Arches National Park

The highlight of our second day in Moab was Arches National Park. From April to October, a timed-entry ticket is required if you are visiting the park between 7am-4pm, and our entry time was between 12pm-1pm. You obtain this ticket through this website, https://www.recreation.gov/, and pay a $1 processing fee. Be sure to have this saved on your phone in an email or print out the ticket because the staff at the entrance booth will ask for it when you enter the park. For further instructions about timed entry, visit the NPS website at: https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm.

One thing to note about Arches National Park is there is only one way in and one way out, which is the Main Park Road that travels 18 miles through the park. There are over 2,000 arches within this national park, and I learned there are an additional 2,000 outside the park boundaries. Once you pass through the entrance gate and pay the fee or show your parks pass, you will come to the Visitor Center on the right. We made a quick stop to use the restroom and obtained my passport stamp.

There are various viewpoints as you make your way up the Main Park Road. Note the formation called "The Penguins" as you start down the road. One of the first viewpoints you will reach is the Moab Fault Viewpoint, and not long after that, you will come to Park Avenue Viewpoint. You can park here and walk 1 mile to the next viewpoint, which is Courthouse Towers. But be sure that you have someone to pick you up at the next viewpoint or else you will have to walk 1 mile back to the Park Avenue Viewpoint parking area. There are quite a number of formations in this area: Courthouse Towers, Sheep Rock, Three Gossips, Tower of Babel, and The Organ. Spend some time at one or the other of these viewpoints to see these incredible formations.

The next viewpoint is the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint where you can see Sheep Rock and The Organ and get a glimpse of The Windows area. Next, there is a small pullout for Petrified Dunes. Balanced Rock will be your next stop. Get out here and take the short, 0.3-mile walk around the base of this huge rock. Balanced Rock weighs 3,577 tons. From here, you can see Elephant Butte to the right and Turret Arch, Double Arch, and Parade of Elephants to the right of Double Arch. From this stop, take the side trip down Windows Road, which turns to the right off the Main Park Road. The round-trip drive is 5 miles and you will see Pothole Arch, Garden of Eden, Owl Rock, Parade of Elephants, Devil's Golf Ball, Double Arch, and Cove of Caves. The trail to Double Arch is 1/2-mile. This arch has the tallest opening of 112 feet, and it's been featured in many movies. For The Windows section, there is a separate trail that is 1 mile and passes North and South Windows and Turret Arch. 

Return to the Main Park Road, and the next viewing area is for Panorama Point, which provides a view of Devil's Garden and Fiery Furnace. Next is another spur road called Delicate Arch Road. Delicate Arch is the most famous arch in the park, and it is featured on the Utah license plate. There is a Lower Viewpoint for Delicate Arch that requires a short walk, but the arch is 1mile away. You can still see the arch, especially if you have a zoom lens on your camera. The Upper Viewpoint for Delicate Arch is a 1/2-mile round trip walk. It is my understanding that if you want to see the arch close up, you must take the 3-mile hike which leaves from the Wolfe Ranch Parking Lot.  We did not take this hike, because we were able to see it from the viewpoints.

Returning back to the Main Park Road, you will come to Salt Valley Overlook and then Fiery Furnace Viewpoint. The Fiery Furnace is an area that visitors can visit with a permit or park ranger. From my understanding, it is easy to get lost inside this area, so it is probably better to go with a park ranger. There were no ranger-led tours during our visit. Stop at the viewpoint to see this area of hoodoos. Sand Dune Arch will be coming up, and this is a quick 0.4-mile round trip walk to the arch. Note, there is sand in the area, so it may make walking a little taxing for some people. In the distance, you can see Tapestry Arch, which you can walk to, but it is a nearly 3-mile round trip loop. After leaving Sand Dune Arch, you will reach Skyline Arch and finally, the Devil's Garden area. I really wanted to hike to Landscape Arch, but we were getting short on daylight. I understand that the hike is fairly easy and is 1.8-mile round trip. There are other arches in the Devil's Garden area, but Landscape Arch is the largest arch with a 360-foot span, the longest in North America.

Arches National Park is an incredible national park. There are new arches cropping up all the time from my conversation with a park ranger. It is simply astounding at how they form over time and weather has a huge part in this also.

Here are a few photos from our time here:

Balanced Rock

Delicate Arch