Arches National Park

Arches National Park. One word. Breathtaking.

When I was a little kid we made a trip the the Arches, but honestly it was so long ago I have no memory of it. It is crazy, you can do so much as a kid but not remember any of it, except the feeling of love and closeness you had with your family. 

Blake the amazing man that he is, is humoring my desire to see all the state & national parks in Utah. We had this trip planned for the start of October, but then life happened and other priorities pushed the trip back to the very end of November. Thanksgiving weekend. 

We made a reservation at a cheap Inn, the reviews weren’t exactly the best but we didn’t want to spend a fortune on where we were sleeping. Especially since we would much rather camp and spend no money at all. Unfortunately below freezing at night temps convinced me other wise. The Inn however exceeded my expectations and wasn’t a bad stay after all once I got over the color of the green tub. :)

We woke up in the morning and made the 5 minute drive to the entrance of the park. The whole Moab area is so beautiful and the rocks immediately started calling my name. I almost regretted the decision to not bring climbing gear, but as we entered the park my mind changed right away. 

Our first stop was Balance Rock. Balance Rock was made of two different types of rock and the middle part was eroding faster then the top, creating an unbalanced feel. The pictures don’t do this massive rock justice and I loved this area because the rock was only a short 10 minute hike off the road. 

Next we made the drive to the Delicate Arch parking lot. It surprisingly took a while to drive there.  The park is huge, 119.8 sq miles, I had no idea it covered so much ground.  

The hike to Delicate Arch they say is about a 1 to 3 hour round trip. We made it there and back in a little under two hours. The hike at first is through very dry and sort of boring terrain. Then it crosses a huge span of slick rock. 

The last stretch until the arch you have a cliff on one side and a drop off on the other. It is pretty cool how the path was cut into the rock, obviously not by natural means, but still cool.

Then without any warning you turn a corner and there the arch stands in all it’s glory. Blake and I spent a little time snapping pictures and taking in the beauty of the Delicate Arch. 

When we got down from that hike we drove to a look out to enjoy lunch. Our lunch consisted of pre packed turkey sandwiches, carrots, and broccoli. So Good. The look out we had parked at stood in front of The Fiery Furnace. You have to get a permit to hike inside of the Fiery Furnace but looking at it was good enough for us. 

When we were telling Blake’s father Steele about our plans to head down south he suggested that since we would be in the neighborhood to make sure we hiked to Landscape Arch. I had never heard of it but took his word for it and made the hike to see.

When we got to Landscape Arch Blake’s exact words were “Why is the Delicate Arch more popular? This one is so much better!”

It really was so massive. The biggest arch in the park spanning 290 feet from base to base. When we walked up to it, I didn’t even see it at first since I was distracted, because it blended in with it’s background. As we got closer and I realized it was there and the arch blew me away at it’s shear size. 

(I wore my Arch shirt just for this occasion) 

On our way back to the parking lot we took a couple other trails to visit two other arch locations.

First we hiked to the Pine Tree Arch. Named for the tree inside of it. It was a little disappointing after the Landscape Arch but still really cool to see. The rock this arch formed in was so thick it just blows my mind at the shear force nature has at it’s finger tips. 

We then hiked to Tunnel Arch. It was two holes in the rock. One going straight through, and the other turning up exiting the roof. They were sort of small but the perfect view to end our trip on. As we hiked back to the car I knew we had perfect timing at the end of our day because my legs were starting to feel like jelly from all the hiking (so out of shape). 

We drove the 214 miles back to Eagle Mountain and grabbed Blake's car, then caravanned up to South Jordan to return our rental car. Which by the way we totally scored a deal on. 

Originally we had reserved an economical car, to get good gas mileage and so we wouldn’t be putting miles on either one of our cars. It was only going to be $38.00, including tax for two days. When we arrived at Expedia, they had an SUV waiting for us. They had absolutely amazing customer service but when they showed us the SUV you could see the disappointment in Blake’s face. The whole reason we were renting a car was to get good gas milage. He briefly and politely mentioned this to the worker and he immediately said that he would give us the gas already in the car which was 3/4’s full , we could bring the car back on empty, and he would also give us 10% off. Deal of the year, because the tank of gas basically paid for the rental fee. So awesome. 

When we got back home at 9:00 I was so physically exhausted. That is how you know you had an amazing day!