My America. Arks

6 day, April 27

The national park of the arch is huge, and, according to the brochure issued at the entrance, there are more than two thousand arches on its territory - unique creations of nature created (paradox) as a result of destruction. The cliff formed from sandstone could not withstand the impact of rain and wind - some fell upon, some poured pieces. The surviving part of the breed really looks like an arch - through it you can go there and back, like a hobbit.

The road quickly took up, which for entering the national park seemed a little strange to us. But the signs said that we were going in the right direction, and the navigator rehabilitated after the successful achievement of Brace. We continued to move, overtaking cyclists and even passing cars (which is a rather rare phenomenon for the unhurried states of the Navajo tribe).

They got into a look at the arches called Windows - two rather big rocks with gaping holes that really look like windows. All round arches, called windows, from afar seem significantly less than in reality.

The opportunity to move freely where you want, to climb at least to the very top of the cliff and hang the legs from there, adds a special note to visit the national parks of America - a merging with nature. You do not look from the side, you plunge into this world, temporarily become its part. At such moments, the consciousness tormented by a metropolis finally understands what peace is.

Since the territory of the park, as I already said, is really huge, routes are laid between its main attractions. In this place I would like to emphasize that it is impossible to visit national parks of the United States without means of transportation - you won’t get it before, you won’t cost it inside. Along the way we often stopped; Sometimes - on Vyu -Pints, sometimes just on the road to see the cliffs of the bizarre shape surrounding us. Some were described in a brochure (such as the Sphinx and the turret), some are not, but they still fascinated us.

Sphinx:

Turret:

We kept our way to the most famous and most beautiful arch of the park - an elegant arch, which is a symbol of Utah and is depicted on car numbers of this state.

The elegant arch is on the plateau at the very top of the park, and get to it is a small feat. A special walking route is laid to the arch, and I must say that it is quite long and not easy, since it is necessary to go uphill. In principle, the arch is not the largest, but the winning location (on an elevated plateau in proud loneliness) and an amazing color (sandstone forming the arch is bright orange, the local Indians proudly call this color “navajo”) undoubtedly make it special. One “leg” of the arch has a “joint” and even slightly bent in it, and the second is very thick, with a sole, like an elephant. But even in this situation, the elegant arch does not lose its grace :)

It so happened that we drove up to the arch, as it were, from the other side, with which it was almost unattainable - a gorge, rocks, stones.

But ... the lack of time that pursued us made an elegant arch of the unattainable arch in any case. Having settled on the cliff and taking the pictures close -up thanks to the telephone lens, we moved on. It was already starting to get dark, but we could not leave without looking at the landscape arch - a huge thin piece of cliff, crossing the whole sky as a rainbow.

The landscape arch also had to go to the path, and so we got to the parking lot, from where then - only foot routes. The entrance to this part of the reserve was framed by small cliffs, we “entered inside” and saw it. The landscape arch is one of the largest, if not the most, large natural arch in the world. Previously, there was a large rock at this place, but over time it collapsed almost completely, only a fragile contour remained, like a bridge that spread from one base of the cliff to another. Anton and I were absolutely sure that those who wanted to walk on this “bridge” were found, and for sure one of them was carried out by the plan.

Unfortunately, all the arches of the National Park are still exposed to the destructive effect of nature, and the landscape arch, as the largest, gets the most. Near the arch there is a stand with photos, accidentally taken one of the visitors of the park - a huge piece of landscape arch collapsed right before his eyes. While we looked at the photos, a herd of roe deer ran out of the bushes nearby!

They went in the immediate vicinity of us and galloped along the plain, probably looking for a place for an overnight stay. “Hide from the wolves,” we thought synchronously, noting that twilight descend the arches. We hurried to the car in splendid loneliness - it turned out that by this time all visitors had already dispersed. Thinking about whether it is possible to lock us here purely theoretically here until dawn, we passed the place where we noticed and focused on a small hare at the entrance. So the way out is close!

We got out of the park already in the dark, along the way we caught up several cars of the same hesitating visitors. Judging by the driving style, they were all Americans. The distance is in two and a half cars, the speed is below permitted, and 10 miles, no attempts to overtake even on the inviting to this marking. Having been a little by the Americans, we decided to make our way forward - we still had the path to the valley of monuments planned for tomorrow. We easily and naturally embedded in the middle of the stream, we quickly got to the first car.

The markup stopped inviting to overtake, because we descended along a rather winding and narrow path. I had to sit on the tail in the hope of at least a little to fit it. How her driver was nervous, we still remember! He constantly signs the brake, flashing “ feet ” , as it were, shouted: “Do not come close !!!” But we were still approaching. Finally, catching the markup and accelerating to the “incredible” 40 miles per hour, we broke away from the caravan, left the fairy -tale park of the arch and drove on.

The night in the city of Kaynta, in the vicinity of which the famous Valley of monuments is located, we planned in Moscow. They went there. The night was dark, the road is deserted, and suddenly everything was illuminated by the light of a light bulb, reporting that we had gasoline. Neither the town nor the gas stations were observed nearby - a plain, rocks, ... and we all rode and rode along the deserted road, trying not to think about whether we would reach it.

The outlines of a small dark town, a real one -story America, flickered not far away. Board! The same dark and deserted, but we are in America, where it is enough to have only a credit card, and everything else does not matter. Studying the rules for using a deserted dressing, they noticed the announcement: “ Be careful! The previous gas station cost 500 bucks! " Then everything was fuzzy. We inserted a credit card three times into a slot, the gas station read and withdrew money, but did not give gasoline. Then we found a secret button and cheers - earned! Each time, fixed $ 124 were written off from the card, the difference returns later. The first two times for $ 124 was returned to us immediately - simply with the abolition of the operation.

We settled in the first motel that hit, immediately at the gas station, and, as usual, collapsed to sleep from an overabundance of impressions. It was a stone's throw, and literally in a mile from our motel, as it turned out in the morning, there was a large round -the -clock refueling Shell And a few more motors to choose from.

To be continued