Utah's National Parks Trip: Day 3 (Arches)

Monday, our 3rd day in Utah, we headed out to Arches National Park nice and early. In fact I think we were through the gate by 7:15 or so after taking a quick photo by the park sign. 


It's a very dramatic entrance to the park with switchbacks and high cliff walls and as soon as you turn the last corner all signs of civilization fall away. It was stunning. 

I don't think you can see it but there is a car where the light colored rock meets up against the dark- that's the road


 




We drove straight to the very back of the park to an area known as Devil's Garden. We only hiked part of the trail though.  

tunnel arch

 




 
 




The weather was perfect, sunny but cool and breezy. We saw a deer, a hummingbird, a blue bird, and some beetles and ants. 

landscape arch

longest arch in America at 306 feet opening; 6 feet in diameter at its narrowest point



This is the point we turned around; I refused to climb up the top part of this trail on my hands and knees like we saw so many others doing. It's much steeper looking in person and while I knew I'd be okay going up I could not see how I'd get back down as I hate heights. 

 

We got the car and drove to Skyline arch. 








We piled back into the car and drove to Delicate Arch viewpoint (though it's only a 3 mile hike to the arch it's rated difficult-- it's all sun all the way and after yesterday none of us wanted to do that). By this time much of the breeze had died down and the sun was getting quite hot. 
 

the sand here (and many other places in these parks) has streaks of green from the copper in it.
 

We were only there for a few minutes then got back in the car to head to the windows section of the park. This actually turned out to be my favorite! These photos loaded in a very random order so I'll try to label the ones I can. 

double arch





we thought this end of the rock formation looked a bit like a cobra


double arch again




From there we walked across the parking lots to the windows/ Turret arch trails. 

north window


turret arch viewed from north window

view through the north window

it was shady and windy and so cool under the north window that we sat under it for a bit and noticed the giant crack in the arch above us


turret arch again viewed from north window

south window

north and south window from turret arch

close up of turret arch

We swung by Garden of Eden and then drove to the visitor's center right near the park entrance/exit. 








We left the park around 12:30/ 1:00 and felt like we had seen pretty much everything. It's a pretty small park but big on beauty. 

We spent the afternoon at our rental relaxing and headed out to dinner at Sunset Grill-- it had amazing views and the food was SO good! 

 

I had the surf and turf special

Others in this series: 

Our Trip by the Numbers 

Day 1: Travel day

Day 2: Canyonlands  


Linking up with: Spread the Kindness, 



 


Comments

  1. Maria RineerMay 15, 2026 at 5:37 AM

    Amazing pictures! This makes me really want to see Arches! I'm glad you had nice weather even though it heated up as the day progressed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoyceMay 15, 2026 at 6:22 AM

    Looks like another beautiful day. The landscape is so interesting and feels almost lunar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HollyMay 15, 2026 at 6:31 AM

    Stunning scenery- just incredible!

    ReplyDelete

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