UTAH — Arches & Canyonlands
Arches National Park
When trip planning to a national park our first stop is usually a visit to its website. We were a bit taken aback when we went the the Arches site, because it includes...a live traffic cam. Um.....
As it turns out, Arches is one of the most visit national parks and you can expect quite a delay on arrival if you don't plan ahead. (We got there by 8:30am and experienced a slight delay). We talked to a Ranger, who explained that although national parks in general have seen an increase in attendance, in the last 5 years visitors to Arches have increased exponentially. Reason? Social media. It's all those crazy Instagram posts!
Delicate Arch (at left). This is the most popular arch...we got there at 9am and the lot was full. We enjoyed it from a nearby overlook.
Parade of Elephants (I think).
The second trick was finding a camping site — there was only one night available in a nearby state park (Dead Horse) during our month-long (July) stay in the neighborhood. We booked it! Sadly, the forecast on that day was for a high of 102F. There is no shade in the campground...so we postponed and took a day trip on the only day it was forecast to be in the low-90s! (The high desert does have the benefit of being cool in the shade and at night. But the sun is INTENSE.)
Tourret Arch in the Windows section. We rather liked this area of the park.
Double Arch up close. Windows section of the park.
Double Arch from a distance. (It's right in the middle of the string of rock formations.
Canyonlands National Park
We also wanted to visit Canyonlands while we were in the area...there's an entrance about 30 miles from Arches. It's a huge park split into four sections, created by the Green and Colorado rivers.
Green River view. Canyonlands National Park.
We explored the Island in the Sky section, because that's the only one you can drive through on paved roads (We don't do dirt roads in the VW or Civic!) We could see for miles from this section and can tell you..the park seems pretty incredible. Imagine driving down the Grand Canyon — not for the faint at heart.
Sunday drive down the Canyon? Canyonlands National Park.
Grand View- Monument basin. Vertical fractures in the sandstone caused various types of erosion. Some of the pinnacles of sandstone are up to 300 ft high!
As it turned out the day trip was plenty, because Rufus came along for the ride...and pets are only allowed in the parking lots.
Our girl, Rufus.
And hiking through the desert in the summer is not our idea of fun. So we took turns exploring on short hikes to view points and arches, and got to see quite a lot.
View through Mesa Arch. Canyonlands National Park.