Finally I was able to experience for myself the cathedral like arches and vast desert of Arches National Park. Edward Abbey wrote about the region in a series of essays that comprised Desert Solitaire, a book published in 1968. The tales come from time he spent there as a park ranger, living alone in a trailer on the edge of this wonderland of eroded sandstone and harsh desert. I can't imagine how it would be sitting there waiting for tourists who rarely came 50 years ago. Today, though, the traffic pours through almost bumper to bumper making it hard to find a parking place at some of the more famous formations.
We hunted for the location of his former ranger station, but could not find it. At the visitors center we learned that the entrance used in Abbey's time was no longer in use, and the trailer is long gone.
It was brutally hot the day I was there.....104F, and I couldn't make the trek up to the arches themselves.
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