(36:42):
the pinion pine, which are essentially pine nuts. Yeah, you
know the ones that like cost around thirty dollars a
pound at the grocery store. Yeah, they have expensive taste.
These birds look like small blue gray crows kind of.
They're very closely related to crows, and they live in
arches year around. They cash food, carry up to forty
(37:03):
seeds at a time and their expandable esophagus and storing
them in a hiding place to eat during times when
food is limited. So they're quite like industrious animals here
and have a like large appetite. Yeah. The diversity in
arches like National Park and the wildlife is just so amazing. Um.
I would say that's one of my favorite parts, but
(37:25):
I'm not going to because I think it's time that
we actually share what our favorite part of Arches. National
Park is my favorite. So it's the part of the
episode where we share with each other our favorite thing
about artists. We haven't told each other what our favorite
things are, so it's a heartwarming surprise for both of
us and I love it. Brad loves it. Do you
(37:47):
want to talk about what your favorite part about artists was? Now,
this is a tough one because arches is so beautiful
and so diverse. I mean, all these animals are really
amazing and the way that they survived is so specific
to them. That's really amazing and amazing fact. But I'm
not going to say that's my favorite. Um, I'm gonna
be really basic and say that the delicate arch is
(38:09):
my favorite. How original, I know, how original, but it
does come up with that great T shirt and that
T shirt. It's so funny because like I think of it, like,
stop being so delicate, get over it, right, because it's
meaning that was actually I was never very clear, but yeah,
so it's stop being a delicate arch, get over it? Wow. Well, yeah,
(38:36):
there's a lot of meanings behind it, a lot of
a lot of layers there. But yeah, I mean, delicate
was just so beautiful, I mean stunning, a fun trail
like hike. Um, there's a lot of scrambling and it
was fun. And we actually took some of those shots
of those like brecon Wood Spot because when we got
(38:56):
up there, we think these little mini ones because we
just visit the distill and back and Redge in Colorado. Yeah, yeah,
that was wonderful. So I think my favorite was probably
the next day during the snowstorm and just like seeing
it and drinking that site in because it was exquisite.
And that's kind of surprising for me because I'm not
(39:17):
much of a snowperson. It usually annoys me. Say you
were soaking it in? Yeah, oh, I was hot top um.
But I just thought it looked really amazing and I've
never been in like a snowy desert environment before, so
it was an experience and incredible. Normally, I only like
snow if it's like a ski destination and I can
(39:40):
I get there, spent a couple of days and leave
and go back someplace where there's no snow. I would
have loved to go to Canyon Lands. That would have
been amazing because it was just so close. But because
it was snowing, um, they share one um snow plow
between the two parks, and because Arches was more visit,
they were taking care of them, and then they couldn't
really get to the canyon outside. So I'll have to
(40:01):
go back to Actually, we will have to go back
to yeah, yeah, yeah, please take me. But I know
that was it was so cool. We we got to
like the entrance of candy Lands pretty much, are we
going to get stuck up here? Because we had the
r V obviously, And it's not an idea of they
are cool to drive through snow, but it weren't. It
(40:24):
like worked out fine. So I think we should also
talk about three things that we would recommend bringing two
arches National Park. Water. Oh yeah, water, lots of water.
Desert environment always water, and I know that's silly. Could
you should brink water to every national park? But this
one is one of those ones. Even when we went
it was cool. But just because it's cool does not
(40:45):
mean your body is hydrating. Um, you have to hydrate
when you're in any desert environment, no matter what temperature
it is. Yeah, you really do. And it can meet
us out of two because if you're there like when
we were there on the snowy day, then you're Audie
doesn't have like the most obvious reaction where like thirsty
(41:05):
or whatever. But like even if it's cold and chilly
and snowy and wet or whatever, like still you need
to drink a ton of water and then also sunscreen,
sun protection, hats, sunglasses, all of it, because there's really
no tree cover here. It's wide open exposed desert, especially
the portions of trails that are just on these wide
(41:27):
vasts like rocks, so it's just you and like the
direct sun and it's pretty high elevation so it hits
you and impacts you more directly. Yeah, and this isn't
like one of those huge parks where you're going on
a lot of like trips. Now if you're back like
backpacking and like backcountry traveling, like that's one thing like
don't like, yeah, there's more you have to bring, but
(41:49):
like from this one, it's just really like snacks, water
and sun protection. Yeah, a little bits of brock and
Ridge is not really hard. Yeah brick ridge baka shooters.
Yeah sure, I mean if you want, that's on you.
But um, the other thing too, like if you are
going into the back country or going off the main
trails and stuff, be sure and bring maps. It helps
(42:12):
to print out maps or bring a map book or
something because un surprisingly, there's really no service so you
can't be using like your phone GPS or anything like that,
so it would not be good to be lost out there.
It's since it's such a kind of this plane desert
um landscape, there's no like distinct landmarks to help guide
(42:35):
you necessarily if you are like unfortunate enough to be
lost out there, so best to you know, over, prepare
a map. Quest dot com, download a download a map. Yeah,
and I think it's like safe to say that Arches
is one of the most iconic destinations in the entire country. Um,
it's really one of those points where you just get
(42:57):
to really enjoy it and watch it and take it
all in. Yeah, and it is one of those places
that more than lives up to the hype. This iconic site,
like the delicate arch and the rest of the park itself,
is absolutely worth a visit. And then also like no
matter how higher expectations are, it's gonna it's gonna exceed them,
(43:18):
Like we have an incredible time here and I cannot
wait to go back. You've been listening to park Landia,
a show about National parks. Parklands the production of My
Heart Radio, created by Matt Carouac, Brad Carouac, and Christopher
has The otis produced and edited by Mike John's. Our
executive producer is Christopher has The Otis, our researchers Jescelyn Shields.
(43:39):
A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters
and the rest of the Parklandia crew and hey listeners,
if you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you find our show.
You can keep up with us on social media as well.
Check out our photos from our travels on Instagram at
park Landia Pod and join in on the conversation and
our Facebook group park Land Rangers. For more podcasts. For
(44:01):
my heart radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always,
thank you for listening.
Let me just say that, thanks to Arches National Park
in Utah, I now officially have a T shirt with
an image of myself on it. And even better, it's
an image of a photo I took of you looking
all artsy by the dulk at arch. Yeah. It's a
great photo, got a lot of of on Instagram when
I first posted it. It was taken of me from
behind kind of gazing off at this iconic arch in
(00:21):
the park, and it was transformed into a Parklandia T
shirt for our online March store with the caption get
over it, as in, like, yeah, we're close pictures of
myself on it, get over it, or you know, get
over it like the fact that this is a massive arch. Sure, yeah,
it's a double entendre. I guess I remember having this
like hilarious interaction with a brieft at a coffee shop
(00:43):
in Chicago a few months ago. I was wearing the
shirt of myself at Arches as I want to do,
and I was patiently waiting for my coffee. Or it
was September, so I think I was getting like a
pumpkin spice latte since that's the time of year where
I exclusively eat pumpkin spice flavored things and the briefs
that came up to me and he asked me about
the shirt because he was from Utah, and it caught
(01:06):
his eye because obviously the arch naturally and then I
had to explain to him that the shirt is an
image of myself and he was like, oh wow, I
had no idea, and we both had a good laugh
and hopefully he was laughing with me and not at me,
but I I wasn't clear on that either way. The
shirt accomplished what we wanted to do, catch people's attention
(01:26):
and promote the podcast National Parks. I know it was great,
and honestly, I'm super proud to be a human billboard
for Artist National Park. Hi. I'm Matt and I'm brand.
This is part Glandia, a production of I Heart Radio.
We packed up our stuff in Chicago, sold our loft,
and now we're following in the country with our dog
Fin in an RV exploring America's national parks. Happened. Today's
(01:49):
episode is about Artist National Park in Utah. When it
comes to iconic national images for national parks, arches us
right up there with the Grand Canyon, and then there's
like Old Faithful at Yellowstone, in the bat Cave, at
Carl's Bed Caverns, but especially the Delicate Arch, which is
(02:09):
so popular that's featured on Utah's license plate. Yes, it's
a biggie. This place is super significant and a big
buck list priority for both of us once we started
lipping and traveling in the r V, and it was
actually one of the first national parks we visited once
we made that official leap from Chicago to r V.
Oh yeah, that's right, and fittingly, it was the second
(02:31):
national park we visited on our Crust Country road trip,
after Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis. So we
literally went from Arch to Arch. Yeah, we did, and
that was actually super inadvertent. We didn't play in that,
but like we realized once we got to Artis in Utah,
We're like, wait a second, we went from the Gateway
Arch to Artists Like, that's magical. Yeah, it works for
(02:53):
a lot of reasons, not just because it was poetic,
but the weather at the time of the year was
just perfect too. Yeah, I know, it really was. We
got to mow Up, Utah, where Arches are located in
southeastern Utah, in early December. I think it was literally
like December one, and it was chilly at first. It
was pretty brisk, but also super sunny and especially comfortable
(03:16):
for hiking and light jackets. And I was wearing my
Doc Martins, which are really not at all appropriate hiking
at higher since they're about as heavy heavy as anvils
and just really cumbersome. But it looked good and like
they are now on a T shirt with myself, so yes,
And but for the hikes they were, they were fine. Um.
We didn't do anything too long or too strenuous, just
(03:38):
some of the big popular spots there. Yeah, nothing too hardcore.
We had a limited amount of time at Artists, so
we really wanted to maximize it by visiting the big
like icon trails, and we had to start with the
delicate Arch trail. Of course, you cannot come to Arches
and not do this trail. It should be like priority
number one, and for us it was. I think going
to Arches not doing delicate art would be like going
(04:01):
to Universal Studios and skipping Harry Potter World, which is
really the only reason to go to Universal Studios these days.
To be honest, it's a little bit of a burn there.
I think you know how we feel about Universal Studios
spoiler alert, We're not enthusiastic about it. Harry Potter World
is another story though. Anyway, the Delicate Arts Trail is
(04:21):
a must, and not just because it's featured on the
license plates or or T shirts. It's popular for a
really good reason. It's the perfect length, the perfect amount
of comfort, elevation gain, and it's one of those trails
that's just like an epic wow factor grand finale. Once
you come around the final bend and then you see
the arch itself surrounded by hikers getting photos. Um. I mean,
(04:43):
it was just like this beautiful like landscape of the
LaSalle Mountains in the background and everything all of it.
I know. It's really one of those kind of grand
finale trails. You walk up to it, it's a fun trail,
and then you round a corner, it's like, wow, oh
my god, this is overwhelming and the best possible way,
And it's no wonder this place is so iconic, and
this arch in particular, it's photogenic as hell, and especially
(05:06):
in a cloudless sunny day like when we visited, where
everything's just so pristine and majestic. I loved it. It
really is an amazing site. But let's start talking about
the trail leading up to this trails. It all started
for us at the visitor center in Moab, just off
the main road, which was super close to the r
(05:28):
V park where we reserved a couple of nights. The
visitors centers at the base of this massive plateau called
the Colorado Plateau, and that there's this main park road
that really twists and turns up to the top of
the plateau where more than two thousand arches are scattered
across the colorful landscape. Yeah, some of those arches are
very tiny, and then some are huge, and you many
(05:50):
of them you can see from your car or v
um and then there's something you can't just see at all. Uh.
Then there are ones like the Delicate Arch, which is
so major that there's like a parking lot by the
trailhead that fills up fast. So get there early, especially
if you have an RV, because you need to snag
one of those uh few large vehicle parking spots. Yeah,
you really do. Fortunately, we were fine and we're able
(06:11):
to get a spot no problem. And I think a
lot of that how to do with the fact that
we were visiting off season, since most of the parks
one point four million annual visitors tend to visit in
the spring or early fall. We were right at the
cosp of winter and like literally it snowed a lot
the very next day, so it was we really locked
out with the timing on Arches, although the snow totally
(06:33):
messed up our plans to visit Canyon Lan's National Park nearby,
but that was a total bum in Like terms of
Arches specifically, the weather worked out perfectly in our face. Yeah,
it really was an ideal day to visit. We mentioned
in our mas Verity episode from season one that the
park road they are felt similar to the park road Arches,
and I stand by that. I think they're both these
(06:56):
long zig Zaggi roads that start by visitor centers and
then meander up to the top of these plateaus or
Maso's and Arches is very Maseveda like, except less green,
more desert. Yeah, if you drive along this main park road,
it's super easy to find all of the parks trails
and everything is like either directly along the route or
(07:18):
right off the route, including the delicate arch right. So
it's it's very convenient, very easy to navigate here, which
is so refreshing, especially when you're driving in an RV
and you don't want to be like kind of fiddling
around or going down these narrow, off the beaten path roads.
So once you get to a delicate arch and you park,
you start the trail and one of the first things
(07:38):
you see that we saw was this tiny ranch home
which tiny tiny like um it's like the O G
tiny house and it was built by John Wesley Wolf
in the late eighteen hundreds. This was the time when
ranchers were migrating into the area in droves, well before
Arches became a National monument and then ultimately upgraded to
(07:59):
a National Park in nine and remnants of their inhabitants
is still there today, as we saw with this citty
bitty little rancho. Yeah, it's crazy to imagine people living
in this environment. Uh, it was so much more desolate
at the time than it is today, and especially in
such small living quarters. The house was super small. I mean,
(08:20):
it makes our our V look like a huge like mansion,
you know, and that's really saying something. It was basically
just like one rickety little room and this was for
like multiple people, which is unfathomable. That's not a lot
of personal space apparently. No, definitely not like it's literally
no bigger than most people's bathrooms. Um, but you know,
(08:40):
the trail continues on for about a mile and a
half after that, all the way up to the arch itself. Um,
there's like steady inclines. It's like a modernately difficult like trail,
especially since it's like in directs all night the entire
time without any shade. Yeah, there's really no tree cover here.
And even though it's pretty easy to do and not
that long of a trail, it's an adventure experience for sure.
(09:02):
You crossed this massive expanse of slick rock at one
point in the trail then dips down into these little
grottos filled with shrubs, and then you shimming along the
side of a cliff as well, with the trail running
along the cliff wall until it ultimately around the corner
to delicate arch, and then you have this show stopping view.
Now it's such a beautiful and incredible site. It's like
seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time. It's
(09:24):
such an American treasure, I know. Yeah, it is like
the Statue of Liberty except instead of being made by
France and gifted to the US, it was made by
mother Nature over the course of millions and millions of years.
And this thing absolutely looks like a work of masterful art.
It's made of sandstone that's been whittled by wind and water,
and it's got these vivid tints of orange and red.
(09:46):
It honestly looks too good to be real. When we
made it to the end of the trail, we definitely
made sure to sit down and enjoy the views for
a while. We even packed lunches, and then we ate it.
We just laid down on the sandstone for a bit
to like drink it all in. Yeah, we did, and
kind of um ward off all the crows there was
went to the large crows that were like slowly inching
their right closer to us, trying to eat our eat
(10:06):
our lunch. And I'm like, no, you need to animals.
Don't feed the animals because then they get used to
it and they'll just like fly all around you and
hop around. It's it's a lot. And then so we
had lunch, we kind of relaxed a little bit, and
then you went scurrying and down by the art and
I was afraid that you would slip and plot it,
(10:26):
but it all worked out fine and I got some
really cool, like adventurous hands on potus of you being
a daredevil. I I wouldn't do that doing things. It's fun,
it is fun, and there were other people doing you
were the only ones, so I was somewhat reassured. You
were listening to park Landia from my Heart Radio. We'll
(10:48):
be back just a moment to talk more about art
As National Park. Hi. I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This
(11:09):
is park Landia, and today we're talking about Arches National
Park in Utah. Geography. Yes, and we've touched on the
geography and the landscape here already a little bit, but
we want to get more into the details of Arches
National Park and what makes this place so incredible from
a historical perspective. Yeah, absolutely so, Arches. This place took
(11:30):
a long process to form and get where we are today,
Like Mother Nature really took her time with this one.
And you you can't rush art like this. It's it's
too good. No, not at all. And in fact, many
of these Arches took hundreds of millions of years to form,
and it all started when this part of Utah was
actually under a sea. Yeah. I think the best parks
(11:52):
always start underwater in some form, because we learned similar
things when we're at Carl's By Caverns in New Mexico
and Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and how both of those
were under subtropical waters at one point and then like
how amazing they turned out. Yeah, that's so true, And
just like those parks, things started to take a shape
once the sea began to evaporate, leaving saltbeds throughout the
(12:12):
southeastern Utah. Yeah. So over time, these salt beds were
once again covered in water and other sediments as rivers
began to flow through the region. Meanwhile, this area turned
into a desert environment during the Jurassic period. So basically,
while t rexes and boss raptors terrorized poor herbivores, Utah
was steadily transforming into a wild landscape of sandstone art. Yeah.
(12:34):
The sandstone didn't take shape at Arches right away though.
First it was all covered by lots of sediment material,
which was also heavy and made the lower saltbeds heat
up and actually turned into a liquid basically like lava. Yeah,
So things started to shift around into the earth, and
some of that liquid salt burst through the upper layers,
creating these salt domes which made curves in the sandstone.
(12:56):
And with this foundation in place, a rows of wind
and water over the years then began to chip away
at the salton sediment and expose the sandstone underneath arches
throughout the park are many different shapes and sizes, but
they're all continuing to erode today. Yes, and there's a
lot to take in the whole process. Sounds like a
super elaborating, complicated recipe from like a serious cookbook that's
(13:16):
as thick as a phone book. It's really take a
lot of time to make these things come out of
the ground and turn out. Quit takes time. Yeah, in
terms of if we're like, you know, cookbook comparison. In terms,
this isn't one of like Rachel Ray's thirty minute like
microwave meals or whatever. It's more like one of those
Julia Child recipes that takes like a full day to create,
with the whole shopping cars, birth of ingredients. I've never
(13:37):
even heard of perfect comparison. Yeah, thanks, So when I
get confused, I this is like a safe space form.
I tend to compare things to meal preparation, and it
really kind of calms me down and puts things in
perspective and I can I can like go with it.
Are you relaxing enough to talk more about the history
of arches? Yeah, I think so. Thank you for checking
(13:58):
sure thing, So I need level. Like salt and sandstone sculpting,
arches has more history relating to humans as well, right, history,
So people first started living in this region some ten
thousand years ago, which feels like this morning compared to
the two three hundred or so million years when this
place started to take shape. But but still that's a
(14:19):
that's a long time ago. Yeah. Native people's like ancestral
Pabloans and Fremont tribes first came here to hunt, farm
and gather that grew their crops like squash, beans, and corn.
I mean it all sounds very similar to like when
we talked about ma Severde. Actually, yeah, it really does.
The crops the exactly road, the Plateau's all of it
(14:39):
very ma severea eat. But a big difference is that
this area wasn't abruptly and mysteriously abandoned overnight like ma Severde.
Now it's actually had steady human occupancy in some form
or another ever since then. Um Mute and Peyote Indians
lived here as well, followed by Spanish missionaries and European Americans.
Even Mormon setup shop here for a bit before realizing
(15:02):
how impossibly difficult it was to farm in this harsh
desert desert terrain. But other ranchers definitely gave it a go,
like John Wolfe who we mentioned earlier. Right. And then finally,
after centuries of human occupancy successful or not, Utah locals
finally got wise to the idea that, oh, hey, these
sandstone arches are incredibly unique and special and maybe they
deserve some federal protection. Yeah. I love how arches got
(15:25):
It's like start as a national monument. It's a heart
rooming story of passionate moeb residents trying to get the
attention of the federal government and the rare example of
like it actually working out. It's it's beautiful. This Moab
newspaper writer named John Taylor was so inspired by the
sandstone formations pretty much right in his backyard, that he
(15:45):
wrote about them enough to catch the attention of the government,
enough so that President Hoover designated the region a National
Monument in Like, what an uplifting story. It's that this
is so rare. It's usually just kind of complicated and tedious,
but this is this is beautiful, Yeah, and even more uplifting.
It was upgraded to a National park in n with
more than seventy six thousand acres of land, and today
(16:08):
it's one of the most beloved and visited national parks
in the country. Magnificent vistas, so there's obviously a lot
more to see in through here than the delicate Arch.
So once we were done with that trail, we hopped
back into our r V and we drove to Double Arch,
(16:30):
which was a super easy trail and super easy to
park at even for RV. Plenty of room here now,
the whole park was generally very RV friendly. When we
unhooked our trailer down by the visitor center, though, since
we had asked, like the park rangers, they suggested, like,
don't take the trailer in, just do the RV because
it's such a windy, narrow road that it could be
(16:51):
hard for our vs much larger than ours. But ours
worked out perfectly and just fine. Yeah, it really did.
That was a good suggestion from the park Rangers. I
don't think we would have realized that. We didn't realize
how like narrow and winding the road was. But it
turned out to be an easy drive with just the
RV no trailer. But then again I was doing none
of the actual driving myself, so I was just kind
(17:13):
of assuming the driving was. It looked easy, you look
like you had a nice time with it. Yeah, it
really wasn't that bad. Um, but the Double Arch is
like pretty epic. I mean, if the Delicate Arch is
the most iconic arch here, then this is a close
runner up. Yeah, I definitely agree with that, and that's
because double Arch is the largest arch in the park.
So it's not only enormous, but it's like there's two
(17:34):
of them right next to each other pretty much, and
they're just these gigantic, looming, massive sandstone twins. And I think,
like when I posted my instagram about um, the Double Arch,
I refer to it as the Mary Kayton Nashley of
Artist National Park, which is a perfect description, I think
I might if I might say so, And frankly that
(17:55):
should be a T shirt as well, because the thing
is seriously huge. I mean it is like even from
the parking area. It's gigantic, but then you walk along
the short flat trail to get close to the base
of it, and it really looms above you. Um, some
people were just scrambling up the rocks. Um. I mean,
it's just like this beautiful little rocky base and uh,
(18:17):
you know, you can get a little bit closer for pictures,
but it's impossible to capture it on in one photo.
It's just best to stand back. Yeah, it really is,
like this thing is so huge, Like climate at the
base would really not really do it justice because you
can't see or like kind of capture the whole thing
just in like a single glance like that. So I
think it's best to, yeah, like you said, stand back
(18:39):
and kind of drink it all in in one vista.
And Double Arch is located in what's called the Windows
portion of the park, which has the largest collection of
arches and everything. Here, pretty much everything is large and
huge like Double Arch yea plus sense there's like so
many arches in close concentration here. You can really see
a lot from this one trailhead, including the Cove Arch,
(19:02):
Ribbon Arch, and even the Parade of Elephants, which like
sounds fun. Yeah, I love it. I love any natural
formation that makes me think of Dumbo, like Prade of Elephants.
Great name, and it gets its name because it's a
section of sandstone that looks like a lineup of elephants
holding each other's tails in a long, single row. And
if you love Dumbo references, you're going to love the
fact that this isn't even the only formation here named
(19:24):
after elephants. Yeah, it's great. And nearby is another formation
called Elephant Butte, which is the tallest point in the
park at five thousand, six hundred and fifty three ft
of elevation, and that's more than six feet above the
park road. This is a great hands on butte for
climbers and hikers looking to get off trail a little
bit and a little more hands on. It's not too
scarier difficult as long as you watch your footing and
(19:47):
use your hands for balance too, So it's good to
go off and try that. Then there was that one
portion called Devil's Tower or no, no, no, Devil's Garden.
That one is a really, really super popular part. It's yeah,
it's very popular. It sounds less cute than mail from informations,
but it's not as scary as it sounds either, it's
actually cool as hell no pun intended, double as garden
(20:09):
cool as hell. Spell that out for you. Oh man,
we're peaking at dead jokes right now. Yeah. Deuvil's Garden
is located at the very end of the eighteen mile
park road, home to the only campground in the park.
That's also the longest trail in the park. Yeah, so
you know, I like that because it's any I always
seek out like the longest possible trails, and this one's
(20:31):
a little over seven miles round tripped, which is sounds
pretty moderate actually, even though it's it's marked as strenuous,
which again I seek that out like strenuous lawn trails.
Side me up. But this one is really not too
difficult at all. The landscape can get craggy and requires
a bit of scrambling, which I think is why it's
probably categorized as strenuous, but it's not bad, and I
(20:52):
think as long as you're prepared and have the right
footwear in water and stuff, you'll be fine. Yeah. The
trail goes by formations like the lands a barge, partition arch,
double oh arch, and there's a private arch and even
the Dark Angel. Yeah, Dark Angel. It's nice to know
that there's a sandstone tower out there named after a
defunct Jessica Elba TV series. The names there are great, actually,
(21:15):
like elephants and dark angels and Devil's Garden. Someone was
having a fun day in the office when they named
all these things. I mean the left a mark on
all of us. Yes, yeah, it really did. Arches is
really killing it with these names here. I mean elephants
and devils and dark angels. Oh my yeah, okay, that's
all of it. Love it. In case you're looking to
get even further off the beaten path, you can get
(21:36):
a free permit from the Visitor Sentatory of Backpacking and
explorer more of the back country. Just keep in mind
that a good map is pivotal, and be prepared with
more than enough food and water because the Arches landscape
is an expansive, unforgiving dessert, so you have to be
ready for that and the potential for like intense weather.
(21:58):
It's not called Devil's Garden for thing. Let's just say that.
Another fun fact those that pets are actually permitted at
overlooks and unpaved roads as long as they're on a leash.
They can't take a hike to the Delicate Arts with you,
but the love the views just as much from the
numerous overlooks. Yeah that's right. Food. Now it's time to
(22:19):
talk about the town of Moab, which is home base
to both Artist National Park and Canyonlands National Park nearby. Yeah,
this place is also a very popular hub for off roading.
Apparently in general, it's like the ideal for small city
people who love hiking, climbing, and outdoorsy activities. Super outdoorsy.
I had heard a lot about Moab before visiting here,
(22:41):
and it was always a place I was curious about
and kind of wanted to visit. And I'm really glad
that we're able to carve out some time to explore
the town as well and the small downtown area too,
especially because we happen to be staying here during Moab's
annual Christmas Breed and so we're able to watch some
of that on our first night after getting some sushi
for dinner. Yeah right, So I know that, like the
(23:04):
Utah Desert, is not really the optimal place to satisfy
a sushi craving, but we really needed it. I think
like it had been a while since we've had sushi
and we literally crave it like more than any other food,
and we were desperate times called for desperate measures, were like, yeah,
we're in the middle of the you know, utah dessert.
But and it had a spicy tuna role But it
actually turned out to be really good sushi. But like
(23:25):
it was kind of surprising because it was also quite affordable. Yeah,
it was affordable. It was lovely and it really hit
the spot. And another good thing was the restaurant was
like a block off the main drag through downtown, and
it was super warm and cozy, and it had a
warm saki. All of it was just really hitting the spot.
And I'm just warm and cozy thinking about It's such
(23:45):
a happy little nook that place. And the parade was
great too. It's such a fun surprise and a great coincidence,
I know, magical. I feel like we needed that holiday
cheer too. This is such a recent stop on our
r V journey and everything was really new, and I
was feeling kind of really homesick and emotional, missing Chicago
and friends and such. So it really made our heart
(24:07):
feel better to watch these floats go by, and it
was like a Christmas Miracle. We didn't time it. We're like, oh,
there's a Christmas parade. Let's It really was like such
a beautiful time. I mean, I just love when we're
taking this journey through the country and we like randomly
stop at places and then there's a block party celebrating
the hundred years of this ice cream shop or the
(24:29):
annual Christmas parade or things like that, because like it's
just crazies, really magical moments where your right place, right time,
and you get a lot of these were like around
the road, and this is when it was like super
special places. Um. I mean, I think the next day
we just stayed in the RV park all day because
it was basically a blizzard, which is not normal for
(24:49):
that time, but it's just it's a you know, great yeah,
I know. So it was kind of nice and coming
from someone like me who gets so restless nancy like
it was, it did feel good to like be forced
to stay in and relax a little bit. I had
no ideas now that much in Moab, like ever, let alone,
early December, like this was caught us totally off guard,
(25:11):
and we just happened to be there for for this,
like bizarre, crazy snowfall and like gay for that, I
guess because it was really it actually was super super
pretty and pristine, and it just worked out and it
was nice to hold up watch DVDs relax in the
RV with Finn, and I was also able to sit
(25:33):
in the RV parks outdoor hot tub all by myself,
which was so great. Just like I had waited to
the afternoon where most of the like brunt of the
snowfall had somewhat dissipated, so like just these like light
snow flurries just floating and bobbing around in the hot tub.
And it was a huge hot tub. It was like
the size of a swimming pool, so I could like
(25:55):
literally float around and so great. Yeah, that snow made
like everything just look like this huge beautiful painting, the
whole landscape, and it was just really beautiful. I mean,
it had this the orange sandstone desert with this bright white,
fresh snow. It was absolutely amazing. Yeah, the whole thing
like looked like a giant creamsicle. Is like seeing these
(26:16):
orange rocks capped off with like these layers of perfectly
white snow, fluffy snow. It was it was incredible so
after enough snow had melted and Moheb had thought, we
went back to the town again the next day to
check on some more like local spots like MOA Brewery,
which seemed like the largest and most popular place in town. Yeah,
making the rounds and Moaw Brewery was the one that
(26:39):
I think we had heard about the most. It definitely
came up at the top of like all our Google searches.
So if nothing nothing else, they have amazing s c O. Yeah,
it was a fun place. Um there was a bar area,
a main dining area, and merchandise store and they even
make their own gelato and they also operate a small
distillery so they make spirits like Fox in Gin and
(27:01):
this place is really doing it all crazy. Yeah, it's
definitely a great place for beer, especially and they have
lots of options on tap and cans and bottles, plus
their own root beer jeez, I know, really impressive. It's
one of those places that does something for everyone, from
amber loggers and I pas which I love, two pills,
nerves and nut brown nales and probably anything else you
(27:22):
can imagine. And it's always fun to sit at a
main bar and just have some drinks. The food is
a bit all over the place. Um, but it's got
things like poutine, hummus, pretzels and chili and other surprising
things like ravioli and euros. Yeah, you know, a little
little random. I think you're probably better off coming for
beer and then some standard snacks like wings and stuff
(27:43):
like that, because things are a bit, like like you said,
a little all over the place and daring. Yeah. I
remember after dinner and drinks there, we tried to go
to the was a movie Fantastic Beasts at the local
movie theater, but for some reason, the theater closed early
and wouldn't unlock their doors for us, even though they
could like clear us see us like at the doors,
(28:04):
like excuse me. You just feel like say, hey, I'm
sorry we closed down early because there's not enough attendance. Great,
tell me that. I know. Maybe you want to yelp
about it, and I don't even I never do that.
We went to some like tavern for a nightcap afterwards. Yeah,
so that was a kind of fun alternative. I think
although nightcap might be a stretch like this wasn't anything
(28:26):
snazzy or fancy. I think you wind up having some
sort of like red bull shot or something like, what
do you remember when you had you had something and
you're like you were familiar with what it was, and
I'm like, you seem a little too comfortable with this
Red Bull drink like you. I mean, it was probably
just like, um, let's just say it was a jag
or bomb. I don't know. I can't remember what it was.
I think it was like it was a Vegas bomb,
(28:49):
the Vegas bombs in U right, Yes, Red Bull and stuff.
I can't tell you because it's been too many years
since they've actually had one or ordered one. Yeah, for
the best, I don't remember what I had, but it
was at this place called world famous Woody's Tavern, which
is okay, the name is appealing, but I think it's
(29:12):
like not at all world famous obviously, like no one
outside of mob probably knows what it is. It was
perfectly fine though, and like good for kind of basic drinks.
It was a little rustic and like woods in there,
the type of place where you like just go up
to the counter and have like a whiskey coke or
something like that, or a Vegas bomb apparently. Yeah, and
(29:33):
now we've pretty much wrapped things up on our time
in Moab and arches. But we're going to talk about
animals and wildlife in ecology right after this quick break.
(29:58):
Hi am Matth, I'm bread. This is park Landia, and
today we're talking about Artist National Park in Utah ecology.
Getting to a segment here about ecological concepts pertaining to
roads and habitat fragmentation at arches. So, roads and highways
can pose a big threat to animals that require large
(30:20):
swaths of land to survive. I think that's something we
can all that's like a given, and that's especially pertinent
here at art Is because the roads can be scary
dangerous to animals and human thoroughfares often stop moving between
neighboring populations of a single species, resulting in habitat fragmentation
and loss of connectivity between populations. Yeah, Like one of
(30:42):
those things are the desert bighorn sheep, and the sheep
are native to the deserts um of the inter Mountain
and southwestern US and Mexico. They're commonly depicted in the
Pabloan and Fremont pictographs in the area um. They're very
different from other big horn sheep and their mammals for
that matter, because they can go into these long periods
(31:03):
of time without water, and their body temperature can fluctuate
a bit to help them deal with the intense heat
and the cold in their own desert home. Yeah, the
desert is no joke, and because desert bighorns are extremely
vulnerable to live stock diseases as well, like anthrax and scabies,
and because European explorers and settlers have been fond of
hunting them since the sixteenth century. Populations of desert bighorns
(31:26):
in Utah were in a steady decline, and in nineteen
seventy five, the state's population numbered around a thousand animals
until the nine eighties, when scientists began relocating them to
nearby Canyonlands National Park. Now there's around three thousand desert
big horns in Utah and seventy five in arches Um
National Park. You can see them along Highway one south
(31:48):
of the visitors Center. The current problem is that the
infant mortality rate of the desert big horns has been
extremely highlyly, possibly due to that habitat fragmentation and increased
traffic on roads be tween moeb in the park Um.
Scientists are like still studying whether the deaths um of
so many desert big horn lambs like might also be
(32:09):
due to predators like mountain lions, coyotes and foxes. But
you know, we have to be very careful when we're
driving on these um roads. Like if you think about it,
like we're at a point in the National park system where, um,
this year, for the first time ever, there's more visitors
at national parks than theme parks. And so when you're driving, now,
(32:30):
let's say that we increased it from one desert big
horn got hit last year, now we have this increase
in parks and now two more getting hit. You know,
how does that take an impact as we grow these
national parks. We just have to start to really pay
attention um and you know, not be wild, not be
(32:51):
distracted too much. If you're the driver, you have to
focus on the road. I know it sounds silly that
we have to remind us, but like I'll catch myself
doing it, Matt cat catches me doing it, and you know,
and so you know it's really important to us. Yeah,
especially and it's like understandably distracting when you're in a
beautiful landscape like art is, like there's so much on
(33:11):
either side of you and in front of you and
behind it that you kind of like are drawn to
look at it. So it's hard, it could be difficult
to like maintain focus on the road ahead of you.
But it's also the double edged sword of increased visitorship
to national parks into places like Archids National Park in particular,
where it's wonderful and great that so many people are
(33:33):
interested in it and planning vacations around it, and that's awesome,
but it also poses an increased threat to the wildlife here,
like the desert bighorn sheep. So caution at all times
and focus and all that, you know, because you can
have a great time here while also being safe and
(33:53):
keeping the animals safe. Yeah, and these desert bighorn sheep
are just so beautiful and such important part of ecology.
I mean, they've been here for tens of thousands of years.
It's not like they're new or they're innovasive species there
originally from here. Yeah, and like they've been through enough
like the anthroox and hunters and traffic, like they've had
(34:15):
an ordeal, so they've had to deal with a lot
of different things. Yeah, it's a lot. And then also
because arch is located in a high semi arid desert.
The climate here is extremely variable, so you have this
whole thing to factor in. Animals have to be ready
to face both snow storms in the winter, which we've
(34:37):
we've been through and swaltering summer temperatures that can exceed
a hundred degrees fahrenheit in addition to water scarcity. So
animals are often nocturnal, which means active at night to
kind of get out of this most intense heat and stuff.
And they're also crape pulscular, which means they're most active
(34:57):
during dawn and dusk. And then they're really only just
a few that are diurnal meeting active during the day,
and that's because of these harsh, brutal temperature swings potentially. Yeah,
and there's a lot of beautiful animals here in Arches.
I mean, next, we have the kangaroo rat. I mean,
these little rodents live pretty like stressful desert lives. For starters,
(35:17):
they really can't take the heat and they limit to
the amount of time they spend away from their like
cool dry burrows um, sometimes plugging into the entrance of
their bureaus to keep it cooler. UM. But they also
come out at night, when the temperatures drop and it's
dark enough to hop around unseen. UM. They are bipedal,
only using their two back feed for local motion, sort
(35:39):
of like a kangaroo um. They collect seeds and vegetations
and the occasional insect if they can get it. UM.
Everybody in the desert wants to eat them. Coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, owls,
I mean really, you can just name it. And they
are the bottom of the chain, almost poor things, but
they are fast and have extreme intensitive hearing, so they
(36:01):
have that going for them. They also don't drink water
at all, which is crazy. Their bodies produced water by
metabolizing the seeds and plants they eat, so that's also
a benefit. They don't need to be hopping around in
you know, vulnerable, exposed, deth erent landscape to get water.
That's really crazy, isn't it when you think about that,
Like they just you don't drink water, get water from
(36:22):
their food. That's such a little amount, it's crazy. But
there's also those pinion jay's UM. The flocks of pinion
jay's can be found around the park, traveling in large
like upwards of like five birds at a time, noisy,
little like flocks. They're like screwing the ground and like
tree canopies for insects and pine seeds, especially those are
(36:42):
the pinion pine, which are essentially pine nuts. Yeah, you
know the ones that like cost around thirty dollars a
pound at the grocery store. Yeah, they have expensive taste.
These birds look like small blue gray crows kind of.
They're very closely related to crows, and they live in
arches year around. They cash food, carry up to forty
(37:03):
seeds at a time and their expandable esophagus and storing
them in a hiding place to eat during times when
food is limited. So they're quite like industrious animals here
and have a like large appetite. Yeah. The diversity in
arches like National Park and the wildlife is just so amazing. Um.
I would say that's one of my favorite parts, but
(37:25):
I'm not going to because I think it's time that
we actually share what our favorite part of Arches. National
Park is my favorite. So it's the part of the
episode where we share with each other our favorite thing
about artists. We haven't told each other what our favorite
things are, so it's a heartwarming surprise for both of
us and I love it. Brad loves it. Do you
(37:47):
want to talk about what your favorite part about artists was? Now,
this is a tough one because arches is so beautiful
and so diverse. I mean, all these animals are really
amazing and the way that they survived is so specific
to them. That's really amazing and amazing fact. But I'm
not going to say that's my favorite. Um, I'm gonna
be really basic and say that the delicate arch is
(38:09):
my favorite. How original, I know, how original, but it
does come up with that great T shirt and that
T shirt. It's so funny because like I think of it, like,
stop being so delicate, get over it, right, because it's
meaning that was actually I was never very clear, but yeah,
so it's stop being a delicate arch, get over it? Wow. Well, yeah,
(38:36):
there's a lot of meanings behind it, a lot of
a lot of layers there. But yeah, I mean, delicate
was just so beautiful, I mean stunning, a fun trail
like hike. Um, there's a lot of scrambling and it
was fun. And we actually took some of those shots
of those like brecon Wood Spot because when we got
(38:56):
up there, we think these little mini ones because we
just visit the distill and back and Redge in Colorado. Yeah, yeah,
that was wonderful. So I think my favorite was probably
the next day during the snowstorm and just like seeing
it and drinking that site in because it was exquisite.
And that's kind of surprising for me because I'm not
(39:17):
much of a snowperson. It usually annoys me. Say you
were soaking it in? Yeah, oh, I was hot top um.
But I just thought it looked really amazing and I've
never been in like a snowy desert environment before, so
it was an experience and incredible. Normally, I only like
snow if it's like a ski destination and I can
(39:40):
I get there, spent a couple of days and leave
and go back someplace where there's no snow. I would
have loved to go to Canyon Lands. That would have
been amazing because it was just so close. But because
it was snowing, um, they share one um snow plow
between the two parks, and because Arches was more visit,
they were taking care of them, and then they couldn't
really get to the canyon outside. So I'll have to
(40:01):
go back to Actually, we will have to go back
to yeah, yeah, yeah, please take me. But I know
that was it was so cool. We we got to
like the entrance of candy Lands pretty much, are we
going to get stuck up here? Because we had the
r V obviously, And it's not an idea of they
are cool to drive through snow, but it weren't. It
(40:24):
like worked out fine. So I think we should also
talk about three things that we would recommend bringing two
arches National Park. Water. Oh yeah, water, lots of water.
Desert environment always water, and I know that's silly. Could
you should brink water to every national park? But this
one is one of those ones. Even when we went
it was cool. But just because it's cool does not
(40:45):
mean your body is hydrating. Um, you have to hydrate
when you're in any desert environment, no matter what temperature
it is. Yeah, you really do. And it can meet
us out of two because if you're there like when
we were there on the snowy day, then you're Audie
doesn't have like the most obvious reaction where like thirsty
(41:05):
or whatever. But like even if it's cold and chilly
and snowy and wet or whatever, like still you need
to drink a ton of water and then also sunscreen,
sun protection, hats, sunglasses, all of it, because there's really
no tree cover here. It's wide open exposed desert, especially
the portions of trails that are just on these wide
(41:27):
vasts like rocks, so it's just you and like the
direct sun and it's pretty high elevation so it hits
you and impacts you more directly. Yeah, and this isn't
like one of those huge parks where you're going on
a lot of like trips. Now if you're back like
backpacking and like backcountry traveling, like that's one thing like
don't like, yeah, there's more you have to bring, but
(41:49):
like from this one, it's just really like snacks, water
and sun protection. Yeah, a little bits of brock and
Ridge is not really hard. Yeah brick ridge baka shooters.
Yeah sure, I mean if you want, that's on you.
But um, the other thing too, like if you are
going into the back country or going off the main
trails and stuff, be sure and bring maps. It helps
(42:12):
to print out maps or bring a map book or
something because un surprisingly, there's really no service so you
can't be using like your phone GPS or anything like that,
so it would not be good to be lost out there.
It's since it's such a kind of this plane desert
um landscape, there's no like distinct landmarks to help guide
(42:35):
you necessarily if you are like unfortunate enough to be
lost out there, so best to you know, over, prepare
a map. Quest dot com, download a download a map. Yeah,
and I think it's like safe to say that Arches
is one of the most iconic destinations in the entire country. Um,
it's really one of those points where you just get
(42:57):
to really enjoy it and watch it and take it
all in. Yeah, and it is one of those places
that more than lives up to the hype. This iconic site,
like the delicate arch and the rest of the park itself,
is absolutely worth a visit. And then also like no
matter how higher expectations are, it's gonna it's gonna exceed them,
(43:18):
Like we have an incredible time here and I cannot
wait to go back. You've been listening to park Landia,
a show about National parks. Parklands the production of My
Heart Radio, created by Matt Carouac, Brad Carouac, and Christopher
has The otis produced and edited by Mike John's. Our
executive producer is Christopher has The Otis, our researchers Jescelyn Shields.
(43:39):
A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters
and the rest of the Parklandia crew and hey listeners,
if you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you find our show.
You can keep up with us on social media as well.
Check out our photos from our travels on Instagram at
park Landia Pod and join in on the conversation and
our Facebook group park Land Rangers. For more podcasts. For
(44:01):
my heart radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always,
thank you for listening.
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Matt Kirouac
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