Arches National Park

Moab is the gateway to Arches National Park, and it was our base of operation for 6 nights. We went into Arches 2 days, and it is HUGE! We stopped at the Visitor Center to look around and get tips from the rangers- it’s a great way to start your exploration and can help you prioritize what you want to see. There are hundreds of arches within the park, but most are in back country. We saw all the main ones and those reached via fairly short hikes.

We drove to the Windows area, and it was gorgeous:

Double Arch was very cool- you can see how big it is in comparison to all the people:

Delicate Arch is in another area of the park, and is the symbol of Arches National Park, and is on many Utah license plates. We did not hike to the arch because it was the day after the rain/snow and the ranger I spoke with said it was quite slick- but obviously some people made it:

We took a hike in the Devil’s Garden and saw 3 arches there:

They are each so different from each other! There are also fins and walls and towers to see- here are a couple:

And there was Balancing Rock:

On our second day in the park we heard this LOUD rolling roar and boom- could have been thunder (although there was not another) or a falling rock- we think falling rock, but who knows?

We strongly recommend a visit to this park, but be warned that it gets VERY crowded and VERY hot during the summer. Even early fall is crazy, with people waiting over an hour to enter the park the week before we were there! We waited about 10 minutes- what a difference a week and cold weather make!