A photographer's paradise, the multitude of rock formations can boggle the mind. During the early morning and late afternoon hours when the light is low, the fins appear to glow. Spring and fall are the best times to visit as the park is less congested and the weather more conducive to hiking with heavy camera gear. Summer is hot and crowded, with parking often becoming difficult.

For a unique view, take the ranger-led Fiery Furnace hike and view the fins up close. Hikes range from easy to difficult, so there is something for everyone. The Windows section of the park offers several easy hikes, including the North and South Windows, Turret Arch and Double Arch. More difficult hikes include Delicate Arch and the Devils Garden area of the park which includes eight arches. Be sure to carry water on all hikes.

Absolutely stunning! Wish I had more time to spend there. Located a mere 5 miles outside of Moab, Arches is definitely worth the trip. It is part of the National Parks Organization so if you think you’ll be visiting more than 4 or 5 parks in the year, you should buy the National Parks Pass for $50. If you don’t get one of those, admission is $10/car and is good for 7 days (some other parks charge $20 admission, so it can quickly add up).

We started off thinking we’d just drive through the park and not venture off onto the hiking trails, but the beauty of the rocks got the better of us, and soon we found ourselves walking along the trails like everyone else before us. (Make sure you pack plenty of bottled water – you’ll need it – and in case you think you don’t, there are signposts everywhere telling you that you should). Of course we didn’t plan ahead, so we were stuck drinking from the few water fountains located at the beginning of each trail. Needless to say, we only took the short (half hour) hikes.

Arches National Park is roughly 80,000 acres of the most impressive landscape I’ve ever come across. A geologist’s dream, it’s populated by more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches, as well as balanced rocks and other naturally sculptured masterpieces. The scenic drive (36 miles round trip) will bring you to many of the major sights, but if you want to see some of the more impressive Arches, be prepared to walk a few miles to get to them. The massive red rocks change color as the sun moves across the sky – they say sunset at Delicate Arch is a sight not to be missed. If you don’t want to walk the 3 miles to get there, there’s another viewpoint right off the road where you can see it from a distance. In the few hours that we were there, we managed to drive the entire scenic route and take three short trails to see the Balanced Rock, Double Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and Broken Arch, as well as the many unnamed rock formations along the way. A truly enjoyable trip – I highly recommend it!

Canyonlands National Park encompasses the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, combining green riparian areas with dry redrock desert. It is made up of three separate districts: Island in the Sky (north district-high plateau, many viewpoints), The Needles (southeast-shallow canyons, rock formations), and The Maze (southwest-wildest and most remote). The easiest one to reach from Moab is Island in the Sky. The districts are not linked by road, so if you plan to go to The Needles or The Maze, expect to drive 2-6 hours between each of the districts.

We only visited Island in the Sky, which is on a plateau about 1000 feet above the rivers and canyons below. This area offers the best sightseeing by car, with a series of spectacular roadside viewpoints, some which allow you to see as far as the Grand Canyon. It took us about an hour to get to Grand View Point (the farthest viewpoint), and we stopped at most of the other viewpoints along the way.

Beyond the scenic drive/viewpoints, other activities at Island in the Sky include camping, a four wheel drive or mountain bike trip, ranger programs, rafting, or hiking. Camping is available at Willow Flat Campground. There are 12 campsites, which are first come, first serve and fill up early, particularly in the spring and fall. The White Rim Road is a 100 mile dirt road that loops around and below the Island in the Sky. It is for high clearance, four wheel drive vehicles (no ATVs), or for mountain bikes. It takes about 2-3 days to do this trip in a vehicle, and 3-4 days by bike. There are designated camping areas along the way – permits for driving the road and overnight camping are available at the Visitor Center. No water is available, so you need to bring all that you require with you. Ranger programs are available at the Visitor Center daily. Guided rafting is available in Moab.

Finally, there are numerous long and short hikes you can do at Island in the Sky. The one hike that we did was to Upheaval Dome. Upheaval Dome is a crater 1-2 miles wide, 1000 feet deep, with a whitish gray mass, or dome, rising up from the middle It is 1 mile round trip to the first viewpoint, but we hike to the second viewpoint, which was 2 miles round trip. The terrain was fairly level.

Upheaval Dome is a really unusual feature to be found amongst the canyons and redrock of Canyonlands. It is similar to a volcanic crater, but it was not formed by volcanic activity. In fact, no one knows for sure exactly what it is or how it was formed. The two most popular theories are:
1) that it was formed from meteorite impact, or
2) that a large salt deposit was pushed up out of the ground, and then eroded away leaving what we see today.

The Entrance Fee for Canyonlands is $10 per vehicle (good for 7 days).

"If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful – that which is full of wonder." -- Edward Abbey

Delicate Arch is a world famous symbol of the American desert. It is almost a mandatory hike, but another alternative is to drive to the Delicate Arch viewpoint, and see it from one mile away (but its just not the same). The hike starts at Wolfe Ranch, and is 3 miles round trip with 480 feet of elevation gain/loss. The trail starts out as a typical dirt trail, but then changes into a hike on red slickrock - Watch for rock cairns (man-made pyramid shaped rock piles) and follow them. Sometimes you will see a worn down path in the rock, made from years of people walking to the arch. Along the way is spectacular redrock scenery. The great part about this hike is that you can’t actually see Delicate Arch until you get to it… which makes for kind of a dramatic end to the hike. You come around a rock formation, and there it is, in all it’s fame and glory. It is perched on the edge of a dropoff, with the scenic La Sal Mountains in the background. There is sort of a rock bench near the arch, which makes a natural seating and viewing area.

"A weird, lovely, fantastic object out of nature like Delicate Arch has the curious ability to remind us – like rock and sunlight and wind and wilderness – that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds and sustains the little world of men as sea and sky surround and sustain a ship. The shock of the real. For a little while we are again able to see, as the child sees, a world of marvels. For a few moments we discover that nothing can be taken for granted, for if this ring of stone is marvelous then all which shaped it is marvelous, and our journey here on earth, able to see and touch and hear in the midst of tangible and mysterious things-in-themselves, is the most strange and daring of all adventures." -- Edward Abbey

Another area that looked interesting (that we didn’t get to) is a maze of red fins called The Fiery Furnace. You need a permit (fee charged) to go into it, or you can go on a 3 hour ranger guided hike ($6 adults, $3 children). The guided hike happens twice daily (mid-March to October). Immensely popular, the limited spots fill up 1-2 days in advance. You can reserve spots 7 days ahead at the Visitor Center. More adventurous folks will like the lack of maintained trails, scrambling through narrow cracks, and moving along narrow ledges.

"Everything is lovely and wild, with a virginal sweetness. The arches themselves, strange, impressive, grotesque, form but a small and inessential part of the general beauty of this country. When we think of rock we usually think of stones, broken rock, buried under soil and plant life, but here all is exposed and naked, dominated by the monolithic formations of sandstone which stand above the surface of the ground and extend for miles, sometimes level, sometimes tilted or warped by pressures from below, carved by erosion and weathering into an intricate maze of glens, grottoes, fissures, passageways, and deep narrow canyons." -- Edward Abbey

Arches National Park is located 5 miles north of Moab on Highway 191. The park consists of 73,000 acres, and it contains over 2000 red sandstone arches which are it’s claim to fame. The Entrance Fee is $10 per vehicle, and the pass is good for 7 days. There is one campground at Devil’s Garden, which has 52 sites, is first come-first serve, and usually fills by mid-morning. The cost is $10 per night. Arches is considered a "high desert" which means very HOT summers, and very COLD winters. The best time to visit is definitely spring and fall, when the temperatures are pleasant and there is little or no precipitation.

The arches were formed over time by erosion, and are interesting because they represent millions of years of geologic history. Also, no two arches are alike – they range in size from 3 feet to 306 feet. The most famous arch in the park is Delicate Arch, but there are so many more! Many are named and can be seen from the road, but countless others have no name (find one and name it after yourself!) and are hidden treasures waiting to be found. Complimenting the arches are other rock formations, including fins, spires, and balanced rocks. One area that looked interesting was the Fiery Furnace… see further notes in my Arches National Park – Hike to Delicate Arch and Fiery Furnace" entry.

We started our trip by stopping at the Visitor Center to check out their displays and get information. Then we decided to drive all the main roads to see the many different arches and viewpoints – we drove the Windows Section first, then drove to the Devil’s Garden area. Having seen the roadside sights, we knew we had to get out on a trail and see the arches closer up. From the parking area at Devil’s Garden, we hiked 2 miles to see Landscape Arch, the largest arch in the park. There were a lot of people on the trail, so on the way back, we took an alternative trail called the Primitive Loop. The primitive loop trail is less maintained and has few arches, but we totally lost the crowd and had the trail to ourselves. All together, we hiked 5 miles roundtrip and saw maybe a dozen arches, great redrock, cryptobiotic crust, and lizards! I definitely recommend this hike.