Morning: Into the Fiery Furnace

Fiery Furnace Area. Do Not Hike Without a Permit or Park Ranger.

So I pay a very reasonable ten bucks at the visitor center and reserve a spot for today in a 25-person, 3-hour guided tour through a labyrinth of rock walls, hidden arches, and cooling corners that provide respite from the heat of a startlingly clear sky.

We wind in and out of dead-ends, squeeze through tight spaces, and get lessons in desert living from our knowledgeable park ranger, Victoria, in this very special part of Arches NP. My little Pocket PC did pretty well with the photos, but you have to imagine even deeper, brighter colors than it could capture.

Outside the Fiery Furnace.
At sunset, the fins (rows of walls) glow a bright red, resembling embers in the distance.

Victoria shares enlarged photos of the bacteria that form the vital desert crust.

Into the furnace (the easy part).

Ooooooohh.

An interior arch...

...leading to an open-air chamber.

Crawling through, well, Crawl Arch. It’s definitely a tight fit. This one just qualifies as an arch: it’s at least 3 feet wide and not across water (that’s considered a bridge). It will grow bigger in the centuries to come.

The skinny little exit from Crawl Arch.

Daylight again.

Scale takes on new meaning.

A living pothole. Victoria is waving her hand above it to detect critter movement within (no touching the water, which can harm it with body oils). Mostly mosquito larvae in this one, but potholes are known to breed a desert frog that has an extremely short, two-week tadpole stage. Spades on the frog’s feet enable it to burrow up to three feet underground to await the next rainstorm and breed. The black edges of potholes are also alive with bear mites, tiny critters that can shrivel themselves up and await the next water supply to rehydrate. They can live in a desiccated state for hundreds of years, so even dry potholes are taboo to walk on when on the rocks.

Skull Arch (seen as if from the inside and upside down).

An acorn...in the desert?!

Most of us scrambled this down-over-and-up, but the long-legged ones leapt across as if it were a puddle.

Wait, wait, another photo op!

We reach a long, wide crevice, and Victoria teaches us ways to navigate it:

The Arch.

The Penguin.

The Butt Slide.

Our turn.

After using penguin and arch walks, I resort to the butt slide for the final awkward drop to flat ground.

Out in the open for a breather.

Victoria points out some interesting rock formations...

...like this hole-riddled sandstone, formed by water.

Looks tight, but we had been through squeezier areas.

I called this squat rock formation The Train Conductor; I liked his chest button and hat.

Surprise Arch, because no one expected to find one in this spot.

We soak up the cooling quiet under the arch.

An egg laid by a roc?

Darn, the tour’s over.