Delicate Arch vs Landscape Arch

I'm glad I didn't try to write this blog the night after we took these photos cause we found out a very interesting story about them.

Delicate Arch was originally names Teacher's Bloomers arch.  This was back in the rowdy cowboy days of Utah, and really when you look at it, this is a pretty darn good description of the arch.

They sure looks like teacher's bloomers to me, especially a teacher that had been riding horse.

Here's another shot with more fabulous rock formations of the arch.

 

So you say, why hasn't anyone ever heard of Teacher's Bloomers Arch before?  Unless you're ancient or dead, there's no reason you should unless you know the story behind this arch.  As the park was being more and more respected as a national treasure, the PTB (powers that be) thought that Teacher's Bloomers wasn't as an appropriate name as it could be (little did they know the risque nature of life in the early 2000's!!!)  So they elected to change it.  They decided that it should be called Landscape Arch.

But you say, isn't Landscape Arch another arch that doesn't look anything like teacher's bloomers?  You are right, for this is the Landscape Arch we all know and love that is on the cover of the Arches National Park Map:

 

Walt's shot here is spectacular and this was supposed to be Delicate Arch.....doesn't it look delicate?  And when you read the blurb on this arch, it actually is delicate as park visitors used to be allowed to walk up under the arch, till 1991 when a piece fell down and that stopped any more traffic under that arch because.......it's way to delicate.


So why are these arches so mis-named?  Apparently there was a snafu in the signage, and the sign for Delicate Arch got put up in front of the Teacher's Bloomers (which was supposed to be Landscape Arch) and Landscape Arch (the current Landscape Arch) got named Landscape instead of the Delicate which is what it really looked like!

Now that you're totally confused, that explains everything?!!!

I did not make the trip to Delicate Arch (aka the Teacher's Bloomers which I think it should be renamed), as it had a difficult walk up to the arch and an edge walk with a 200 foot drop-off to the side.  Since I have a little vertigo, that wasn't going to be my big thing or little thing or in between thing!!!

I did visit the Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint which was no small trek, and took pictures of Walt as he arrved and took pictures.  It was only a mere 1/2 mile away:

Can't see him.....well here's an enlargement as he walked off the ledge there and started putting his equipment away.  I watched him through the lends here and took some pictures, but as you can see in the above pictures, this was a slope and below that slope was a drop-off into the canyon below (I don't know how many feet, but anything below 5 feet is enough for me)!