Arches National Park

After we finished visiting Capitol Reef we headed over to Moab, Utah to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

Rather than just try to visit these parks in the evenings and on Saturday, we took a few days off work to more fully experience these parks.

Jake got a Utah Rocks t-shirt last year when we visited Bryce Canyon.  This year the rest of us decided to get those shirts so we all wore them while visiting Arches one day.  We all think that Utah ROCKS!

On our first visit to Arches we went to Balanced Rock and Double Arch.  How does that rock stay up there??

The scenery at Arches is simply stunning!

One day we went on 2 separate hikes, totaling over 8 miles.  The first hike was to Landscape Arch, and then we went on a little further up to Partition and Navajo Arches.  We didn’t make it all the way to Double O Arch; we’ll have to save that for next time.

Landscape Arch.

Climbing up to see more arches.

There was such a beautiful view through Partition Arch.

This is standing under Navajo Arch.

We hiked to a few more arches in this area and then took a lunch break.  After lunch we went to the Delicate Arch hike which I think is probably the most popular, and I can see why.  The hike up to it was strenuous, but with amazing views.

We hiked up lots of slickrock.

Then hiked around this narrow ledge.

The hike was worth it to come around the corner to see this!

We rested up at Delicate Arch for a long time, but eventually decided it was time to hike back down.

And then we went back to the Visitor Center so the boys could turn in their activity books and earn their Junior Ranger badges.

We really loved Arches and plan to return again someday to hike some of the other trails we didn’t make it to this time.