Hot Rocks : When summer sizzles, nights are great times to roam Arches National Park

I wasn’t sure how much time remained before sunset, but the red rocks around the trail head already were turning a rosier hue. If I didn’t hustle, I would miss the chance to take twilight photographs of Delicate Arch, which I had driven all day to do.

I wasn’t the only one out to see the sun go down over Utah’s Arches National Park. Like pilgrims, the summer crowd was trudging up the steep, 1 1/2-mile path to the top of the trail, balancing their need for an excellent vantage point with surviving the July heat--even at this point in the evening, a sweltering 90 degrees.

Thirty minutes later, I hit the top and joined about 50 other tourists congregated along the rim of a rock amphitheater. At the opposite end, Delicate Arch stood apart, one side of the rock rainbow pinched by erosion and looking, well, fragile. Here was the symbol of Utah’s striking wilderness that is seen everywhere, on license plates, on billboards, in tourist pamphlets.

As the sun set, the curving slickrock turned ever redder, the sky darkened to a diaphanous pink and the shadow of the arch stretched off over the ledge. Within 15 minutes, the show was over. Unprompted, the audience left, and I sat on the rock with Delicate Arch all to myself.

And I waited. I had come to experience the moon rising over Delicate Arch, with the distant La Sal Mountains to the east. Before long I was rewarded by an arch that seemed to float against the night sky. I watched--alone--as an occasional car passed by in the distance, only its red tail lights visible through the darkened night. All was quiet and I was satisfied.

It took 150 million years for the once-flat red sandstone landscape of southeastern Utah to weather into arches, spires, pinnacles and various knobby shapes. The soft sandstone once stood upon even less stable salt deposits that eventually dissolved. As the rock collapsed and eroded, the centers of some slender formations dissolved and created arches.

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This was my second trip to Arches National Park, which was established as a national monument in 1929 and designated a national park in 1971. During my first visit in May, 1995, I spent a day exploring by car and on foot. The park is just 73,379 acres--one tenth of Yosemite--but it would have been impossible to reach more than a handful of the more than 950 arches. Roads were crowded and it was hot. The parking lots around some arches were so packed I didn’t want to endure the annoyance of trying find a parking space so I only slowed my car long enough for a cursory look. Exploration, I decided, was going to take more than a day. Night might actually offer better circumstances.

Like many national parks, Arches is a bit too popular for its own good. It has experienced an increase in visitors from 238,000 in 1974 to 345,000 in 1984 and 856,000 last year. On my first trip, I left my car in an empty trail-head parking lot and set off for Landscape Arch at 5:30 a.m. By the time I returned at noon, after hiking to several arches, there wasn’t a single empty parking space. I was told by a park spokesperson, that the 52 sites at the park’s only campground, Devil’s Garden, fill up before 8 a.m. during the busy spring and fall seasons.

In an attempt to control crowds and monitor their impact on the environment, the National Park Service in 1992 initiated the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection program (VERP) at Arches. Its goal is to determine just how many people the park can accommodate and what to do about crowding. The study is ongoing and could result in future changes, according to a park spokeswoman.

Most tourists explore by car, taking the 24-mile drive from the park’s south entrance near Moab to Devil’s Garden at the north end. The park is a fat oblong shape, with a single main road running north and south down the middle, making it possible to see a good sampling of rock formations without ever leaving asphalt. Near the south entrance to the park are the Courthouse Towers: colossal buttes rising high above the narrow road. Further north along the road is Balanced Rock: a 128-foot-tall spire with a huge 55-foot ball-shaped formation on top. Because the road is strategically routed, the truly jaded or time-limited may find a car tour is all that’s necessary to get a flavor of the park.

But I found that walking has its advantages. There are more arches and pinnacles to be seen just by taking short trails. One of my favorite hikes was a five-mile, round-trip walk through Devil’s Garden that features seven major arches including the 306-foot-long Landscape Arch, a gravity-defying ribbon of free-standing rock about a mile from the trail head. Near the end of the trail, where the aptly-named Double-O Arch stands, the number of people thins considerably and it is possible to observe this arch--an arch upon an arch--in solitude for at least a few minutes.

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During the day, plenty of benign critters scamper about, most of them members of the rodent family. At dawn, when the park is free of people, deer can be seen wandering through the terrain; at other times there are coyotes and foxes and 154 species of birds. A large variety of reptiles populate the rocks, including lizards and snakes (diamondback rattlers are among the inhabitants but are rarely seen).

Cyclists are everywhere, although they are restricted to roads within the park. In the neighboring Moab public lands area outside the park, mountain bikers are not restricted to roads or paths and crisscross the land in unrestricted patterns.

At night, of course, the sights and experiences are more solitary, more personal, more satisfying. But I would not recommend a night visit to everyone, especially not to those with bad night vision or a poor sense of direction. Getting lost in the dark is a real possibility. The hike in darkness to Delicate Arch, for example, requires carefully following a path marked by little rock pile markers, called cairns, over long slabs of smooth and potentially slippery rock.

Moonlight helps significantly. But a trip needs to be scheduled around it. I consulted the weather section of the newspaper to find out the moon’s cycles. I also found out the times of the moonrise and moonset. To avoid having to stay up too late, I timed my visit so that I was there a day or two before a full moon, when it rises earlier in the evening.

Stumbling over an unseen rock was the only hazard I encountered on my moonlight foray. But I carried a flashlight to help me navigate shadowy areas. While most of the trails in Arches National Park can be traveled with just sneakers, I recommend wearing long pants to protect against cactus spines. In spring and fall a warm jacket is a good idea.

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I have seen an occasional coyote and various rodents, but have never been bothered by them. The park spokesperson also told me that she has never heard of a human assault while someone was wandering the moonlit landscape.

After Delicate Arch, I took a shorter, less demanding 10-minute walk to Window Arch and nearby Turret Arch. The nearly level path was well-marked and easily seen by moonlight. I could even read the direction signs without a flashlight. At the first junction, I headed left to North Window and South Window arches: dramatic 100-foot-wide walls of erosion-carved stone. The trail circled right and led to Turret Arch. In a few spots obscured by deep shadows so dark they looked like black holes ready to suck me in, I turned on my flashlight for safety.

While nearly as large as the Window arches, Turret Arch didn’t feel quite so monstrous and forbidding. It’s actually two arches, one large, one a mere porthole high above ground, with a tower overseeing the entire formation. I passed through the arch into a three-sided room created by rock and was rewarded by a ceiling made of stars.

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There was one more site I wanted to see before the caffeine wore off. It was Landscape Arch. I had seen it by sunlight but in the moonlight it looked more like a wisp of imaginary rock floating in the sky, supported by stars. By moonlight, it was magical.

I decided not to go much beyond Landscape Arch. Beyond it, the trail requires scrambling over large rocks and that seemed unsafe in the dark. Too bad. This was the kind of world I wanted to continue exploring, one where even dull landscape is transformed into a moonscape of delicate beauty, and where the quiet of the night is the only sound.

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GUIDEBOOK: Moonstruck by Arches

Getting there: From LAX to Grand Junction, Colo., there is connecting service, with one change of planes, on United, America West and Delta Airlines. Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at $251. Grand Junction is 100 miles east of Arches National Park.

Where to stay: Moab is the closest town, a 10-minute drive away.

The 73-unit Best Western, Greenwell Inn, 105 S. Main St., is one of the largest motels in town, with rooms for about $110 for a double; telephone (800) 528-1234 or (801) 259-6151.

The Pack Creek Ranch, 15 miles southeast of Moab, rents cabins, houses and bunkhouses for $100 per person; tel. (801) 259-5505.

For more information: Utah Travel Council, Council Hall/Capitol Hill, 300 N. State St., Salt Lake City, UT 84114; tel. (801) 538-1030.

Arches National Park, P.O. Box 907, Moab 84532; tel. (801) 259-8161.

B.S.