On The Road to Arches National Park
/This is our first time visiting the state of Utah, and we wanted to make the most of every minute of it! Our first stop - Arches National Park. Leave it to a morning person to suggest arriving very early to watch the sunrise - surprisingly everyone agreed!
After taking in the amazing sunrise at Double Arch, we split our time between driving and hiking to see the wondrous stone structures in the park. Arches has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world! According to the Natural Park Service, there are over 2,000 documented arches in the park ranging from sliver-thin cracks to soaps greater than 300 feet!
We took a leisurely hike along the one-mile Windows Trail, checking out all the rock formations while it was still a relatively cool 82-degrees, lol!
We marveled at Balanced Rock and its amazing defiance of gravity. Eventually the mudstone between the top rock and the rest of the structure will erode, causing Balanced Rock to collapse!
Rather than hike the 3-mile trail to see Delicate Arch, we chose to take in the the the breathtaking view from the Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint. Sara seemed to think Delicate Arch is the model for the Utah state license plate - sure looks like it to me!
Courtesy Utah DMV
We passed by Fiery Furnace, so named for the bright orange hue the rocks take on at sunset.
We drove past Devils Garden, hiked a bit past Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch before the heat was getting to us. By now it was close to 100-degrees, and we toured the rest of the park by car.
As we made our way to the exit, I couldn’t help but ask to pull over to capture more of these magnificent structures.
We did one final photo op along the Park Avenue Trail, so named as the grand boulevard of rock resembles skyscrapers of a major city skyline.
We stopped at the visitor’s center on the way out (it wasn’t open when we arrived at 5:20 am) and decided since it was only noon, we could actually squeeze in a visit to another park!
By now the heat was getting to all of us, and we still have another day before we move on to our final stop. We all agreed it was time to head back to camp, grill some dinner and relax. Canyonlands National Park will still be there tomorrow!