Arches National Park

As I started this journey and talked to people about it, it surprised me how few of them have never heard of Arches National Park. Arches is in southeastern Utah and contains the world’s largest concentration of stone arches in the world. Arches is a red, arid desert, punctuated with oddly eroded sandstone forms such as fins, pinnacles, spires, balanced rocks, and arches. And it is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have every been to.

 

 

I arrived at my camp site, at Archview Resort, and pitched my tent. Realizing it was only 6:30 pm I decided to just take a drive thru the park, not doing any hiking until the following day. The park was about 5 miles south of where I was.

 

 

 

 

As I drove along 191 I was captivated by the beauty of the red rock, but it was nothing compared to what I was about to experience…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I entered the park and there is a steep “S” shaped road right at the beginning. When you get almost to the top you get a view of the highway winding thru the red rock canyon. This is the point where I almost drove off the cliff hypnotized by the beauty! This picture, in no way, does justice to the scene. This is one you will have to see for yourself. And I highly suggest some day that you do!

 

 

 

On my first drive through the park, around every curve my heart would stop on first site of the gorgeous creations of God. It was so incredibly beautiful and breathtaking! The picture to the right is at the Park Avenue view point and the rock you see in the middle is one of the Courthouse Towers. Below is another picture of Courthouse Tower. This was definitely the most impressive to me and my favorite in the park.

 

 

 

 

Driving through this National Park is like no other. From the gate to the end of the drive is about 17 miles, and worth any time you spend to get there. I have wanted to visit this park for a few years and am so glad I put it on my route this summer.

 

 

 

 

The picture to the right is of double arch, this would be my favorite of all the arches I saw at the park. It is very impressive in size! The larger rock you see near the bottom of the picture could probably fit 10 sitting on it, so the arch itself is massive. A further back view of Double Arch is below.

 

 

 

 

This arch is down a side road along with the Window Arches, and should not be missed! My second favorite arch is the Pine Tree Arch, which is the one shown in the next picture. You walk along a side path for a quarter mile mostly through sand and the side comes into view. It’s amazing to think that the wind is what carved these arches out!

 

 

   

There is so much to do and see at Arches National Park. It would be very hard to cover it in one day, and you could spend many days here. Also there are lot of things to do in the area besides Arches. There is Dead Horse State Park, Canyonlands National Park, and many other area attractions. You can camp or stay in a nice hotel in Moab. There are Jeep or dirt bike adventures. Rock climbing, hiking, biking. There are byways and backways, historic sites and other state parks. You could spend weeks in southeastern Utah seeing all the sites. Also I drove across Utah and the many different landscapes were amazing. Utah is now my top pick for most beautiful state I have seen, and I have seen 45 of them.

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